Nintendo has seemingly been getting ready to expand its first-party offering on the Nintendo Switch 2 with a new Pikmin project. The company has released a new teaser video, dubbed Close to You, which hints that there might be a new title in the strategy puzzle franchise. Check out the teaser below.
The teaser largely revolves around a baby, left alone in its room by its mother, having its pacifier pop out of its mouth and being carried away by unknown means and the baby trying to chase it down. This is accompanied by a piano-centric musical score that emphasises the various beats of the tiny story being told throughout the teaser of a baby learning how to walk.
While the teaser itself might not include much to indicate that it is for a new Pikmin project, Nintendo has released another version of the same teaser that actually confirms the Pikmin connection on its Nintendo Today smartphone app. There were some hints already in the teaser, however, aside like the fact that games in the franchise often revolve around tiny creatures moving around real-world objects, as well as a few musical cues from Pikmin’s soundtracks.
While there is no current way to share posts from the Nintendo Today app as of yet, the release of the Pikmin-ised version of the Close to You teaser on the app likely means that Nintendo will be bringing it to the rest of the Internet soon enough.
It is worth noting that Nintendo hasn’t yet confirmed whether this teaser is for a brand new Pikmin game, or if it is for an expansion to Pikmin 4 through a Switch 2 Upgrade pack. The title could also be a spin-off focusing on the side adventures of the eponymous floral creatures.
Back in 2023, Pikmin 4 producer Takashi Tezuka had also mentioned that we won’t be waiting for a new game in the franchise for too long after the fourth game’s release. “We’ll try not to let everyone wait,” he said in an interview.
The last game to have come out in the Pikmin franchise was Pikmin 4 on the Nintendo Switch. The title had become quite popular since its release back in 2023, and has since then sold more than 3 million copies. The title introduced with it a host of new features, including a new space dog, named Otachi, that helps the Rescue Corps to get through the game’s various levels. For more details, check out our review.
The Pikmin franchise is an old one, with the first game in the series having made its debut all the way back in 2001 on the GameCube. The original title focuses on the adventure of Captain Olimar, who finds himself crash landed on a mysterious planet and with his ship having been destroyed in the landing. The title was noteworthy for having introduced the concept of a real-time strategy game that could be played entirely with a controller that also focused much of its gameplay on environmental puzzle solving.
The sequel, Pikmin 2, featured Olimar and his partner Louie who go back to the original game’s planet to find rare treasures. The title was critically praised for refining on the original’s foundations while also introducing new and clever gameplay mechanics as well as puzzles. 2013 saw the release of Pikmin 3 on the Wii U, which made use of the console’s unique GamePad controller to give players more control over their Pikmin.
