History Trivia / Pikmin

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Although none of the games in the series have been ''unsuccessful'' commercially, their sales numbers have always lagged far behind those of Nintendo’s more famous franchises; the main reason for the series’ longevity and continued prominence, even with the long gaps between releases, is the personal fondness that Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto has for it, going so far as to declare ''Pikmin'' “[[https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/July/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-10-Pikmin-4-Chapter-3-2417256.html our most global franchise]]” and expressing disappointment that the games have never taken off to the extent that ''Mario'' and ''Zelda'' have, which has only encouraged him to try again with new sequels and spin-offs that could enhance the characters’ visibility.

* ColbertBump: While ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' helped out a bit in giving the series some recognition, popular Lets Play channel LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} tends to be thanked more for popularizing the franchise, with many fans often sighting him and his very iconic playthroughs of the [[VideoGame/Pikmin2001 first]] [[VideoGame/Pikmin2 two games]] as their introduction to the series.

* ColbertBump: While ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' helped out a bit in giving the series some recognition, popular Lets Play channel LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} tends to be thanked more for popularizing the franchise, with many fans often sighting him and his [[FountainOfMemes very iconic]] playthroughs of the [[VideoGame/Pikmin2001 first]] [[VideoGame/Pikmin2 two games]] as their introduction to the series.

* ColbertBump: While ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros helped out a bit in giving the series some recognition]], popular Lets Play channel LetsPlay/{{Chuggaaconroy}} tends to be thanked more for popularizing the franchise, with many fans often sighting him and his [[FountainOfMemes very iconic]] playthroughs of the [[VideoGame/Pikmin2001 first]] [[VideoGame/Pikmin2 two games]] as their introduction to the series.

* FandomVIP: WebVideo/{{Arlo}} is known to be a huge fan of this series, talking at length of how he loves the series despite its niche audience. He was very happy that the series became more mainstream thanks to the NewbieBoom caused by ''Pikmin 4''.

* TheWikiRule: [[https://www.pikminwiki.com/ Pikmin Wiki]] and [[https://pikminfanon.com/wiki/Main_Page Pikmin Fanon.]]

* ReferencedBy: ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' features a glass decoration of a Pikmin in the Super Mario Bros.' customers' house.

* DuelingGames: ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}'' is considered ''Pikmin'''s EvilCounterpart.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: After ''Pikmin 4'' was announced as being “very close to completion” in 2015, the game went unmentioned for 7 years until the September 2022 ''Nintendo Direct'' when it was formally announced for a 2023 release, [[SequelGap 10 years]] after ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'' was released.

* DevelopmentHell: ''Pikmin 4'' was "very close to completion" circa 2015 but hasn't been released as of now. It would take until 2022 for the first few screenshots and videos of it to be shown off.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The name of the enemies formerly labeled "Wollywog" was changed to "Wollyhop" in the PAL version and subsequent rereleases due to the term "wog" being a racist slur in Commonwealth countries.

* TheWikiRule: [[https://www.pikminwiki.com/ Pikmin Wiki]] and [[https://pikminfanon.com/wiki/Main_Page Pikmin Fanon]].

* DevelopmentHell: ''Pikmin 4'' was "very close to completion" circa 2015, but hasn't been released as of now.

* DummiedOut: The first game contains quite a few unused elements in its code, including bizarre things like models of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=rnGfriUluws Mario]] and a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmWyuf7jGvU Goomba]] and a rock-like enemy that spits out smaller rocks, as well as a moon texture (which is unused as you are never allowed to play after sundown).

