Miyamoto Considers Pikmin To Be Nintendo’s “Most Global Characters”

Nintendo has today published the final part of its Ask the Developer interview series focused on Pikmin 4, and this one saw the development team open up about their personal thoughts on the franchise as a whole.

It should come as no surprise that Shigeru Miyamoto had some thoughts to share on his relationship to the Pikmin series — the games have long been considered something of a “favourite child” for the legendary designer, after all — and his answers did not disappoint. Speaking about what Pikmin means to him, Miyamoto confessed that he considers the adorable plant species to be “Nintendo’s most global characters” and he wants players to have a real sense that the creatures could exist in the everyday world:

I’ve been saying for a long time that Pikmin games tend to stand out due to their world and characters, but I think they’re also interesting as a game genre. Furthermore, I want people to have this real sense that Pikmin are all around us, that they aren’t just fantasy creatures. Pikmin have no set age or nationality. They have a unique presence as creatures that exist somewhere on Earth. That’s not the case with Mario. We know he’s of Italian descent in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but it’s not like you can bump into him walking down the street, because he lives in the world of Mario. (Laughs) In fact, I consider Pikmin to be Nintendo’s most global characters. Since the promotional campaign we launched over ten years ago, we’ve been saying, “Pikmin are all around us.” I think we’ve finally reached a point where people can find Pikmin in various places, not just in their imaginations. I hope more and more people become aware of Pikmin and play Pikmin games.

Now, we are firmly in the pro-Pikmin camp here at Nintendo Life, but suggesting that the characters are the “most global” of all of Nintendo’s exports seems like a little bit of a stretch. Sure, there are fans all over the world, but the pluckable plants are hardly as recognisable as Mario, right?

Later, the creator confessed that he considers “video games to be just one of the worlds in which Pikmin live”, noting their appearances at Super Nintendo World and hinting at a cameo in the Mario Movie (about which he didn’t wish to provide any more detail) — it’s difficult to disagree with this one, it does seem that the Pikmin are sprouting up just about everywhere.

Putting our tinfoil hats on for a second and we might even be tempted to read into this latter comment as a sign that the Pikmin could get a movie of their own one day — what are these “other worlds” that you have planned, Miyamoto, tell us! — but we wouldn’t be surprised if this was nothing more than another shameless plug for Pikmin Bloom…

The final part of the Pikmin 4 interview series also contains comments on the game’s relationship to nostalgia, how the team hopes it provokes family conversation and insights from sound director Mitsuhiro Kida on making the Pikmin feel more alive. Be sure to check out the interview in full here.