Side Stories menu

The Side Stories menu is a menu that provides access to the Side Stories in. It is accessed from the main menu.

Side Story selection screen
The first page of the menu allows the player to select which Side Story to play. At the top of the screen is the title "Side Stories" and the subtitle "Select a story". Below that, the 2 Side Stories are represented as squares in the same style as missions in the Mission Mode menu. Below that is a box with a description of the mission. In the lower right is a button to switch between single-player and co-op gameplay, as well as instructions on buttons to access the pause menu and the main menu.

Day selection screen
Upon selecting one of the Side Stories, this screen will show. It differs slightly between Olimar's Assignment and Olimar's Comeback. At the top of the screen is the title "Olimar's Assignment" or "Olimar's Comeback" depending on the Side Story, and the subtitle "Select an assignment". In the center of the screen on the left is a row of bubbles that can be selected with the cursor, similar to the day selection menu. Later days are to the left of earlier days, and each bubble will display the highest achieved medal as an icon in the lower right corner. In the center of the screen on the right is a box displaying the mission name, the mission objective, a comment from The President, and the player's highest score for that mission. In the center of the screen at the bottom is a button to start the mission. In the lower left in Olimar's Assignment, there is a button to view Olimar's report for the day; it is possible to scroll left and right through these reports while viewing them. In the lower left in Olimar's Comeback, there are 2 buttons: one to view Olimar's outline from the beginning of the day, and one to view his end-of-day report; it is possible to scroll through the reports but not the outlines. In the lower right is a button to switch between single-player and co-op gameplay, as well as instructions on buttons to access the high scores menu, the radar for that mission, and the pause menu.

If the player enters a side story that features a type of Pikmin they have not yet seen in story mode, a brief dialog will show up explaining how that Pikmin type works. This dialog counts as an introduction, so it will not show up for this Pikmin type again.