Pikmin 4 download cards appear in Japan, preview split-screen mode

We're exactly one month away from Nintendo's big summer release: Pikmin 4. The next adventure has been seen very little, with just a few trailers, but the wait since the third game was released on Wii U has been so long that we didn't mind waiting any longer. But now new leaked footage of the game has surfaced straight from Japan, and we're even more eager to play it.

In these images from the game's download card are new, unreleased screenshots showing some biomes (so small it's hard to see them) and an image that clearly shows a two-player local split-screen co-op mode, something that's been driving fans online crazy.

Pikmin 4 will be the culmination of Shigeru Miyamoto's most personal series, in which little astronauts end up stranded on a planet where they must survive and help themselves to little creatures called Pikmin.

Here's the latest trailer released so far, although rumours of a Nintendo Direct tomorrow suggest we'll be seeing more of the colourful little characters later this week.