It's the Flower Town sequel we never expected.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/43329/new-2d-pikmin-side-scroller-announced-for-3ds
A brand new Pikmin adventure is heading to the 3DS in 2017. Players will be able to throw Pikmin around the stages by tapping the screen.
Unlike previous entries in the series, the new game is a two dimensional side-scroller. However, Olimar and his Pikmin buddies will behave just like you remembered. Red Pikmin are fire resistant and will help in fiery situations. Blue Pikmin will come in handy in the game's underwater stages. In addition, it will be beneficial that electricity doesn't slow yellow Pikmin down. It was noted in the latest Nintendo Direct that the game was designed with action in mind. The game's trailer also showed Pikmin collecting stones to construct a bridge and attacking familiar enemies.
The untitled Pikmin adventure features 2D action on both screens and debuts sometime next year.
I don't think this is Pikmin 4 or meant to be Pikmin 4. It's like how Metroid Prime wasn't Metroid 4 or 5. Or how Kirby has the main Dreamland type series but also branches off into other things like Canvas Curse or Epic Yarn. I see this as trying to expand the franchise and create a new play style from an existing property like Nintendo has done with many of their franchises. It's getting the Chibi-Robo treatment. After some 3D games, side-scroll that franchise and see what happens.
If there's a Pikmin 4 in development it's going to be an NX game running on Pikmin 3's engine. Even if this game was the Pikmin game Miyamoto was talking about, that doesn't mean they're not working on a traditional Pikmin 4 for the NX. It's not like it's a new thing for Nintendo to work on 2 different types of games for one franchise at the same time.As Ian Sane explained, the problem with it would be that it would mean Pikmin 4 would be coming later rather than sooner.
