Pikmin Bloom

Niantic's biggest hit came out of a partnership with Nintendo. With the perfect balance of familiar and new mechanics, propelled by its world-famous branding, Pokémon Go has kept the company alive for half a decade. Unfortunately, none of its other games have managed to have the same impact, with one already shut down and another in its end-of-life. While I had big hopes for Pikmin Bloom and its revival of one of Nintendo's dormant franchises, I foresee it suffering the same fate before long. While the game is definitely cute, there's nothing here with the staying power of Pokémon Go, or even Wizards Unite.

Where Niantic's other games are all about doing things while walking, Pikmin Bloom is pretty much just about walking. You grow new Pikmin by walking, you earn the in-game currency by walking, you activate flowers (the equivalent to Pokéstops or Inns) by walking, and you level up by walking. The goal of the title seems to be to foster a community around the game, but the limited number of activities paired with a launch in the midst of a pandemic ensured that I was far more interested in maintaining the community I already had from Pokémon Go, rather than trying to create a new one that would inevitably be less fun to interact with.

I really want Niantic to have another hit so they don't have to tie their company's success to a single horse, but Pikmin Bloom isn't a killer app, especially standing next to its cousin, Pokémon Go. It is cute, and it provides a nice distraction while you're on a walk, but this game just doesn't do enough to get me out the door just for the sake of playing it. Considering the source material, Pikmin was a perfect fit for a game about exploring the real world, but the pieces didn't really fall into place for this one. I might recommend this to people who want a game to play while walking, but don't want something nearly as demanding as Pokémon Go. However, I can't imagine it would be easy to find anyone matching that profile.

The game is available for Android here (as of 12/19/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticlabs.pikmin&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 12/19/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pikmin-bloom/id1556357398

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