Pikmin App (Early Access) begins Beta testing in Singapore (First Details)

Following last week’s announcement of an AR Pikmin app, as part of a collaboration between Niantic and Nintendo, the untitled Pikmin app has already surfaced in Singapore, as a beta test gets underway.

At present, the Pikmin walking application is currently titled “Pikmin App” with an early access demo available for Android and iOS devices. Plenty of initial details have already started to appear online, with VGC offering an extensive breakdown. The initial details can be seen listed below:

Pikmin App (Early Access) First Details:

• “Pikmin App” starts off by giving players an item bag and several Pikmin Seedlings.
• Pikmin Seedlings are capable of growing but require absorbing of Step Energy to do so.
• Step Energy is acquired by walking with Pikmin App.
• Once a Pikmin Seedling has absorbed the required amount of energy for growth, it can then be plucked.
• Each plucked Pikmin can be named, or have a name automatically generated by the app.
• At present, “Pikmin App” features seven species of Pikmin, as well as featuring Pikmin Flowers and Pikmin Attributes. The seven Pikmin are:
  • Red Pikmin
  • Blue Pikmin
  • Yellow Pikmin
  • Purple Pikmin
  • White Pikmin
  • Rock Pikmin
  • Winged Pikmin
• Another type of Pikmin encounterable in the game are Decor Pikmin. This kind of Pikmin are said to be an “unusual Pikmin” which wear an attire “associated with the place you found them.”
• Decor Pikmin can be grown from Big Seedling items, however, regular Pikmin can turn into Decor Pikmin, provided you interact with them in “certain places.”
• By walking/exploring your real-world surroundings, players can encounter new Seedlings. Their Pikmin squad can also pick up items as part of your travel.
• Items such as fruit can be converted into Nectar, which when given to Pikmin, can help them to bloom flowers, enabling players to collect their petals.
• Collected petals can be used during a Flower Planting mode, with flower petals available in four different colours:
  • Red
  • Blue
  • Yellow
  • White
• As players walk, Flower Planting is a mode that sees a flower trail forming in your week.
• During Flower Planting, Seedlings can become easier to find and Seedings that are planted in player’s item bags, can grow quicker.
• “Pikmin App” does not currently support micro-transactions.
• As part of the app, as well as having your Pikmin follow you, players can also send Pikmin off on expeditions.
• Expeditions is a core feature of “Pikmin App” and is a great way for players to send their Pikmin off on little journeys to collect additional Seedlings and any other item that happens to be available from places players have previously visited.
• Expeditions are accessed via an Expedition screen, where players can then select the Pikmin they wish to dispatch. During the selection process, the games UI will indicate what item your Pikmin will collect, the amount of time it will take and just how many Pikmin you can send.
• During their travels, Pikmin undergoing expeditions can collect Postcards, a digital keepsake that displays Pikmin out on their travels, with these photos background being based on real-world locations that have been submitted by Ingress and Pokémon GO players.
• At present, Postcards can not be sent to other players and nor does the app use photos saved to the player’s phone.
• Other features in the game are geared around the notion of encouraging daily play. One such feature is the Lifelog, a personal record that covers a player’s daily activities, which can be “curated with texts and pictures.”
• With the Lifelog Entries screen, players can see exactly how many steps they’ve walked, the results of their flower planting effort, locations players have visited, what written entire have been created and what photos have been captured.
• Near the end of each day, “Pikmin App” presents players with a Daily Lookback, an animated summary that reveals to the player, all of their progress from the previous day.
• Should players walk a lot in a single day, they can play a propeller mini-game that can see them earn a free item.

For players keen to experience the full title, “Pikmin App” is set to release in full in 2021, with other AR games based on Nintendo IPs in the works.

Source: VGC