“Pikmin Bloom,” the mobile game being used on our campus for a landscaping project that only players can see.
You may have heard or even played some of the pikmin games for console, where the plant-animal hybrids, called “pikmin” could be directed to complete different tasks during gameplay.
The video game series was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and published by Nintendo. There have been four games released, “Pikmin,” “Pikmin 2,” “Pikmin 3,” “Hey! Pikmin,” and, the most recently released, “Pikmin Bloom.”
“Pikmin Bloom,” unlike its predecessors is a mobile game similar to “Pokémon GO,” with checkpoints, prizes for completing tasks, and plenty of fun characters to collect. You can grow your own pikmin army that follow as you walk, while they find special fruits which you can collect for different colored nectar, and feed to your pikmin to earn flower petals.
You can also send your pikmin on expeditions for various tasks such as collecting new pikmin pots and giant fruits. You can grow pikmin by walking as the game records your step count, and it will let you know at the end of the day how many steps you’ve taken, ask you how you your day was, from sad face to happy face, and it also lets you decide whether or not you want to add a picture to your log for that day.
The creators of “Pikmin Bloom” did consider some of the mistakes that made “Pokémon GO” somewhat unsafe in order to ensure player safety. In “Pokémon GO” many problems were caused by people trespassing in to catch a Pokémon or get to a certain checkpoint, as well as in some cases people would play while driving or forget to pay attention to their surroundings, which caused a lot of injuries and other issues. However, “Pikmin Bloom” reminds players not to trespass as well as to pay attention their surroundings before allowing people to access the app every single time. It also sends a notification not to play while driving if it thinks you’re going too fast!
Going back to the flower petals you collect from nectar, which allow you to grow flowers of you own as you walk! They may not be real flowers but looking at the map on the game you can see the paths that other players have made while walking, grow a giant flower at checkpoints to receive a special expedition, and the ability to collect rare flower petals and nectar to continue to beautify the world digitally.
The thought of walking of around planting flowers that don’t exist in real life may not interest most people, but there’s a lot of benefits from playing and who knows maybe you will too. People have been inspired to walk more, see some of the interesting landmarks – turned – checkpoints, and have some fun while working to grow my team of pikmin and planting flowers along the way. If you’re looking for a new way to get out of your dorm and exercise while having fun, maybe “Pikmin Bloom” is the game for you.
