PNF-404
PNF-404 is the main setting of thePikmin series. In the first two games, the planet lacked a proper official name and was often referred to as the "Planet of thePikmin" or the "Pikmin Planet". The inhabitants ofKoppai named the planet PNF-404 when they discovered it inPikmin 3. In theSuper Smash Bros. series, it is known as "Distant Planet".
In thefirstPikmin game, Olimar crash lands on this uncharted planet during his vacation after his ship is struck by a meteor. Due to the planet's atmosphere being filled with a dangerously high concentration of oxygen, he must escape the planet before his life support system fails.
InPikmin 2, Olimar returns to the planet with his new companion,Louie, in search of treasure, in order to saveHocotate Freight, the company he works for, from bankruptcy.
InPikmin 3, the inhabitants ofKoppai discover the planet in an attempt to find food on other planets and name it PNF-404. They sendAlph,Brittany, andCaptain Charlie to the planet to bring back food, in order to save their planet from starvation. They also crash landed onto the planet.
InPikmin 4, Olimar crashes onto the planet again, as does theRescue Corps when they respond to his distress call. Several other castaways are also present on the planet, having arrived there for their own reasons before they crashed as well. When aLeafling is recovered, their biometric data cannot be read, and their ID Badge lists their home planet as PNF-404.
The sheer number of crashes occuring on the planet is at least in part the result of a nearbyasteroid field that causes difficulty for any space travellers who try to land on the planet - characters have mentioned that they felt something coming from PNF-404's surface forcibly drawing their spaceships to the planet, which suggests it is able to pull ships towards it and make them malfunction. The true nature and existence of this force is unknown, but the likelihood of several crashes in short succession of one another by unrelated individuals, including several expert pilots (as seen inPikmin 4), is too small to ascribe it to coincidence.
A generic area of the planet appears inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl,Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate as a fighting stage under the nameDistant Planet. It features a forest-like location, similar toThe Forest of Hope or theAwakening Wood.
The planet as Earth[edit]
Although ambiguous, PNF-404 is at least very Earth-like, with similar geography and traits. Whether PNF-404 is actually our Earth or an alternate version is yet to be revealed in the games. Either way, it is doubtful that the similarities are coincidental.
Similarities[edit]
Natural[edit]
Many of the environments and climates of theareas on PNF-404 resemble terrain on Earth. The areas in the games contain environments that can be found similarly on Earth:forests,rivers,wastelands andtundras are just some of the examples.
Most of the vegetation on PNF-404 also exist on Earth, with some even sharing the names we are familiar with. Most of the chartedplants inPikmin 2 are like this, but some of the background shrubbery is also quite similar to fauna and flora found on Earth. Some of thePikmin 2 andPikmin 4treasures and all of thePikmin 3fruits are also objects that exist on Earth, and are described to be much like the ones on our planet.
In the first game, Olimar stated that the atmosphere is composed of oxygen, a component of the air that humans need to breathe, but also an extremely toxic gas to Hocotatians. Despite the fact that no moon is ever seen orbiting the planet in eitherPikmin orPikmin 2, Olimar confirms in one of hisvoyage logs that the planet does in fact have a "pale white moon".[1] It can be seen in thePikmin 3 introcutscene.
Human-made[edit]
Some of the elements found in PNF-404 appear to not be natural, but rather, made by sentient beings. Drawing the parallel with Earth, these objects are very likely made by humans. Tin cans, as well as many other human-made objects and structures from modern times, can be found lying around (for example, parts of thePerplexing Pool appear to be the remains of a bathroom, and aRamune bottle inThe Forest Navel), and most of the "treasures" found in the second game are human-made. Nearly all of thetreasures inPikmin 2 andPikmin 4, and every treasure inHey! Pikmin are artificial. These even include many items that are registered trademarks of companies on Earth, such asDuracell and7-Up.
Although treasures are absent in the third game, there are still some objects made by humans scattered across the areas. AlthoughTropical Wilds is nearly all natural, lots of human-made objects can be found in theGarden of Hope. There are manycinder blocks blocking paths, and some pipes near the southern half, which appears to be the remnants of a bathroom. The whole stage obviously has many flower pots and garden elements, and there is a metal bucket near the entrance to theQuaggled Mireclops's arena. More rusted cans can be found in Distant Tundra, as well aslight bulbs and a car battery. There is also a large tomato can inTwilight River near thePuffy Blowhog. Finally, theData Glutton andFolded Data Glutton are obviously phones made by humans, and theS.S. Drake even calls it an "ancient communication device".
