Nintendo finally gave Pikmin fans a reason to mark the calendar, and it is not the reason anyone guessed. The first Pikmin Day Direct went up on Nintendo’s YouTube channels and the Nintendo Today! app on Oct. 31, a roughly nine-minute video with a few announcements and one extremely Miyamoto moment. Did anyone actually expect Shigeru Miyamoto to turn Nov. 1 into a permanent holiday for tiny plant creatures?
Miyamoto declares a weird new holiday
Miyamoto himself declared that Nov. 1 is officially Pikmin Day, every year from now on, starting in 2026. The date was picked because the original red, blue and yellow Pikmin from the 2001 GameCube game, standing side by side, look like the three 1s in 11/1. That is either clever or the kind of logic you only get from a man who told viewers, on camera, that he wants more people to know about Pikmin.
Honestly, it fits the vibe of a franchise about tiny creatures doing thankless labor. A holiday nobody asked for, and somehow exactly the right one.
The Switch 2 Edition lands Nov. 12
“Pikmin 4 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy,” which Nintendo first announced during its Sept. 9 Direct, launches Nov. 12 on Switch 2. The Pikmin Day Direct was a reminder, not a reveal, which is fine, because apparently I needed the reminder.
Rumors about a Switch 2 version floated around for ages before Nintendo made it official in September, so the internet’s broken clock was right at least once. The original “Pikmin 4” hit the first Switch in July 2023, and now it gets a second life on hardware that pushes up to 4K in TV mode, which means you can probably count every individual leaf on every individual Pikmin. Switch owners who already have the game can buy an upgrade pack instead of starting over. My concern is not graphical. My concern is that I will buy it again and pretend I did not.
Dandori Academy is basically exam hell
The headline addition is Dandori Academy, and it sounds like the most stressful school on earth. Exams open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you get one scored attempt per week, and Nintendo plans 72 stages, rolling out six a month. Gargantuan Garden, one of the exams on display, hands players a 5:30 clock and a yard full of treasure and gold nuggets to haul home before time runs out.
Dandori is the art of planning and efficiency, which means this mode is essentially a pop quiz on whether you can think fast while small creatures scream. I have played enough Pikmin to know that my dandori is closer to dandori disaster. The mode looks genuinely fun in a frantic, sweat-through-your-shirt kind of way, and Nintendo knows exactly what it is doing to the completionist brain.
Oatchi learns to take orders
The Switch 2 Edition lets you give voice commands to Oatchi, the rescue pup, through the console’s built-in microphone. Nine commands are on the list, which means you can yell at your television and the dog will actually listen, more than I can say for the actual dog that lives in my building.
Voice control in a Pikmin game is either a delightful gimmick or a future argument with my neighbors at 2 a.m. Probably both. Oatchi remains the best character in the franchise, a statement I will defend in court, and handing him a microphone feels like Nintendo finally admitting the dog is the star.
The demo is out now
A free demo for the Switch 2 Edition hit the Nintendo eShop on Nov. 2, the day after Pikmin Day, so the whole thing really was one long Pikmin weekend. It includes the opening area of the game and a pair of Dandori Academy exam stages, and your save carries over to the full release. One catch: early hands-on reports say the voice commands are not in the demo, so Oatchi’s obedience training waits until launch day.
Releasing it early is a smart move, especially with Nintendo’s holiday slate crowding the calendar like a very expensive roadblock. The demo is free, which is the best price. Bring snacks. Bring patience. Bring a dog that actually obeys.
No new game, but plenty of noise
No new Pikmin game was announced during the special, which will annoy the people who wanted “Pikmin 5” and delight the people who wanted a reason to replay “Pikmin 4” with better hardware. I land firmly in the second camp, mostly because I still have not finished the original and refuse to admit that out loud.
That does not mean the Direct was empty. Nintendo premiered “Hello! Pikmin,” a new series of animated shorts from Nintendo Pictures and Miyamoto, and teased Secret Caves, an upcoming feature for the mobile game “Pikmin Bloom” that ties into Dandori Academy exams.
The Direct was more of a celebration than a roadmap, and the good news is that we get to do this again next year, and every year after that. Miyamoto gets his wish. The Pikmin get a holiday. I get another reason to explain to my family why Nov. 1 matters now.
Ocarina meets a tiny rival
The “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” remake landed on Switch 2 on Nov. 5, so November already has its drama. “Pikmin 4” on Switch 2 sneaking in a week later is the funnier scheduling accident, and this time it is real.
It is like releasing a quiet indie film the same month as a superhero movie and hoping word of mouth does the work. Nintendo has done this before and will do it again. My money is on the tiny creatures. They have a dog, a holiday and a man who will apparently put them in everything until the sun burns out. Long live Nov. 1.
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