Captain Olimar is DEAD

… or at least not starring in Pikmin 3

Today’s Nintendo Direct brought with it some additional details on the upcoming Pikmin 3. Most surprising was the reveal that Captain Olimar will not be the protagonist for this third trip to the mysterious planet of the Pikmin. In a move to help keep things fresh/stir up hateful YouTube comments about how Nintendo is doomed, Pikmin 3 introduces three new tiny spacefarers named Alph, Brittany, and Charlie [Hey, I see what they did there], whose goal is to use the aid of the various Pikmin to find and retrieve food for their starving planet of KopPai while avoiding succumbing to drugs and alcohol and American decadence.

Fruit is one type of food they’ll find, and in an interesting tweak to the Pikmin formula this fruit is also necessary for the survival of the protagonists, who will juice the fruit and send the seeds back to KopPai to be planted. At the end of each day they’ll drink a jar of fruit juice for nourishment. This appears to add back in some of the pressure from the first game (with its 30-day time limit, removed from the sequel due to bitchingfeedback) but in a more balanced way. That isn’t the only change, though, as there’s now a restart option for the day you’re on if you screw things up and want to try again, and even an option to go back to previous days and do them over. Because you suck.

Pikmin 3 is scheduled for release on August 4th.