Nintendo declares November 1 Pikmin Day and sets a Switch 2 demo

Nintendo has declared November 1 as official Pikmin Day, marking the occasion with announcements for a free Pikmin 4 Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy demo on November 2, a combat update for Pikmin Bloom, and a monthly animated short series.

First announced during the September 9 Nintendo Direct, the upgraded Switch 2 version of the 2023 strategy game launches in full on November 12. Shigeru Miyamoto hosted the presentation and explained the math behind the new holiday: the original 2001 GameCube release introduced Red, Blue, and Yellow Pikmin, and lining those three sprouts up next to each other looks like the numbers for 11/1. It's a massive stretch of calendar logic, even by video game marketing standards, though the franchise now counts nine Pikmin types in total and all four mainline entries are playable across the original Switch and Switch 2.

Yelling at your dog through the Switch 2 mic

The November 2 demo lets players test out the opening Sun-Speckled Terrace area alongside two stages from the new Dandori Academy mode. One of the main hardware hooks for the Switch 2 Edition is support for the console's built-in microphone, which lets you bark vocal orders like "rush" or "go to work" directly at your canine companion, Oatchi. I'm skeptical that talking to a screen is faster than pressing a button during a frantic resource run, even if yelling at a virtual dog has obvious novelty value.

Dandori Academy turns the base game's time-management challenges into a structured mode with 72 stages. Players practice routes to haul fruit and vegetables as quickly as possible (deciding whether to swarm an item with basic sprouts or toss a single heavy-lifting Purple Pikmin at it) before taking on weekend exams held every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

You only get one attempt per weekend exam to earn medals. That single-try restriction adds some actual tension to what is otherwise a very relaxed series.

Pikmin Bloom gets dungeon crawling

Mobile walking app Pikmin Bloom is getting its own expansion this winter called Secret Caves. Players collect cave maps, which can arrive attached to in-game postcards or as rewards for taking the weekend Dandori Academy exams in the Switch 2 version of Pikmin 4.

Once you have a map, you dispatch a squad to explore underground caverns automatically. When they run into creatures like Bulborbs, a battle starts where you tap to command attacks or blow a whistle to pull your squad back before they take too much damage. Defeated Pikmin aren't permanently lost here (they recover after resting), and winning fights unlocks a new treasure collection.

Crocheted hats and monthly shorts

The second half of the broadcast took an unexpected detour when Miyamoto brought out Japanese actress Fuka Koshiba to help promote the series. "This all began when I saw that Miss Koshiba on Instagram was making cute hats for fun," Miyamoto said during the stream.

Koshiba brought a hand-knitted Red Pikmin beanie to the studio and explained that she started making them because she wanted the Red, Blue, and Yellow Pikmin hats from arcade claw machines, but couldn't win them. "I'm not good at the claw machines, but I really wanted the hats, so we thought, well, let's just knit them," Koshiba said. Miyamoto replied that he's also bad at claw machines, which is a reassuring thing to hear from the guy who designed Donkey Kong.

Koshiba and Miyamoto closed by introducing Hello Pikmin, an animated short series produced with Nintendo Pictures following last year's Close to You short. The first episode aired during the presentation, showing a group of Pikmin narrowly avoiding becoming snacks for a frog. A second episode arrives November 1 on the Nintendo Today app and other official channels, followed by another installment later in November and monthly releases starting in December. I'm glad Nintendo Pictures is getting regular work making weird little nature documentaries about plant creatures instead of just sitting on the corporate org chart.