Camera

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This article is about the regular in-game camera. For the KopPad app, see KopPad#Camera.

The camera is the viewpoint from which the player can see the action in a game's world. In the Pikmin games, the camera can be adjusted by the player, in order to ensure that they can always navigate through the areas and caves while being able to see what they're doing effectively.

In order to save resources, only elements visible by the camera are fully active.

Controlling the camera

The camera at ground-level in Pikmin 2.

There are a few controls that allow the player to manipulate the camera's position.

L / can be used to rotate the camera sideways. When fully pressed, the camera faces the direction of the cursor in the GameCube games, and the direction of the leader in the Wii games. If the button is lightly or fully pressed, Stick / can also be used to rotate the camera manually. In order to rotate the camera without moving the leader, Stick / can be only partially tilted.

By pressing Z / Padup, the camera toggles between a 3/4 view and a top-down view. The former is preferred when the player wants to see more of what is ahead, whereas the latter is useful when there are several walls in the way.

Pressing R / Padleftright causes the camera to toggle between the three available zoom values. The closest zoom value places the camera at half of the regular distance from the leader, while the farthest zoom level places it at twice the distance. When the button is pressed, the camera toggles happen in the following order: normal, far, close. On the first day in Pikmin, the camera temporarily switches to the zoomed in value whenever Captain Olimar is plucking Pikmin.

In Pikmin 2, R / Padleftright can be held down to make the camera switch to a ground level of altitude, after a second. This camera mode allows the player to see a lot of what is ahead, but not much of what is behind. Because of the new cursor in New Play Control! Pikmin 2, the player can call Pikmin from any place where the cursor can point on the screen. This means that, if the player uses this camera feature, they can whistle Pikmin from much farther away than normally possible. If the Pikmin are too far away to remain in the party, they will walk towards the leader when whistled, but instantly become idle when the whistle ends. The other leader, if whistled, will attempt to come to the current leader, and will only give up if he finds an obstacle.