Various obstacles also appear to be made by humans. These includecardboard boxes,paper bags,tin boxes,seesaw blocks,elevator platforms,reinforced walls,dirt walls,electric gates,brick walls, andiron balls. Alph actually comments on a dirt wall saying that it seems to be a "sign of intelligent life," heavily hinting that it was built by humans, which may explain its sandcastle-like shape.
TheHero's Hideaway is outright located in a house, and shows clear signs of being inhabited.
English, one of the most common languages of the planet, is seen on varioustreasuresof theseries, and in somelocations. There are also objects withItalian andJapanesewords written on them.
PNF-404 as Earth's future[edit]
There are many strangecreatures seen on the planet throughout the games, most of them being hostile. Perhaps this is an entirely new age where humans have died out and many other creatures have come to coexist. In fact, many creatures resemble evolved or mutated versions of real-world animals, such asWollyhops andAnode Beetles, which resemble frogs and ladybugs, respectively. A note in the JapanesePikmin 2 website implies that the diversity of creatures on PNF-404 may be the result of chemical pollution.[2] Additionally, theGeiger Counter is constantly in action, implying that there is strong and constant radiation. That could explain why there are no humans around anymore, and also why all creatures on PNF-404 look so different compared to how animals looked when humans were present.
In the first two games andPikmin 4, PNF-404 is made out to look like present-day Earth. From space, PNF-404's geography appears to match that of Earth's, and the second game more clearly proves this, as when Olimar lands on or leaves the planet, his ship is shown to be heading towards or coming from Africa. TheHocotate ship even states at the time of the discovery of theSpherical Atlas that it exhibits PNF-404's geography as seen from space[3]: both this and theGeographic Projection are two halves to a globe that clearly shows Earth and its countries. InPikmin 4, all areas (most notably theHero's Hideaway, which is inside of a house) show some form of evidence of recent human activity, or at least human structures that do not appear to have aged or experienced noticeable wear.
InPikmin 3, the planet appears with an entirely different look, heavily based off the scientific hypotheses of how the Earth's surface would look in two hundred fifty million years, known asPangaea Proxima. Besides being wider, the only major difference is that a small peninsula attached to what would've been Asia in the theory was changed to the island with theFormidable Oak. Almost all of the game's levels are more composed of natural elements rather than man-made remnants, and the small amounts of evidence of humanity left are heavily deteriorated, more-so than in the earlier games, to justify that it has been millions of years after humanity. All of the fruits in the game are based on real fruit, however, many of them are found in places where they would not be able to grow, or with other fruit that they aren't grown near.
Non-canon comparisons[edit]
This article or section featuresdebatable canonical information. |
Internally, inPikmin 3, the files for thearea selection monitor call the view "Pangaea Ultima" (Pangaeaultima_a.gtx, for instance), which is an alternative name for Pangaea Proxima. Similarly, inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, the Distant Planet stage is referred to by the name "Earth" (STGEARTH, more precisely). These names were only used between developers, and likely used as placeholders, but it makes it clear that the developers see the planet as Earth.
Gravitational field[edit]
The area in space surrounding PNF-404 seems to contain many asteroids and be prone to various strange phenomena. At the beginning ofPikmin, an asteroid strikes theS.S. Dolphin, causing the events of the game. InPikmin 2's opening cutscene, theHocotate ship avoids an asteroid.Pikmin 4's introduction and ending cutscenes show several asteroids in close proximity. At the start ofPikmin 3, as theS.S. Drake approaches the planet, "something goes horribly wrong", which causes the ship to crash, andAlph mentions in somesmall talk on day 2 that it felt "as if some power from the planet's surface was manipulating our ship". InPikmin 4, almost everyone who tries to land on the planet crashes and several characters mention that their ships started suffering inexplicable malfunctions as they got close to it. The source of these phenomena is currently unknown.
In theSuper Smash Bros. series[edit]
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 | This article or section is a short summary on theSmash Bros. stage. |
InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl,Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, there is a stage namedDistant Planet. It features a background similar to theAwakening Wood, while the foreground is consisted of some vines, leaves and a slope. ARed Bulborb occasionally appears on the right side of the screen, which can be stood on. It may open its mouth, and any fighters that fall in are eaten and lose a stock. AnotherRed Bulborb is found in the background sleeping, but never wakes up. AnOnion of arandom color drops from the sky at times.Pellet Posies also grow at certain times, and, if hit enough, they'll drop their pellet. If the fighters grab a pellet and throw it at an Onion, items will spawn from it, with the amount depending on the pellet's number (leaving a Pellet Posy alone slowly upgrades it from a 1 to a 5 and then 10) and whether it matches the Onion's color. Damaging an Onion enough will cause it to fly away prematurely.
