Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto recently revealed that he wanted Pikmin to be the next Mario when the first game launched on the GameCube. However, it didn’t turn out that way, mainly because there’s only one Mario and it’s not easy to knock him off the top spot as the most recognized gaming character of all time.
Miyamoto revealed his hopes for Pikmin in an interview with Gamasutra, saying that when he was developing the original Pikmin for the GameCube, he “wanted it to be the next Mario”.
While Pikmin was a solid launch title for the GameCube, it wasn’t a world-shattering success. Neither was its successor, Pikmin 2, which Miyamoto had less involvement with since he was working on other projects.
Pikmin 3 was released on the Wii U back in 2013, and got a mixed reception from gamers and gaming media. There have been rumors of a Pikmin game for the Switch, titled “Pikmin World”.
In fact, Miyamoto himself confirmed last year that Pikmin 4 was in development and was almost finished. But we have to to hear any official news from Nintendo on this.
