The Forgotten Mode of Pikmin 3

Mission Mode’s little baby child with a big lollipop and a propellor hat.

Never forgiving how Olimar's Comeback retconned Louie getting left behind in the main story

Honestly I really like how the side story characterizes Olimar and Louie’s relationship. It shows how much Olimar really wants to be a mentor and lead Louie down the right path, but Louie still wants to act the way he does even if it constantly gets him in danger and trouble.

They don't have official names but the Pikmin Wiki refers to both of them as just "Golden Long Legs".

I wound up streaming the Side Stories and I said by the end of it they were basically everything I wanted out of a “Pikmin 3” when I was a kid. And while I still love the main story, I stand by those feelings, it just feels nice to play as Olimar & Louie again.

the sidestories were honestly so cool to me. depending on what pikmin 4 is in the canon (ffs we still do not have a definitive answer its so annoying) the side stories are technically the end of the original trilogy’s canon.

I feel that the biggest drawback with this mode is that it’s mostly just a rehash from the mission mode since most of it is just collecting fruits and battling enemies, which sucks because the new objectives such as having to reunite the captains are never expanded upon to make a unique challenge other than carrying the ship part but as you said the pikmin always take the same path so even then it’s kind of just a waste

this mode forgot that they had an arctic variation of the baldy long legs in assignment level four and therefore it is my swore enemy for comedic value

Even if the execution wasn't the best, i'm glad Olimar's Comeback had a big role involving the Hocotate Freight ship. In Pikmin 3, the normal one, i was kinda sad seeing the ship trashed on the Mireclops' arena, especially if we have in mind that the ship has a personality. This game mode is also the last time we ever know about said ship because in Pikmin 4 it could be the reason why Louie is on PNF-404 but we never see it, and it's not even mentioned. I may just miss it because i'm a tryhard Pikmin 2 fan, or just because i main Olimar in Smash Bros; but if Pikmin 4 ever gets a DLC then i hope the ship re-appears.

11:10 what if we called these forgotten bosses “The Goldy long legs” and “The shaggy Long Locks”?

Something I liked in Olimar's Comeback is in the last level when fighting the long legs the music is a remixed version of the Pikmim 1 title screen. It's small but it's a nice little callback, especially with the yellow baldy making me think it's supossed to be the beady from 1 and 2

3:03 I think something you should also mention is that you can hear the voice of the plasm wraith and heavy metallic footsteps before the cutscene ends

I still liked these side modes all the same, I'll never say no to more Pikmin content. The original Pikmin 3 was already pretty content heavy, and most ports don't usually add much to their base games, so it still felt like a treat regardless

thank you this will cure my cripplling pikmin addiction, i was beforehand suffering from pikmin deficency.

BEST VIDEO EVER(it was uploaded like 15 seconds ago)

i am watching this at work do not tell the boss

I was so excited about the long-legs in the final level, because I thought that was intended to be the return of Beady Long Legs (who has been absent ever since they replaced him with Baldy Long Legs) but NOPE it doesn't even have an official name and is basically just a palette swap. I was so disappointed. :(

after playing pikmin 4 feels weird seeing 11:02 and not seeing olimar say something along the lines "I'm sorry pikmin...." Honestly one of my major annoyances with pikmin 4 were all the unecessary character dialogue telling you to use items, when you get low on health or lose more than 2 pikmin at once. I did find it interesting how if you try to use an ice bomb or lightning shock on the waterwraith, russ shows a surprised face dialogue saying something along the lines of "Ridiculous! not even the lightning shock works??"

This mode is why I’m okay with Pikmin 4 being a timeline reset for the series, as this serves as a natural conclusion to Olimar’s battle against his greatest enemy: Inability to properly pilot

I LOVED the side stories. They were like mission mode levels with bits of lore.