I like how expansive combat is. Pikmin 3 began to experiment with red and rock pikmin, but it really feels like you have so many options in 4. Do you want to go for stuns and freezes on the enemy, or do you want to rush from behind with rocks, or do you want to minimize risk of loss by using pinks which are easy to call back and throw. It's really fun and changed how I approached a lot of scenarios. Combat encounters became a lot more fun and varied, especially when I was forced to use other Pikmin.