What you need to know
- Pikmin Bloom is the second collaboration between Niantic and Nintendo following Pokemon Go.
- The project was initially announced earlier this year, but there wasn't a name or any other info.
- Its rollout is starting in Singapore and Australia
Tuesday evening, Nintendo and Niantic uploaded a brief video presentation to a new YouTube channel to detail more about their upcoming AR game, called Pikmin Bloom. In the brief, five-minute video, Niantic CEO John Hanke provides a quick introduction to the world of Pikmin and a tease at what the game entails with some help from Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. This marks the first time Nintendo or Niantic have talked about the game since it was announced earlier this year.
Pikmin Bloom marks the second collaboration between the two after the worldwide phenomenon, Pokemon Go. Unlike Pokemon Go, however, Pikmin Bloom bears more references and similarities to other Nintendo properties. Most notably, it appears to use the same models for Miis as Miitomo, one of its previous attempts to break into mobile gaming, developed by DeNa.
The trailer features the series' titular plant creatures running amok around the world behind faceless pairs of legs. The trailer doesn't appear to show much gameplay, but it does tease some features that Pokemon Go players might recognize, like a mechanic where players will carry around a potted Pikmin that will only emerge from the ground after the player has taken enough steps.
The foundations of the game are made clear though. As the player walks in the real world, it will sprout flowers in the game. As players walk around the same area, a garden will bloom.
Of course, Nintendo and Niantic are promising new mechanics for the game. In the video, Hanke and Miyamoto teased features like an opportunity to log your memories from the day and a new kind of player interaction. According to Eurogamer, the game is launching on Android in Australia and Singapore first, with other countries to come at a later date.
