Nintendo surprised everyone this week by releasing an augmented reality Pikmin game for mobile devices.
As NintendoLife reports, the game is called Pikmin Finder and was developed with a little help from Niantic, who is probably best known for developing and publishing Pokemon Go.
Pikmin Finder takes advantage of your smartphone or tablet camera to sprout Pikmin all around you in the real world. The player is tasked with swiping the screen when they spot a Pikmin to pull them out of the ground. Oatchi the rescue pup also puts in an appearance.
(Credit: Nintendo)Once you've found enough Pikmin of a certain type, they'll wander off and bring back an object (treasure) for you. It's also possible to take photos of the Pikmin and the objects they gather for you, but there's no real objective to the experience beyond acting as an entertaining distraction. GameXplain recorded a quick video if you want to see the app in action.
Pikmin Finder isn't Niantic's first Pikmin title. Back in 2021 it collaborated with Nintendo to release Pikmin Bloom, which was essentially an app to encourage walking more often. As with Finder, there's very little in the way of actual gameplay, but both should continue to be fun in small doses.
2023 is turning out to be a fantastic year for fans of Pikmin games. Nintendo decided to port the first two games originally released for the GameCube to the Switch. We also got a brand new entry in the form of Pikmin 4. Nintendo's current focus, however, is on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.