Today's Nintendo Direct brought lots of exciting co-op announcements such as the upcoming co-op Switch version of Vampire Survivors and the surprise Switch release of Pikmin 1 and 2. With that surprise release, all three existing Pikmin games are now available on Switch. That's as good an advertisement as any for the upcoming release of Pikmin 4, which is due out on July 21 and features 2-player local co-op.

Nintendo's Pikmin series of real-time strategy games didn't start out as a cooperative series. The first game was single-player only. That changed when Pikmin 2 arrived on the Gamecube way back in the innocent year of 2004, adding a cooperative Challenge Mode. Switch owners can now experience that classic co-op razzle dazzle, because Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 have just been released as digital downloads. Buy them individually (2 is the one to get) or together for a nice discount, play the heck out of them, and then you'll be ready for the upcoming Pikmin 4.