Nintendo has re-released the mysterious Close to You video on the Nintendo Today app today, confirming that it was Pikmin related all along.
Out of nowhere yesterday, Nintendo decided to send the internet into a frenzy by releasing a random video about a baby chasing its pacifier which decided to move on its own, seemingly unrelated to any pre-existing Nintendo games. But fans immediately began theory-crafting as to what it could be, with a popular theory being that it was a teaser for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie due to the baby sharing its hairstyle and clothing color scheme with Rosalina.
However, there were a lot of Pikmin references in there, from musical stings to a possible cryptid sighting, plus the Pikmin Bloom lore saying that Pikmin are invisible to the human eye. And the Pikmin truthers stay winning, as 24 hours later, Nintendo has reuploaded the short to the Nintendo Today App, and at first it appears to be exactly the same, but as soon as the mom leaves the room, the Pikmin appear and the context behind the runaway pacifier makes sense as Pikmin run around the room trying to steal it.
But now the question is… why? Or rather, what is this for? Is Nintendo going to release more videos like this in the lead-up to announcing a full-blown Pikmin 5? Is a Pikmin movie coming? Why release a super confusing version with no Pikmin and let Nintendo fans go wild for a day? These are questions we'll probably have to ponder for some time.
However, this could mark the return of Pikmin Short Movies, which was a collection of three shorts animated by Dynamo Pictures (now Nintendo Pictures) and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. These proved surprisingly popular, being the second, ninth and 17th most popular videos of all time on the Nintendo YouTube account. It could be as simple as that, but the weird rollout of the video has me suspicious.
