Captain Olimar’s first 3DS adventure, the sidescrolling spin-off Hey! Pikmin, isn’t being developed internally at Nintendo, as many had speculated, but by Arzest, the studio behind Yoshi’s New Island.
The revelation comes from a filing on the Australian Ratings Board, which lists Arzest as the game’s developer.
Back in 2015, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto intimated that a new installment in the Pikmin series was in development at Nintendo, though other projects had pushed it down the company’s priority list. Many speculated that Hey! Pikmin, which was first revealed last September, to be the title Miyamoto was referring to, though that appears not to be the case.
While that may be good news for fans hoping to see a new, traditional Pikmin installment from Nintendo, it casts some doubt on Hey! Pikmin’s prospects. Arzest’s track record has been rather…spotty, to say the least; while we generally enjoyed Yoshi’s New Island, the company’s precursor, Artoon, developed the poorly received Yoshi Topsy-Turvey for Game Boy Advance and the middling Yoshi’s Island DS. Fortunately, the footage Nintendo has revealed of Hey! Pikmin thus far looks promising, so we’ll reserve final judgement for when the game launches on July 28.
Are you looking forward to Hey! Pikmin? Does the news that the game is being developed by Arzest temper your expectations? Let us know in the comments!
Source: Eurogamer