Pikmin 4’s Rewind Mechanic Lets You Fix Mistakes

We got to play Pikmin 4 a month before its July 21 release to see what Nintendo has been working on for eight years. We enjoyed it, especially the new features.

There are too many additions to discuss here (you can find our full thoughts in the hands-on preview at the bottom of this article), but one that deserves a little fanfare is the new ability to rewind time, perfect for if your day is going wrong and too many of your Pikmin troop have suffered.

This feature was specifically mentioned before we played the game, and while we did not need to use it in the early stages, we can see it becoming useful as the difficulty increases.

From what we saw, Pikmin 4 is borrowing more from Pikmin 2 than the third entry (the return of multi-layered caverns is an obvious comparison), and if the new HD remaster of that game has taught us anything, it’s that those difficulty spikes can be a real nuisance, especially later on. We remember the Submerged Castle and the Waterwraith inside—what we would have given for a rewind mechanic then…

The time rewind feature, reduced time limits, the ability to move the Onion, and your new pup companion, Oatchi (a good boy), make this a good entry point for the series. At least one that’s more forgiving.