Pikmin Day Direct: Every Announcement Explained

Illustration: Fox Bulletin

Nintendo put out a surprise Pikmin Day Direct on 31 October, and it did something Directs rarely do: it announced no new games at all. What it did deliver was a demo date, a release reminder, an animated short series and a date on the calendar that is now officially Pikmin Day.

The presentation ran short and stayed focused on things arriving within days rather than years, which makes it one of the more immediately useful Directs of the year.

Pikmin Day Direct headline: a demo lands on 2 November

Pikmin 4 Nintendo Switch 2 Edition plus Dandori Academy arrives on 12 November. That date was first given at the September Direct, and this presentation filled in what sits around it. A demo goes live on 2 November, and the detail that matters is that save progress from the demo carries into the full game.

Pikmin 4 Nintendo Switch 2 Edition plus Dandori Academy Nintendo Direct artwork — Image: Nintendo

Players who already own Pikmin 4 on the original Switch are not being asked to buy it again. An upgrade pack covering the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Dandori Academy is listed on the eShop. Anyone sizing up what else is worth playing on the hardware can compare it against the best-selling Nintendo Switch games so far.

The upgrade is listed on Nintendo’s own store as the Pikmin 4 Nintendo Switch 2 Edition plus Dandori Academy page, with a separate upgrade pack entry for existing owners. Dandori Academy is the new content bundled with this version, and it is the part the mobile game hooks into, which is unusual for a Pikmin release.

Hello! Pikmin, narrated by Shigeru Miyamoto

The Direct introduced Hello! Pikmin, a series of animated shorts whose first episode is already out. Shigeru Miyamoto narrates, and Nintendo plans to release a new short every month through the Nintendo Today app rather than on a video platform. Putting the series inside an app Nintendo controls, instead of a public video platform, keeps the schedule and the audience in one place, and it is the same app the company has been using for daily posts.

Official Pikmin comic artwork from the Nintendo Pikmin portal — Image: Nintendo

Pikmin Bloom gets Secret Caves, and 1 November becomes Pikmin Day

The mobile side was not left out. Pikmin Bloom is getting a sizeable update called Secret Caves. Reports from the presentation differ on exactly when it lands, with some pointing to winter and others to a later update this year, so treat the timing as unconfirmed for now. Bloom will also connect to Dandori Academy, where clearing exams in that mode opens extra maps inside the app.

Miyamoto also used the Direct to declare 1 November as Pikmin Day, and Nintendo is designating it officially from this year on. My Nintendo News confirmed the demo date alongside the rest of the slate. If you are between games until 12 November, our list of the best open world games is a reasonable place to spend the fortnight.

What to do before 12 November

The demo is the obvious move, and the save transfer makes it worth treating as an early start rather than a trial. Anyone who already owns Pikmin 4 on the original Switch should look for the upgrade pack on the eShop instead of the full release, because Nintendo has listed them as separate products and buying the wrong one is an easy mistake to make.

The first Hello! Pikmin short is already available in the Nintendo Today app, which is also where the monthly entries will appear. Pikmin Bloom players have longer to wait, since the Secret Caves update has no firm date, and the Dandori Academy connection only becomes relevant once the full game is out.

Written by Daniel Okafor

Daniel Okafor writes the business and legal explainers at Fox Bulletin, covering the paperwork small companies actually run into: company structures, insurance cover, employment rules and the state-by-state differences that catch owners out. The guides start from the assumption that nobody enjoys reading a statute.

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