Pikmin 4: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy Review: Old Skills, New Exams

Oatchi takes several familiar Pikmin responsibilities into his own paws. He carries objects, transports your little workforce and charges enemies, giving the fourth game a dependable helper who can absorb some of the strain of commanding a scattered group. His strength makes early encounters forgiving, but deciding where to send him still matters. Using him as a second leader means thinking about what the rest of the squad can accomplish without him. Later situations that separate dog and Pikmin expose how much work he has been doing on your behalf.

The caves make a useful comparison with Pikmin 2. Their return restores the pleasure of taking a carefully chosen party underground, while authored layouts replace the older game’s randomized construction. Themed puzzles and encounters give each descent a deliberate sequence of problems. Above ground, branching routes and changes in height let you choose what to tackle next; below it, smaller spaces concentrate your attention. Pikmin 4’s gentler reputation can obscure how effectively this arrangement sustains the business of dividing labor. Reduced punishment leaves plenty of room for satisfying decisions.

That balance supports a rescue mission whose rescuers also need rescuing. As a customizable Rescue Corps rookie, you search for scattered teammates after the attempt to retrieve Captain Olimar ends in another crash. Directing different Pikmin types around environmental hazards and hauling back treasure remains the substance of the adventure. The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition preserves that campaign, with Dandori Academy expanding the efficiency challenges already nestled within it.

Dandori means planning and effective organization, and the Academy gives those principles a focused application. Its compact stages ask you to gather treasure efficiently, then return to improve your performance. The connection to the original Dandori Challenges is direct: familiar commands become demanding through restrictions on your available Pikmin and the obstacles arranged around them. The important change is in your objective. Finding a workable route can satisfy a stretch of campaign exploration. Here, the same successful route becomes something to reconsider once the score shows room for improvement.

The six-stage monthly set divides its challenges between easy, normal and hard. The available hard stages apply substantially tighter pressure than much of the main adventure, giving experienced players a reason to examine habits the campaign lets pass. Limited Pikmin selections narrow the tools at hand, so planning has to account for the group you actually have. Treasure collection also makes wasted movement consequential: an unnecessary detour spends time that could have supported another task. These are familiar Pikmin concerns brought into sharper focus, and the short stages make revisiting a plan appealing rather than cumbersome.

Practice and exams separate learning that plan from performing it under pressure. You can rehearse repeatedly, with tutorials available to refresh controls, before entering a designated weekend window for a ranked attempt. There is initially one exam attempt, though practice can earn limited retries. This gives preparation a clear purpose without making a single mistake permanently decisive. Online rankings supply an audience for the finished performance, while medals and cosmetic rewards provide smaller goals. The Academy’s competition happens through scores; it is a different proposition from directly contesting treasure in a Dandori Battle.

The calendar is also where the expansion becomes less accommodating. Six new stages per month are planned across roughly a year, eventually reaching 72. That is a substantial promised collection, but the initial selection has to carry the experience available now. Players who work through it quickly can exhaust the fresh problems well before the next batch arrives. Weekend exams offer recurring occasions to compete, yet a fresh exam window does not necessarily mean fresh terrain. The distinction matters when the attraction is discovering a new organizational puzzle rather than polishing an established solution.

Scheduled attempts can make a practiced run feel consequential, and comparing results within a shared window gives the Academy a welcome communal rhythm. They also impose an external schedule on an activity that otherwise invites another quick try. Practice remains repeatable; ranked participation is the restricted part. Returning players who loved the original Dandori Challenges have a clear reason to engage with this arrangement. Those chiefly attached to wandering surface areas and exploring caves receive an addition aimed elsewhere, with no new campaign chapter to draw them back underground.

Outside the Academy, the upgrade is easier to describe than to get excited about. Docked output rises to 4K, cleaning up miniature environments and the detailed everyday objects your Pikmin transport. The sharper presentation suits a series that makes familiar things worth inspecting at an unfamiliar scale. Yet the game retains its 30fps target, with no 60fps option. The image gains clarity while the performance target stays where it was. For an edition built around increasingly precise execution, a smoother presentation would have been a particularly welcome improvement.

The control additions are less persuasive. Howl-Out lets you issue commands to Oatchi through the Switch 2 microphone, but inconsistent recognition makes buttons the more dependable choice. It is an awkward feature to pair with a mode concerned with avoiding wasted actions. Mouse support is absent, despite the existing pointer-based commands offering an obvious reason to explore it. Its omission is especially noticeable in Pebble Pitcher, where the second player’s assistance already revolves around targeting the screen. Voice control receives attention while that established interaction gains no comparable alternative.

GameShare supplies a more practical benefit by extending competitive Dandori Battles across consoles. Sharing a contest over treasure gives players another way to enjoy the game’s organizational demands together. Campaign assistance remains much narrower: the second player throws pebbles to damage enemies or speed up Pikmin, helping the person issuing orders without taking command of a squad. Oatchi can act as a second leader within the adventure, but the second human player still participates from the sidelines, directing projectiles toward someone else’s plan.