Nintendo’s foray into the world of smartphone games hasn’t resulted in any classics as of yet. Unless you count the brief global phenomenon of Pokémon GO (2016).

With Pikmin Bloom (2019) players have another augmented reality game to launch themselves into. It’s developed by American studio Niantic, who were responsible for GO.

The emphasis here is very much on being active, as this is essentially a walking app. Just one with gamification, so you get rewarded for physical activity. Hurray!

Get Walking to Get Your Pikmin Bloom On

https://youtu.be/jp2StaIKZgk?si=G8Z-GKjr1dAVgXC5

Okay, this is a gamified fitness experience. Nintendo has done plenty of this before, especially with its Wii console peripherals, and Niantic here channel all that rather well.

Yes, Pikmin Bloom is basically a glorified steps counter.

But there are enough fun little features packed into the game to make it suitable for all ages, especially with the use of Nintendo’s beloved Pikmin franchise. The cute little dudes lend themselves very well to what’s expected of you.

If you’ve played the likes of Pikmin 3 on the Wii U, you’ll know this is one of Nintendo’s most underrated franchises.

What’s expected of you here is walking. The more you do, the more Pikmin will bloom and the more of a jolly old time of it you’ll have.

The central conceit is to walk around. The Pikmin you have will go off and forage as you walk, bringing you back all manner of items you can use for different things. This is how it all plays out.

You can name all your Pikmin, which is a cute little touch, and they keep bringing stuff back to you. It’s a case from there of:

• Plant Pikmin seeds.
• Hatch the seeds by walking the set distance.
• Walk some more!
• Spend, upgrade, and attend collaborative multiplayer events.
• Complete in-game challenges.

The community days are quite a big deal, with Niantic pushing the title to promote socialising. Which is always a good thing.

Non-gamers often this stance that gaming is about social rejects sitting in their parent’s basement totally cut off from society. But it’s actually a very open and sociable hobby.

You meet people locally and worldwide through this shared passion, whether through blogging, social media, Twitch streams, or in-game.

Worth remembering if you think gaming will be the death of us all through no social interaction.

FREE-TO-PLAY?! Oh Yes, It is!

It’s a free-to-play game. It makes its money from microtransactions with in-game purchases, but the core element of the experience is largely free from all of that.

As in, you don’t have to spend to enjoy it.

But you will need to walk a lot. To encourage you and others to do that, these adorable little gits are there to kind of force you to get moving.

You get a lifelogging feature you can update with your daily adventures. That includes taking photos with your virtual Pikmin. And you can connect up with Apple Health and Google Fit to count steps, too.

Yeah, so if you’re not expecting too much from this you’ll have fun with it.

It’s great for kids and a way to encourage them to get outside and focus on some exercise. Good fun! Hardly an essential purchase considering Pikmin 4 launched in 2024 on the Switch and is exceptional.

But as an entertaining, positive distraction you can’t much fault it.