Pikmin 3 fans discover and recreate an unused story mode area

Pikmin 4 is just two days away, and the Pikmin hype is at an all-time high. While most people are clamoring for the latest Pikmin installment, some Pikmin diehards have been digging through the last numbered installment, and they’ve made quite the discovery.

Dataminer VantageEmblem has been scrubbing through Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 3 Deluxe to see what’s hiding in the source code, which led to the discovery a completely scrapped story area. For whatever reason, Nintendo decided to squash a sixth story location, leaving a whole area on the cutting room floor.

Not content with just chronicling the data discovered, VantageEmblem has taken on the process of rebuilding this scrapped area into a playable state. It includes unused paths and enemy sprites, and the recreated area is as close as we’ll ever get to seeing what Nintendo was once considering for Pikmin 3.

Some fans might recognize this unused area, as Nintendo actually did showcase it years ago. None other than Shigeru Miyamoto took fans through a tour of the area during the Pikmin 3 reveal all the way back at E3 2012. That footage was used to painstakingly recreate the cut content, giving players the chance to explore it themselves.