Pikmin Bloomis the latest Nintendo game-turned-app, following in the hugely successful shoes ofPokemon GOandMario Kart Tour.This time, though, the focus is on chilling out and collecting some new friends more than winning a race or a battle.
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In premise,Pikmin Bloomis a bit like a less stressful Tamagotchi. You check in to see how your Pikmin are doing, pluck seedlings, and walk alotto grow new ones and find them in the wild. The concept is cute, but the execution is lacking. Realistically, there isn’t too much to do in the app, and some features have fallen a little flat. Here are some suggestions - maybeNintendowill get some ideas!
6More Rewards For Mushroom Challenges
At the moment, when gangs of Pikmin return fromhead-bashing a mushroom into smithereens, there are two rewards: fruit and a postcard. This is all very well and good, but there could be even more of an incentive. Especially since fruit is not rare or hard to get a hold of. Postcards are also cute but serve little to no purpose other than being a collectible.
Pokemon GOhad this a little better - the Gym Battles and Raids would give players coins, XP, or a special Pokemon at the end of it. Maybe a potential update toBloomcould be some coins, a clothing item, or a special seed being added as better prizes? Time will tell.
5Better Ways To Earn Coins
For now, the only way to earn coins inPikmin Bloomis by walking. And it takes a lot of steps to get any sort of money. Every 500 steps earn one coin - which may not seem like a lot, but as someone with a job, or at school, or not much spare time, it can be very hard to fit in asubstantial amount of steps every day.
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The items in the shop aredisproportionately priced.Gift boxes cost up to 1,480 coinseach, and planters can be between 150 - 600 coins. The rewards just aren’t worth the price due to the effort needed to earn enough coins. Earning 1,000 coins by walking would take 740,000 steps!
4A Use For Flower Stops
Like its' predecessorPokemon GO,Pikmin Bloomuses real-life points of interest to be an in-game landmark. These appear as large, green buds, which will eventually blossom into a flower if enough other flowers are planted around it by players.
But that is unfortunately it. As far as this writer is aware, there is no other interaction with these places. It seems a little lacking. Even ifBloomis justan interactive pedometer, there should be something to do at these ‘stops’. For instance, if you have a matching postcard - there could be a stamp feature. Or a Pikmin could retrieve a random nectar type. The options are numerous.
3Better Menu Systems
While the design of the app and its menus is sleek and natural-looking,they aren’t the easiest to navigate. For instance: the ‘Pikmindex’ of all the different, dressed-up Pikmin that players have collected. To get to this screen, players must click any of the corresponding medals, which brings up the ‘My Decor Collections’ section below the medal information.
It makes sense that this should have its own section, not being hidden behind an experience-locked medal. This, and other fairly essential screens, should be easy to find in a different section - maybe as a filter option, or another tab, where Pikmin are listed for the squad.
2Interaction With Friends
InPikmin Bloom, players can add each other as friends, which is cute, right? It is, but the only available action is to send each other postcards. This is great if you’re wanting to collect some more, but there’s no real reason to collect any of them as they don’t do anything.
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Therefore, why not something more interesting: like perhaps, Pikmin trading? Or sending seedlings to other players? Even letting Pikmin visit each other, or pick up fruit from different players. There are many possibilities for things to take root here, and hopefully,Nianticwill implement something a little more worthwhile.
1Pikmin Monsters
Now, this could be a hard feature to add given the calming and relaxed nature ofBloom, but a key part of thePikminfranchise is the quirky and fearsome enemies that players must defeat. Every game in the series so far has had a colorful cast of foes that block the progress of Pikmin and add an element of difficulty to the game.
The rotund, mushroom-looking Bulborbs are nearly as recognizable as the Pikmin themselves, and it seems rude to leave them out of the game. Maybe it wouldn’t be direct combat, but a challenge feature - where the defeated monsters could become some sort of collectible like the Postcards. Please, we ask for justice in the name of Mockiwis.
Pikmin Bloomis available now on iOS and Android.
