Mission Mode menu
The Mission Mode menu in Pikmin 3 provides access to the game's Mission Mode. The menu is accessed from a button on the title screen.
Mission type selection screen
This menu is shown upon selecting Mission Mode from the title screen, and shows 3 main buttons, corresponding to the 3 types of mission: Collect Treasure!, Battle Enemies!, and Defeat Bosses!. These buttons are large circles, colored yellow, green, and blue respectively. Inside the circles are various items representing each mode, and these are picked randomly. The Collect Treasure! button shows 3 main items, along with 3 individual nuggets around these items. The item in the top of the button is either a Sunseed Berry or a Golden Sunseed. The item in the lower left is eiher an Insect Condo or a pile of Nuggets. The item in the lower right is either a Cupid's Grenade or a Golden Grenade. All items rotate rapidly. The Battle Enemies! button shows 3 animated enemies in a triangle, with the enemies chosen from specific arrangements, which are:
- A Bulborb, Yellow Spectralids, and Dwarf Bulborb
- A Yellow Wollywog, Yellow Spectralids, and Dwarf Bulborb
- A Whiptongue Bulborb, White Spectralids, and Male Sheargrub
- A Swooping Snitchbug, Red Spectralids, and Female Sheargrub
The Defeat Bosses! button shows a single animated image of the latest boss the player has defeated in Story Mode. If the player has completed the game, this will always be the Plasm Wraith.
In addition to these buttons, there are also 3 other buttons. One in the upper left corner takes the player to the Nintendo eShop to purchase downloadable content. One in the lower left corner takes the player back to the title screen. And one in the lower right corner lets the player switch between solo and co-op. There is also text at the top of the screen, with the title being "Mission" and the subtitle being "Which type of mission will you play?"
Stage selection screen
This menu allows the player to select a stage to play on. The content of the menu is different depending on the type of mission selected in the previous menu, but the functionality is still the same. All the stages are shown as rounded squares in a grid. There are 15 squares in the Collect Treasure! and Battle Enemies! menus, arranged in a rectangle 5 squares wide by 3 squares high. Missions that are yet to be unlocked or bought still appear, but are not selectable. The top left corner of each square displays the highest medal the player has received in both solo and co-op for each stage. The same icons also appear in the Defeat Bosses! menu, but since that option only has 6 stages, they are arranged in a single row. If the player has not defeated all the bosses, only some of the icons will be present. The corner buttons from the previous menu are still present in this menu, along with the title, which says the name of the mission type, and the subtitle, which says "Select a stage."
The submenu for Collect Treasure!
The submenu for Battle Enemies!
The submenu for Defeat Bosses!
The submenu for Battle Enemies! with most stages not unlocked or purchased.
Mission information screen
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Upon selecting a mission, this screen will appear. It is unique for each mission, but contains the same general layout for each one. On the left side will be the stage name, a video montage of scenes from the stage, and icons for the highest medal the player has received in solo and co-op. The right side contains a table with the stage's number, its time limit, the types of Pikmin and Candypop Buds available, and the exact high score in solo and co-op. The lower area of the screen contains a button to start the mission in the center, a button to return to the previous menu in the left, a button to switch between solo and co-op in the right, and a button to view global rankings for the stage above the player selection button.
Trivia
- If the button to switch between 1-player and 2-player is selected while the game is in GamePad-only mode, a popup will appear saying "Using TV. Please switch on the TV.", with the options "Cancel" and "OK". Selecting "OK" will take the game out of GamePad-only mode and then show the controller selection menu. When the game is set to 2-player mode, switching to GamePad-only mode is not possible.
- In the background of the stage selection screen and the mission information screen are translucent images of the same fruits or enemies that appear in the buttons of the mission type selection screen.