E3 2012: Pikmin 3 Announced for Wii U

Announced this morning via Nintendo’s E3 press conference was Pikmin 3, and by none other than series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The third game in the now ten-year-old Nintendo franchise was introduced this morning for the Wii U sporting new console-specific features, as well as a new Pikmin type.

Starting with the basics, it’s essentially the Pikmin you know and love, but with some hearty new twists. The game will see the introduction of four new leader characters, all of which can control a squad of Pikmin, all of whom controlled by Captain Olimar — franchise protagonist.

As for controls, you can use the Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuck or the new Wii U GamePad controller.

If you opt for the classic Wii controls, point-and-click Pikmin management will come much easier, but those who dive into the new controller scheme will have “greater flexibility” over multiple unit control. This is well executed in using the new controller’s touchscreen to display an overhead map of the play-field.

Perhaps the biggest feature is in the new controller as well, a type of management that allows you to swipe across the screen to keep your eyes on multiple areas of the map — maintaining constant over watch on the field of play – something that made squad management excruciatingly difficult in later levels of past Pikmin games.

Finally, the other announced addition is the inclusion of the new Pikmin type: Rock. These heavy little seedlings can be hurled at rock walls and other hard substances, helping to knock them down to allow passage of Olimar and his Pikmin-pals.

I won’t go into detail describing the…well, level of graphical detail that the new environments of Pikmin 3 entail, but you should definitely give the gallery of screenshots below a look-through and decide for yourself.

We’ve got an official E3 preview of the game going up this week, so keep your eyes peeled for our hands-on impressions.

All things considered, this is a game that Pikmin fans like myself have been hoping for — and as first-party-lacking as the Nintendo E3 conference was this year, it’s refreshing to see a not quite as mainstream Nintendo franchise make a blazing return to glory.