Nintendo, via its Nintendo Today app, as well as its official YouTube channel, has posted a video with no clear-cut reason today. The video, entitled Close to You, doesn’t outright connect to anything in the Nintendo Library, looking more like a short film rather than an advert for a game; however, multiple fans have taken to social media to suggest that the video is actually teasing a new Pikmin game of some kind.
The video itself features a mother playing with a baby before the doorbell rings, leaving the child alone in their room. From here, a sense of wonder envelops the room as a stack of blocks is knocked by seemingly nothing to fall down, a rattle starts rolling on its own, and the baby’s pacifier starts moving and floating on its own. In a traditional sense, this video evokes the magic of childhood that Nintendo has mostly made its brand at this point. There are a few more things at play here, though.
As pointed out by a few people, such as Andrew on Bluesky, around the 1:40 mark of the video, we can see the toddler attempting to reach their pacifier on a bench. The camera then pans down as they look into a dark space under their crib. Here we see something running across the screen. It’s hard to make out, but the color does appear to be red, leading fans to think this is a Red Pikman making its way across the screen. This does make sense, but the character is hard to see.
In addition to this, though, others like Laura Sofia and TAHK0 on BlueSky have noted the beautiful piano composition that accompanies the toddler’s journey through their room. Many other users have pointed to the piano accompaniment as being the Pikman theme song. This is not a one-to-one composition, but there are noticeable similarities that support this claim.
All of this fits with the themes of Pikmin, which, despite anything being visible, moving these objects, the characters, and Pikmin have been depicted as tiny, especially compared to humans, with several levels in the franchise being depicted within houses. The Pikmin series, though, has had a rocky development history though with about 9 years between the release of the second game in the series and the third title, then around 10 years between the release of 3 and 4. The fourth game was released in 2023, meaning this potential teaser is being released only 2 years after the previous game, if it is hinting at a new numbered title.
Pikmin 4 became the best-selling game in the series, hitting 2.62 million copies sold within the first two months of sales. This is compared to Pikmin 3: Deluxe Edition, both released on the Nintendo Switch, which hit 2.40 million over a year after release, a number that includes the 2013 Wii U original. Given the performance of the previous title, a renewed interest in the franchise by Nintendo, leading to less wait for the next game, feels in the cards at this point.
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