Why You Should Play the Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo

I was all ready to go to bed last night, until Nintendo dropped a new demo on the Switch eShop. The demo is for the upcoming enhanced Wii U port, Pikmin 3 Deluxe. The latest in a series of Wii U games getting well-deserved second chances, Pikmin is still kind of on the margins. So while not every first-party Nintendo joint gets a demo, Pikmin 3 Deluxe is definitely a game that needs one.  The cool part is that with this demo in particular, you get a few bonuses.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo Features

First of all, this isn’t just a slice of the game as a demo. It’s one of those meaty demos that lets you start the game, and just play until the cutoff point. And like every other demo like this, you’ll be able to keep your save data and transfer it over to the full version of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. So in that respect you can just get a straight-up head start. But that isn’t the only thing going on with this demo. Otherwise, we wouldn’t really bother here.

Related: Pikmin 3 Deluxe New Gameplay Shows Co-op, New Features, & Side Stories

If you play through the demo before the game launches, you’ll actually get a few more bonuses once Pikmin 3 Deluxe actually comes out. For one, you’ll be able to access the game’s new difficulty mode, Ultra-Spicy, right from the start. If you’re a Pikmin vet and want to have a challenge from the get-go, you can use this demo to basically skip the line or whatever the unlock condition ends up being.

And speaking of skipping lines, you’re also going to get access to some extra missions right off the bat if you play this demo. Per the official website, you’ll also get five extra stages in the Mission Mode. We don’t know what those are yet or what the normal unlock conditions will be at this time, but hey, that’s a nice-sounding little perk.

Now, to get these bonuses, there is a specific unlock condition. You don’t just get those extra goodies if you start a save file in the demo. You have to make it all the way to the end and defeat the boss. No boss fight, no bonuses. But if you’re planning to play Pikmin 3 Deluxe when it drops later this month anyway, you might as well grab the demo now and get started. There’s no reason not to, right?

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is set to launch for the Nintendo Switch on October 30, 2020. It comes with several new features compared to the original Wii U version, including local co-op, new mission mode stages, difficulty and control options, and more. Like the other “Deluxe” branded Wii U ports, this is more than a simple platform conversion.

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Are you going to get Pikmin 3 Deluxe? Or are you still on the fence and waiting to try the demo? Will you be new to the series, or are you a fan already? Let us know what you think over at the Prima Games Facebook and Twitter channels!