Pikmin Bloom impressions after six months

Even though it is not entirely rational, I love to play. Pikmin bloom. It’s been almost six months since Niantic’s walking companion app launched, and my routine hasn’t changed much in that time. Everyday, I aim to keep my steps in. Sometimes, I fail. Sometimes I earn way too many steps driving around with my phone in hand. Sometimes I have to travel out of the city and wait for my items to be returned to me. However, every day, many times daily, I check in. I feel like I’m accomplishing something.

I’m not. I’m making numbers go up. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around the appeal of it all, because it runs counter to so much of what I typically like in games.

On a mechanical level, there’s not a lot of game here. There are tasks that you have to accomplish, some of which require some strategy. You can also optimize your group. But generally, it’s about walking. It’s about walking. You can walk to look for seedlings. Then you walk to grow them. Finally, you walk to get the food that they need. You would see this in a game. With more Pikmin, you can unlock new gameplay and stories. Here, you plant flowers and fight mushrooms, but there’s no challenge to either. You basically build your team in order to continue building it.

Image: Niantic/Nintendo

It is clear that Niantic must make money. If it gets you to think about the numbers more, you’ll be more inclined to spend money in order to get those numbers moving faster. Which is weird in a game built around walking, since you’re essentially cheating yourself, but it’s done responsibly — the game doesn’t hold key features back if you don’t pay, and I have yet to spend (or feel like I need to spend) a dollar on it.

You don’t have to face the same challenges that I seek in games. Pikmin bloom’s appeal comes down to something that sounds pretty boring on paper: it’s satisfying to see new technology working well.

Games set on real-world maps are no longer brand new at this point, but there’s still something fascinating about seeing yourself in two worlds at once, and Niantic’s tech has evolved to the point that it all works smoothly. This is essentially a role for a supervisor at the post office. The fun part of sending Pikmin back and forth continues over and over. The app’s vibration feature is a great example of how the game can improve.

It’s passive collaboration that I love. This is not the norm Pokémon GoAnd For more information, please visit:, Pikmin bloom doesn’t feature competitive elements. I remember the developers of The JourneyOne point was made about how to eliminate features that allow players and other users to have negative interactions online. You can plant flowers alongside other players, and team up with other players to fight mushrooms faster, but the design limits you from doing anything that would ruin someone else’s experience.

This reminds me of Noby Noby BoyOr Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube?, in that you’re all working together towards a shared goal, though I suppose in the latter case that all kind of fell apart (and arguably wasn’t “shared” to begin with).

My time would have been better spent if it was producing something tangible. It’s not just about collecting things, it is also about doing something. An end game. But, I am constantly reminding myself that it would be against the fact that this app is an exercise companion. And perhaps more importantly, it would also, sadly, mean I’d have to stop playing.