As with manySmash Bros. stages, a few liberties have been taken from the original source. Firstly,rain pours from time to time, which does not occur in thePikmin series untilPikmin 3. Secondly, decorative content such as aSuper Smash Bros.-themed soda has been added. Finally, the Red Bulborb is much larger inBrawl than in thePikmin games, at about four or five times the size.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U also contains a stage from an area in PNF-404. This one is titled exactly the same as theGarden of Hope, and is much more faithful to the actual game area than the arena in the previous games.
Notes[edit]
Pikmin 2 Japanese website[edit]
Text
Translation
Naming[edit]
The name "PNF-404" fits the nomenclature used by NASA to identify less important planets. The letters and numbers that make up the name, however, have a special meaning: 404 is anHTTP status code that means "PageNotFound". In this case the acronym would most likely mean "PlanetNotFound", as it is about a planet.
Names in other languages[edit]
PNF-404
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese | 惑星PNF-404? Wakusei PNF-404 | Planet PNF-404 |
 Chinese(traditional) | 行星PNF-404 | Planet PNF-404 |
 Chinese(simplified) | 行星PNF-404 | Planet PNF-404 |
 French | PNF-404 | - |
 German | PNF-404 | - |
 Italian | PNF-404 | - |
 Korean | 행성 PNF-404 Haengseon PNF-404 | Planet PNF-404 |
 Spanish | PNF-404 | - |
Distant Planet
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | とある星? toaru hoshi | A certain planet |
| Chinese (traditional) | 某個星球 | A certain planet |
| Chinese (simplified) | 某个星球 | A certain planet |
 Dutch | Verre Planeet | Distant Planet |
| French | Planète lointaine | Distant planet |
| German | Ferner Planet | Distant Planet |
| Italian | Il pianeta remoto | The distant planet |
| Korean | 어느 별 eoneu byeol | A certain planet |
| Spanish | Planeta remoto | Remote planet |
 Russian | Далекая планета Dalyokaya planeta | Distant planet |
Gallery[edit]
Pikmin[edit]
The planet as seen in the credits ofPikmin.
Pikmin 2[edit]
The planet as seen in thePikmin 2 Opening Cinema.
The planet as seen in thePikmin 2 Treasure Completion Cinema. Areas resembling Australia, southeastern Asia, and Japan are clearly visible.
The planet as seen in the JapanesePikmin 2 Guidebook.
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Pikmin 3[edit]
The planet as seen in theday selection menu.
The planet as seen in thearea selection menu.
Texture used for the planet on the area selection menu.
A GIF showing the correlation between PNF-404 and Pangaea Ultima, what Earth is predicted to look like 250 millions years from now.
Pikmin 4[edit]
The planet as seen in thePikmin 4 Intro Cutscene,Olimar's Shipwrecked!.
The planet as seen in the background of theTablet menu.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^“Looking from this planet into the skies above, I see the pale white moon floating overhead. It brings to mind memories of the moon from back home. I bet that even now my wife and children are sitting at home, gazing up at our pale red moon... Hang on, dear ones! Your Olimar will return some day!” – Captain Olimar in hisvoyage log
- ^"Relationship Between the Ecosystem and the Treasures" note on the JapanesePikmin 2 website
- ^“It's inconceivable that such an immense object has been buried here for so long. The design on the outer shell resembles the surface of the planet as seen from space! Perhaps this can be used for somethingother than salvage. But how will we ever lift it? I fear that even100 red Pikmin will be unable to lift it! ---- There is a device resembling a microchip embedded inside this sphere. Retrieving data... ...Error. I could only decode a portion of the data, but I did retrieve new geographic charts. I will input this data into my planetary database and name it theSphere Chart.Press START/PAUSE to contact me and access theExploration Kit on the radar screen withL. Now that we have this new data, you should explore the decoded territory tomorrow.” – The Hocotate ship in a dialog about the Spherical Atlas
 | This article was afeatured article from August 18th, 2009 to March 24th, 2010. | |