Nintendo reduced Pikmin 3 heroes from four to three due to complicated controls with swapping

When Nintendo officially unveiled Pikmin 3 at E3 2012, Shigeru Miyamoto originally teased four heroes for the game. The final product ended up having three.

According to Miyamoto, the fourth character was shelved because of complications involving swapping with the controls.

Miyamoto said the following in an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer:

“When we were making it, we solidified a lot of things. One of which was that it was fun to have three heroes. … To tell the truth, for last year’s E3 presentation, there were actually four heroes. However, when it came to the controls of swapping between four, there were points where it got complicated and in the end, we dropped down to three.”

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