* UrbanLegendOfZelda:
** Back during the early days of the franchise when ''Pikmin 1'' was still new [[TropeBreaker and dumping ROMs online and looking at the code]] was still in the very early stages, there were ''hundreds upon hundreds'' of supposed cheats that would net you colors of Pikmin that weren't in the game. The most infamous was a possible "Rainbow" Pikmin, who were either striped with multiple colors, changed color at random, or had red, blue, and yellow on their body in some way. The only thing most of the rumors shared was that they had all the other Pikmin's facial features and possessed all Pikmin powers too. Exactly ''how'' to get them, however, varied from source to source, from beating the game in an impossible amount of days which would unlock a NewGamePlus you can use them in, to one source that said you had to throw Yellow Pikmin holding bomb rocks into the spring at the Impact Site then immediately end the day as soon as they hit, and the Rainbow Pikmin would be there the very next day. They were all fake, but this hasn't stopped people from wanting ''actual'' Rainbow Pikmin in a future game, even if it ends up being a BraggingRightsReward.
** There was an old "glitch" rumor that you could get the Beady Long Legs out of its arena in one and taking it to where the Libra is causes it to crash the game. Not only is this impossible[[note]]The BLL is programmed with two "spheres" around it; if the smaller sphere around it goes out of the larger one, its A.I. immediately defaults to taking it back into the center of the arena[[/note]] but hacking the game to have it go out of bounds to where the Libra and abyss are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QseKQ7yslvU simply causes it to de-spawn if it goes too far into it.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The game started out as a game called "Adam and Eve" which focused on their lives. The game was set in a prehistoric environment (mammoths and all) where you would watch the life of two characters unfold and eventually the amount of characters would expand. [[AGodIsYou You were originally in a "God" role]], mainly watching the characters and making them either fight or giving them love. The idea was scrapped because they couldn't figure out an objective for the game. The one aspect from that stage to survive into the finished game were the Bulborbs, which were originally meant to be the aforementioned "mammoths", before being retooled into predatory enemies.
** Originally, ''Pikmin'' didn't have a protagonist and the characters were weapons shot by the player. Eventually the Pikmin were changed into being more like companions and tools, and Olimar was created.
** The Pikmin themselves had several design changes. They were first around the size of a house cat, but were made smaller later in development. The original design was completely black with no facial features. Later on, they were changed to be pastel colors, but the final product uses just red, blue and yellow. The Pikmin were originally meant to be different shapes (fat, tall, short, thin, etc.) and they each had their own life meters, but it was deemed too complicated, so they opted for one size of Pikmin in three different colors. The idea of Pikmin with different body shapes was eventually brought back, as the variants of Pikmin introduced in later games all have distinct body shapes and heights in addition to unique colors.
** Strawberries were originally supposed to be used as twenty pellets in ''Pikmin 1'', but for whatever reason they were replaced with the literal twenty pellets of the finished game. Their model would later be reused in ''Pikmin 2'' as one of the various treasures on the planet, and re-reused in ''Pikmin 3'' as one of the kinds of collectible fruit.
** Originally more than 100 Pikmin could be on the field, but this was changed due to the limitations of the [=GameCube=].
** Yellows weren't originally the only ones to carry bomb rocks in the first game. Red and Blue Pikmin could have carried them too, and Yellows would have had their electric immunity they had from ''Pikmin 2'' onwards. However, problems with getting electric hazards to work right and time restraints forced the development team to abandon electric hazards until the sequel, and in order to give Yellows a purpose, they were made the only Pikmin who could carry bomb rocks. In ''Pikmin 3'', all types can now carry bomb rocks.
** In the first game, achieving the [[ItsAWonderfulFailure bad ending]] would trigger a new gameplay mode where the player controlled Olimar's ''ghost'', and they had to relive through his memories, but was ultimately scrapped.
* WordOfDante: It's a wildly believed fact that Olimar is incompetent because he didn't use the Nova Blaster to destroy the meteor, despite the fact that the [[AllThereInTheManual manual for the first game, and later one of the tie-in websites]], actually ''does'' provide a justifiable reason for this. Namely, Olimar had set his ship on auto-pilot at the time because it was a route he had traveled many times before without trouble. Also, if one pays close attention to the cutscene, the meteor ''does'' notably blindside him before he can react.