The mournful moan of a dying Pikmin – worse still when it’s a chorus of wails – remains one of the most heartbreaking sound effects in videogames. Likewise, nothing quite jabs at your nerve endings like the pitchy squeak as a clawed beast grasps hold of one of your carrot-shaped charges; that yelp of shock or pain (perhaps both) is all the encouragement you need to rush to theiras potent this time. It could be that, after four games, we’re starting to grow immune. Part of us wonders if the latter in particular has been dialled down in the audio mix to sound less horrifying. It’s true that we’re hearing both of them less, the fourth game’s relatively easygoing level of challenge ensuring that we rarely lose as many as we have in past.
