posted: 2024-09-13
Thirty-One Days of Flowers - One Month of Pikmin Bloom
literal weed gummy
Thirty-one days ago, on August 12, 2024, after continued peer pressure, I installed Pikmin Bloom on my Samsung Galaxy S22+. I am not what one would consider a "mobile gamer" by any stretch of the word. Beyond the rejection of the derisive title "gamer", I don't really enjoy playing games on my phone. In fact, I take great joy when I can respond in a dry "no", when a little kid comes up to me asks "do you have any games on your phone?" (not that this has ever happened, but man it's fun to imagine). Unlike many of my peers, I have not played Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, or Zenless Zone Zero, Fire Emblem Heroes or the mobile Octopath Traveler game or any of the myriad other games Gachapon games that have dominated the mobile gaming space since 2019. Furthermore, the last time I had played Pokemon Go, or any other Niantic game for that matter was in 2016, at the peak of its hype. I, like many others, lost interest the game once the masses did, I just didn't find the game's seemingly mindless tapping spree battles to be nearly as compelling as the idea of walking around and finding Pokemon (and maybe the combat's changed in the last seven years. Who knows? Not me). It's for this reason that this past month with Pikmin Bloom has been so fascinating, I've found a mobile game that has sunk its fangs into my scarless neck.
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Pikmin Bloom is a fascinating marriage between a a walking game and an idle game. You walk around planting flowers, and along the way you discover expeditions towards which you can deploy Pikmin you've grown. These expeditions take a certain amount of time to complete depending on the type of Pikmin you deploy, and (as far as I am aware,) cannot be accelerated. So there is Pikmin Blooms intoxicating gameplay loop. You're playing it when you walk and you're playing it when you're not walking. And somehow, this blend works perfectly with Pikmin franchise. The whole point of the franchise is exactly those two things: going out on expeditions, finding cool stuff you want to bring back to your rocket ship, and then waiting. It's genius. I am an avid runner, so I was able to speed run the first twenty-odd levels in Pikmin Bloom without changing my overall lifestyle. I usually run over twenty miles a week, which usually looks like running about 4-5 miles 4-5 days of a given week. I hadn't kept track of how many steps that looks like up until starting Pikmin Bloom, but it's like a veil has been lifted from my field of view. I have taken over 65,000 steps at minimum every week since playing the game, without having to go out of my way to meet any kind of step quota. Two of the weeks I even managed to approach over 80,000 steps. Think about that for a second, 80,000 steps. That's approximately 70 kilometers, or 43.5 miles. I am a graduate student who spends most of his days in a research lab, sitting at a desk. It is a MIRACLE that I am somehow able to reach that level of movement in a period of seven days. Pikmin Bloom has shown me that, yes, running approximately 5 miles in a day will get me 10,000 steps without a problem. I've never thought about it that way. I know the old person adage "oh I gotta get my steps in", but I've never actively considered how this level of walking has contributed to my overall health. I'm twenty-six and I run at least twenty miles a week, meaning I take over 65,000 steps each week, and I've reached Level 30 in Pikmin Bloom as a result. |
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It's nice to have a solid set of friends playing this game too. It's actually really funny to me, I've been able to shoot past some of the same peers who encouraged me to play in the first place in terms of level, not that it really matters. The idea of having a group of friends to call upon when needed in Pikmin Bloom is such a wonderful time. I love being able to call my friends and ask them to help me destroy a Mushroom, and simultaneously respond to one of their similar calls. And when every party reaps the rewards from doing so, it's not hard to say "hey, would you mind helping me?" or "hey, I'm happy to help!". It's a small expression, but I've cracked an unexpected grin or two seeing some of the people in this Discord friend group who I haven't had the chance to connect with much respond to my requests. It gives me a launching point to connect with them better, to tend to my garden of friendship, as it were.
So, while this game hasn't changed my physical processes, it have allowed me to open myself up to new groups of acquaintances. After four weeks of planting, plucking and dispatching Pikmin, I've been able to really consider how I move through life in comparison to others. It's nice to be able to play games with others. I've of course known this fact my entire life, with my involvement on forums and discord servers dedicated to specific games. But I've never had the chance to feel this sense of camaraderie while playing a casual mobile game like Pikmin Bloom. It's been a lovely time.
I expect to keep playing the game for at least another month. I've been able to get through a month of play without spending a single dollar (a fact I am VERY proud of), which speaks to the longevity and sustainability of the game itself. I don't feel like I need to spend any money to keep pace with my growth over this first month, and I hope that this sentiment is maintained. Pikmin Bloom has been fun BECAUSE I can play it with others, and it reminds me that even if I'm not one for most mobile games, there are still some out there that are worth the time.
hit me up on discord as .voltage if you want to add me as a friend in game, just make sure you uhhhh let me know that you're reaching out about pikmin bloom :]