A new Nintendo app craze hit the app store this month. 

From the developers who made Pokemon Go, Niantic has pushed out Pikmin Bloom. This app is a mixture of Pokemon Go and the series Pikmin, all with its own flair to bring the Pikmin characters to life. 

Pikmin is a game that follows an astronaut that crashed and landed on a foreign planet. On this planet are small, imp-like creatures with a flower on the top of their heads named pikmin. They follow you around in the game, all having helpful traits or elements of different colors to get you to the end goal. These creatures are plucked from the ground and indebted to you. 

The game opens with a greeting message, welcoming you into the new exercise-promoting game. The next step is to make a mii. Unlike in Pokemon Go where you would pick a character, the game gives you a selection of miis to choose from. However, Nintendo pushes you to link a Nintendo account to get a special pikmin and customize your mii. 

Making a Nintendo account only takes a few moments and it’s free, but it can stop players from getting to the full game immediately if they want to customize their mii. I would recommend doing so, since this brings a new life to the character as a whole. 

As soon as you are linked in with a mii in an outfit of your choice, you are brought into the scene of a red pikmin being plucked from a dirt pot. This is the first of many pikmin that will move you through the world. Staring at the Pikmin, I named him “Dave.” The rest was history. 

The game hooks  up to the Apple fitness app or, if you are using an Android, Google Fit. Once connected, it will monitor your steps. Each step you take, your pikmin follow behind you and will pluck up fruits or seedlings on your path, much like Pokemon Go. 

The most cooperative component of the game is adding your friends and leaving a trail of flowers behind you. Whenever you feed your pikmin nectar, they sprout petals. You can take these petals and make a flower burst behind you. These bursts of flowers are marked on the map as you walk, making seedlings grow 10% faster, and other players will be able to see your trail behind you. 

Freshman Caitlyn Nevin uses IUS as a great spot to get more flowers and seedlings, walking between classes to get her steps up. 

“There are multiple buds around campus that you can plant flowers at to make them bloom,” said Nevin. “You can also find expeditions to send your Pikmin everywhere around campus.” 

She enjoys bonding over this cute game with other students and going for walks around the clock tower to get the flowers to blossom. 

The game’s first special event is today. It will kick off at 9:00 a.m local time and end by 6:00 p.m on November 14, now, due to server issues. According to the official Pikmin Bloom account, they will be having seedling planters grow faster during this time and fruits will give more nectar when planting your flowers. 

Users who walk 10,000 steps or more on this day will also be given a special badge that will be on their account to mark being online and active during the first event!

Overall, this game is very small with things to do, but it makes it a very good tool for an older audience to stay physically active. The battery drainage is minimum if you keep the step counter on while you are out of the app. The art is very beautiful and interactive, and the rewards are pretty easy to obtain. 

Pikmin Bloom advises any new fans to keep an eye on social media for any upcoming events, rewards or changes.