Nintendo Debuts New Animated Short “Close to You” with No Explanation, Speculation Points to Pikmin Tease

David Carcasole
Animated baby character walking in a playroom with colorful blocks and toys.
Nintendo debuts an animated short titled "Close to You" with no explanation as to what it means.

Nintendo has debuted a new animated short titled "Close to You" with absolutely no explanation as to what it means. The short was simultaneously uploaded to the Nintendo Today app, the company's social media channels, and its YouTube channel, each with nothing more than its title to accompany it.

Of course, wild speculation online immediately followed the video's publishing, with fans going in a few directions based on the video's contents and what seem to be subtle hints regarding what it could mean.

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The video itself is a nearly four-minute short of a baby following a magical soother around the room, accompanied by high-quality animation and visual fidelity, and some playful music which fans recognized as music from Pikmin 4. The music, along with the fact that a blurry Pikmin can be seen crossing the background of a shot at one point, has fans pointing to this being a Pikmin-related tease.

But is it a tease for an upcoming Pikmin game? Or is it potentially a tease for a different Pikmin project, maybe even a Pikmin film or series? Or what if it's not a Pikmin project, and something else entirely?

It could be, as VGC's deputy editor Chris Scullion speculates, a tease at the origin story for Rosalina for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy movie. Or it's still something entirely different, like potentially a new project featuring baby versions of Nintendo characters, and this is Rosalina, followed by Baby Peach, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and the rest of Nintendo's iconic characters all coming together in either a new game or a new Rugrats-style series featuring the various Nintendo babies.

Your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's at this point. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long for Nintendo to explain more about "Close to You."

David Carcasole Photo

About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.

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