Pokémon GO, naturally leading to some similarities between the two games. While Pokémon GO is celebrating its five-year anniversary with numerous events, Pikmin Bloom rolled out between October 26 and November 2 across the world. This mobile game is available on both Android and iOS devices.
Pikmin Bloom doesn't have a strict “goal” in the typical game sense. Instead, Pikmin Bloom tracks players’ paths as they walk, as well as their number of steps. The more players walk, the more they can unlock to enhance their experience. Like Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom is an augmented reality mobile game. The world that appears in-game is based on the real world and the player’s avatar explores it using their phone’s GPS.
However, there are some key differences between the two AR games, especially in how Pikmin Bloom is more ive and about tracking players’ steps compared to the active gameplay elements like capturing Pokémon and battling in Gyms in Pokémon GO. These differences keep the two experiences distinct and can help Pikmin Bloom see success on its own rather than just Pokémon GO with a new coat of paint. Still, with their similar AR premises and shared developer, there are a number of elements that Pokémon GO, over the course of five years, has successfully developed, and therefore serve as a strong foundation for Pikmin Bloom.
Pikmin Bloom & Pokémon GO Are Better When Walking
Pokémon GO has players stopping a lot, whether it's to catch a group of Pokémon they see or to challenge a nearby Gym. Pikmin Bloom is a lot more ive. Most activities, such as setting up seedlings or feeding nectar to Pikmin, can be done before or after a walk. But both games still work best when the player is walking. For Pikmin Bloom, walking is the entire point of the game: as the player walks, they leave behind a trail of flowers.
Players also earn steps that contribute to seedlings. Seedlings grow into full-fledged Pikmin after a certain number of steps, similar to Eggs in Pokémon GO. Although Pokémon GO doesn’t keep track of steps and instead opts for distance, the game won’t log the player’s distance if it senses they’re traveling above approximately 20 miles per hour. They’ll be going too fast to activate PokéStops, wild Pokémon won’t spawn, and their Eggs won’t be gaining any distance to hatch. Pikmin Bloom and Pokémon GO are very different in the attention they require, but both offer the most to players when they’re walking.
Teaming Up In Pikmin Bloom & Pokémon GO
Pokémon GO is a lot more competitive than Pikmin Bloom. While players walk alongside their Pikmin in Pikmin Bloom, players in Pokémon GO have not only their Pokémon but the of their chosen team, either Team Valor, Mystic, or Instinct, by their metaphorical side as well. of opposing teams battle for control over Pokémon Gyms, keeping the in-game world active. But there’s cooperation alongside the competition in Pokémon GO thanks to raid battles where Trainers from all three teams can work together to take down and try to capture a very strong Pokémon.
Pikmin Bloom has a similar feature in “challenges,” or giant mushrooms that appear on the map. Players can send a group of their Pikmin to damage the mushroom, and destroying it earns them rewards. Some mushrooms require a group of players to send their Pikmin to destroy them, but others have low enough health that a player can destroy them on their own, similar to some low-level raids in Pokémon GO. Pikmin Bloom’s lack of competitive elements lends to its role as a more ive game overall, but Pokémon GO isn’t entirely lacking in cooperative play, either.
Competition & Co-Op Play In Pikmin Bloom & Pokémon GO
The overall “goal” of Pikmin Bloom is to “fill the world with flowers” by walking. As players walk, the in-game equivalent location fills with flowers. Other players in the area will be able to see the paths of flowers that have been laid out and add to them with their own walking routes. The appearance of Pikmin Bloom’s AR world changes the more players walk around in the real world. Flower paths last approximately five days, however, so players will want to return frequently to keep the space populated with flowers.
In Pokémon GO, Gyms are constantly changing as Trainers battle for control over them. Players leave their Pokémon to defend Gyms. They can then be challenged by other players. In a more cooperative fashion, players can attach Lure Modules to a PokéStop to attract large numbers of wild Pokémon to it that other Trainers can find. Since Lures remain active for 30 minutes, a player can help other Trainers find wild Pokémon even after they’ve left an area. While there isn’t anything in Pikmin Bloom that Lures can compare to directly, it goes to show collaborative measures are a boon even in competitively oriented games.
Community Day In Pikmin Bloom & Pokémon GO
“Community Day” is a concept in Pikmin Bloom that comes directly from Pokémon GO. Community Day in Pokémon GO happens once a month. During this time, a featured Pokémon can be found more often in the wild, with higher Shiny rates, and evolving it grants it a special move it can otherwise not learn. Other benefits, such as increased Lure times and decreased Egg hatching distances, encourage Trainers to play outside in their community as the name suggests, walking around to find Pokémon, hatching their Eggs, and leaving Lures on PokéStops. But just catching the featured Pokémon and evolving it can be done from home, so aside from taking advantage of Lures, Pokémon GO Community Days are a mostly solitary event.
Because Pikmin Bloom is a lot more collaborative by nature, the first Pikmin Bloom Community Day was much more about the community. Faster Egg hatching, or in Pikmin’s case, seedling growing, returns from Pokémon GO, but the primary aim of Community Day in Pikmin Bloom is to walk at least 10,000 steps and get Big Flowers to bloom into special variants. The more different players walk, the more the area gets filled with flowers, and special Big Flowers may bloom and produce more rewards than usual.
Special Costume Pokémon & Pikmin In Pokémon GO And Pikmin Bloom
Collectible creatures have an inherent appeal to them, whether they be simple Pikmin or diverse Pokémon. Part of Pokémon GO’s appeal is collecting all the different Pokémon - but the mobile game takes things a step further than the handheld and console RPG series. Pokémon GO features Pokémon in special costumes to celebrate certain events or seasons. Pokémon that can only be found in Pokémon GO add an extra incentive for Trainers to to the game in addition to other Pokémon titles. But by being costumes, Niantic doesn’t have to go through the strict process to design all-new Pokémon - it can simply add fun clothes to already existing ones.
A similar approach is likely being taken with Pikmin Bloom. Decor Pikmin wearing special accessories based on where they were found are already in the game, and a Blue Pikmin wearing a Mario Hat can be obtained when players link their Nintendo to the Pikmin Bloom app. It wouldn’t be surprising to see more special Decor Pikmin to celebrate various events added to the game to further encourage players to collect them just like the special costume Pokémon in Pokémon GO.
