{"id":21959,"date":"2022-01-28T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T00:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=21959"},"modified":"2022-01-19T17:30:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T17:30:30","slug":"pikmin-bloom-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/28\/pikmin-bloom-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Pikmin Bloom (Mobile)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I like pretty much most every Nintendo franchise, but I\u2019ve never really gotten into Pikmin.\u00a0 You\u2019d think I would, since it\u2019s a pretty cute and colorful series.\u00a0 But for whatever reason, I just couldn\u2019t get into them.\u00a0 And the games in the series I did like, most other Pikmin fans hated.\u00a0 Like the 3DS Hey! Pikmin game that was more like a 2-D platformer.\u00a0 I liked that one because it reminded me of Kirby Mass Attack, but most Pikmin fans I\u2019ve heard from hate it.\u00a0 But now there is another Pikmin game, and no it\u2019s not Pikmin 4.\u00a0 It\u2019s Pikmin Bloom, a mobile \u2018game\u2019 that counts your steps as you walk, and gives you rewards like more Pikmin and other goodies so you can spread Pikmin and flowers around the world!\u00a0 It\u2019s made by the same folks who did the hit Pok\u00e9mon GO game, and it shares a lot of similarities to that title.\u00a0 It\u2019s available on mobile devices but reviewed on iPhone here.<\/p>\n

When you start the game, you\u2019ll have to design a Mii character or use the one from your Nintendo account (they have really gotten milage out of those Miis, haven\u2019t they).\u00a0 Then you\u2019ll get a Pikmin plant creature to walk around with you.\u00a0 As you walk, you may pass by WiFi spots where you can pick up seedlings and nectar.\u00a0 You\u2019ll put the seedlings in a backpack where they can grow.\u00a0 When you have enough steps, they\u2019ll grow into new Pikmin for your army.\u00a0 All the Pikmin types are here: red, blue, yellow, purple, white, flying, and rock.\u00a0 Although they don\u2019t really do anything different in this one.\u00a0 The other thing you\u2019ll get is nectar, which you can feed to your Pikmin by tossing it to them like you how toss a Pokeball in Pok\u00e9mon GO.\u00a0 This\u2019ll make flowers grow on the Pikmins\u2019 heads.\u00a0 Tap on the flowers to collect the petals, which you\u2019ll use later.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also be able to go on expeditions.\u00a0 This is when you send a group of Pikmin out to find seedlings and fruit (for nectar) as you walk around the real world.\u00a0 It\u2019ll take the Pikmin a set amount of time to gather those items and bring them back to you.\u00a0 There are also mushrooms you can send a group of Pikmin out to attack, and multiple players can do that, so I guess it\u2019s like those Pok\u00e9mon GO raids.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get rewards depending on how fast you can complete those missions.\u00a0 Sometimes when you go on expeditions, the Pikmin will bring back large seedlings.\u00a0 These will have outfits for that Pikmin to wear.\u00a0 For instance, I passed by a pharmacy and got a Pikmin wearing a toothpaste hat and holding a toothbrush.\u00a0 Another time I was at a movie theater and got a Pikmin wearing a popcorn hat and 3-D glasses.\u00a0 And since I linked Pikmin Bloom with my Nintendo Account, I got a Pikmin wearing a Mario hat!\u00a0 I wish those kinds of things happened more often in the game, though.<\/p>\n

The petals you collect from Pikmins\u2019 heads will be stored in little containers.\u00a0 When you tap on one, you can use those petals to plant flowers wherever you walk.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see them on the map, and as long as you are planting flowers, you\u2019ll get a bonus multiplier to help you gather more materials and grow your planted seedlings faster.\u00a0 You can also have friends, but the only thing you can do is send them postcards that the Pikmin pick up at various places.\u00a0 You can also view what badges you\u2019ve earned by doing certain things, where you\u2019ve walked on the map, and what level you are at.\u00a0 You can gain levels by doing certain things.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gotten to a pretty high level because I work retail and am on my feet all day walking around, so it was pretty easy to do for me.\u00a0 But it started to slow down a lot around level 30 or so.\u00a0 One nice thing about the game is that you don\u2019t always have to have it on and drain the batteries on your phone, since it just reads the step counter from your own phone.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s pretty much Pikmin Bloom.\u00a0 I did have a few problems with it, though.\u00a0 They don\u2019t do a very good job of explaining what everything does in the game.\u00a0 For instance, one time I saw a giant flower on the map, but I had no idea what it did and only saw it once.\u00a0 I also didn\u2019t like that they asked for permission to use photos from your library.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t let the game do that, but I have no idea why they would need photos from your phone.\u00a0 It\u2019s also really hard to earn coins in the game naturally.\u00a0 After playing a few months and walked a LOT, I only earned about 60 coins, and most of the stuff in the shop sells for hundreds, if not thousands of coins.\u00a0 Of course, they want you to spend your real money to buy more coins, which is how I guess they\u2019re hoping to make money off the game.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t imagine this game being anywhere near as popular as Pok\u00e9mon GO.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019d be surprised if it\u2019s still on the market in another year.\u00a0 But the game is free-to-play and it did entertain me for a couple of months.\u00a0 So if you like to walk around and want a fun little activity to track your steps with, Pikmin Bloom will do the job.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing violent or objectionable here.\u00a0 Reading skill is a must and parental supervision is highly recommended for the in-game purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like pretty much most every Nintendo franchise, but I\u2019ve never really gotten into Pikmin.\u00a0 You\u2019d think I would, since it\u2019s a pretty cute and colorful series.\u00a0 But for whatever reason, I just couldn\u2019t get into them.\u00a0 And the games in the series I did like, most other Pikmin fans hated.\u00a0 Like the 3DS Hey! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22009,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21959\/revisions\/22009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}