Hey! Pikmin is a spin-off of the Pikmin series for the Nintendo 3DS, developed by Arzest and released in July 2017.
Olimar is in his new ship, the S.S. Dolphin II, when he once again crash lands on an isolated planet. While this planet is completely different than the one from previous games, it somehow also has Pikmin on it. Rather used to this by now, Olimar must use the various Pikmin colors to collect treasure in order to refuel his ship and blast off.
The game adapts the Pikmin-controlling gameplay into a 2D action platforming adventure. Olimar must use whatever Pikmin are in each level to traverse the terrian and collect Sparklium, the main collectable that is meant to fuel his ship but is mostly used for upgrading his equipment.
Hey! Pikmin is compatible with amiibo, with its own specific amiibo featuring the titled plant creatures releasing the same day as the game.
This game provides examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: Hey! Pikmin puts much greater focus on battling enemies over collecting treasures than the main series games do.
- All Planets Are Earth-Like: Olimar ends up crashing on a different planet from PNF-404, which somehow has the exact same species of Pikmin on it. Along with Bulborbs and Blowhogs... and human treasures.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Hey! Pikmin's amiibo functionality is very picky. For example, you must use the Super Mario series Mario to get the Mario statue as well as Isabelle's winter and summer outfits and the Inklings' Palette Swaps counting as separate items to be claimed. To counter this problem, the Pikmin amiibo (which has its own statue) can unlock five other amiibo challenges per day, meaning that you don't need every last amiibo the game recognizes to complete the amiibo archives.
- Bombardier Mook:
- Fireflinger Groinks stay permanently in the background, and attack by flinging fireballs towards the screen. They're found in only two areas, where they pelt the foreground with a constant barrage of fiery missiles that Olimar must avoid while also dealing with terrain obstacles and regular enemies.
- Spornets are flying enemies that hover over your Pikmin and drop toxic spores on their heads.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: The Lushlife Murk is a stretch of swampland filled with purple, highly toxic water that will kill Olimar on contact, and which must be navigated by platforming off of floating bottles and dragonfly-like insects.
- Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Leafswirl Lagoon takes place in an autumnal forest, with a background dominated by yellow and orange leaves and the occasional pumpkin.
- Green Hill Zone: The first playable area, the Brilliant Garden, is a flowery meadow home to only simple obstacles and enemies.
- Grimy Water: Several areas of the Lushlife Murk and the Final Stretch are covered by pools of bright purple liquid, which will instantly kill Olimar or the Pikmin should they fall into them.
- Hearts Are Health: Olimar must collect heart-shaped cherries to restore his health.
- Heli-Critter: Coppellers and Muggonflies have flower-like growths on their backs that rotate like helicopter blades, allowing them to fly.
- Human Snowball: A number of Pikmin are caught in a rolling snowball during a brief cutscene in one of the Snowfall Field levels.
- Levels Take Flight: In "Scourge of the Skies ", the ground is mostly covered by Grimy Water that will kill Olimar on contact, and the area must therefore be navigated by hopping across the backs of the passive, dragonfly-like Centipares and the occasional raised piece of rock. As a result, the enemies here are all airborne.
- Metal Slime: Seedbaggers are gelatinous creatures that store large caches of Sparklium seeds in their bodies. They're a very rare encounter — only one spawns in one area of the Echo Cavern level — and, while they are entirely passive, they have high health and will attempt to flee by burying themselves in the ground once they're attacked.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Heard during the three phases from the fight against the Final Boss. It's most noticeable during the third phase
. - Rolling Attack: Shearblugs attack by curling into spiky balls and rolling towards your Pikmin.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Snowfall Field is an icy area that features frozen slopes that Olimar slides uncontrollably on and breakable icicles as obstacles. The second section, "Beneath the Ice", where Olimar explores beneath a frozen lake, overlaps with Under the Sea. The third section, "Over Wintry Mountains", consists of a nonstop downhill plunge on a sled improvised out of a bottlecap. The area's boss, the Luring Slurker, fights by using ice as both projectiles and shields.
- Snowy Sleigh Bells: An easy to miss example occurs in the third level of Snowfall Field from Hey! Pikmin: sleigh bells ring each time the Pikmins break one layer of the gian snowball that tumble down the wintry mountains.
- Technicolor Toxin: The poison that serves as the game's Grimy Water and more rarely appears as geysers is a bright, vivid purple. When finding its amiibo statue, Olimar confuses a purple Inkling's ink for poison due to this trope, suggesting that he should play with water instead. He's somewhat right about the ink (it is toxic... to everyone except that Inkling and his teammates, and other colors of ink would be just as toxic to him), but replacing it with water would be much worse.
- Underground Level: The Sparkling Labyrinth mostly takes place in a tunnel system filled with sparkling stones. Puzzles mostly involve destroying dirt, stone and crystals that bar you progress, and enemies include creatures covered in crystal shells.
