Treasure in the Pikmin series has always been guided by a unique perspective; despite playing as a humanoid character, human inventions or otherwise man-made objects, are seen, named, and described from an outsider's perspective. In essence, that's no different from an astronaut exploring and naming objects from an earlier, now-extinct species on an alien planet.
Naturally, this leads to some creative, endearing, and funny names for everyday objects. Pikmin 4 has over 200 treasures to discover, so there's no shortage of quirky classifications. Consequently, this begs an important question: out of all those treasures, which have the best names?
10 Slipper-Bug Fossil
Try to wear a trilobite fossil like a pair of slippers would likely result in two outcomes: it'd be quite uncomfortable, and anthropologists and archeologists alike would probably gasp in horror. Despite the surface-level goofiness of this chosen name, it does have some truth to it.
Trilobites were marine arthropods, which is a fancy way of saying there used to be flat, bug-like creatures with exoskeletons that crawled around on the ocean floor. Given their shape and height, this is a reasonable name to assign to a fossil you've never seen before.
9 Flaky Temptation
If you have a fond appreciation for croissants, you're quite familiar with their flaky, buttery goodness. As with practically any food that is largely carb-based, especially types of bread, it can be remarkably tempting not to reach for one, or perhaps even multiple of these tasty treats.
Hopefully this isn't making you hungry, or if it is, you have a way to satiate that craving. You have to admit, though, if it does make you hungry just by looking at it, that does prove the accuracy and efficacy of its name.
8 Buddy Display
There's something particularly endearing about taking a picture of your fuzzy friends and framing them; in a way, you're immortalizing them. The name "Buddy Display" seems especially apt because pets really are good buddies and pals.
This seems especially true for most dogs, who excitedly greet you when you get home from work, curl up next to you on relaxed, lazy days, or eagerly lay on their backs to reveal their bellies as they await your affection. Ultimately, this is a cute and warm way to describe a pet photo.
7 Personal-Injury Plank
If you're a big fan of skateboarding, or you have friends who wouldn't be caught dead without some skateboard wax to shred some curbs, it's probably obvious to you that skateboarders get hurt or get into accidents fairly often. Given this, it's pretty funny to refer to a skateboard as a personal-injury plank.
While your character probably doesn't understand how skateboards were used, it's hard not to see some truth in the name, even if it makes it seem like people are willingly using skateboards just to injure themselves.
6 Slapstick Crescent
There are phenomena and things in life that just happen, and sometimes those things end up being funny. While it's hard to conclusively say exactly where the comedic trope of slipping on a banana came from, you have to imagine it came about from some unlucky soul accidentally slipping on one in public.
Thus, the slapstick crescent was born. Although, that does make you wonder: does your character, or perhaps the people you're tasked to rescue, know about this trope somehow? It'd be pretty impressive to figure out that the peel of a banana is somewhat slippery without opening it.
5 Face Wrinkler
Unless you're particularly impervious to the sourness of a lemon, odds are your face is going to pucker and contort if you bite into one. Thus, Face Wrinkler is a funny, but no less accurate name for a lemon. On a deeper level, this name also reveals the Pikmin series' classification methodology.
If you've been playing the game for a while, you may have noticed that most, if not all the treasures get their names through association; personal experience with these objects, and how they typically "behave" or react in the real world.
4 Greed-Inducement Device
While carrying around a money pouch doesn't necessarily mean you're greedy, what you're doing with that money oftentimes reveals inner intentions. In-game, the Greed-Inducement Device is associated with multiple, gambling-related treasures, like poker chips.
If you were to carry this pouch into a casino with the intention of maximizing gains and minimizing losses, some might call you self-interested or greedy, and others might call you a fool. Perhaps the meaning behind the name is that money inherently creates the potential for greed, which is fitting given Pikmin's corporate lore.
3 Orbital Communication Sphere
The Orbital Communication Sphere is a hilarious and fitting name for a golf ball. The only caveat to the name is that golf balls aren't typically capable of doing much communicating unless you send one through a neighbor's window, which in that case sends a pretty clear message.
Orbital and sphere, on the other hand, are quite fitting. While the sphere is remarkably straightforward, the term orbital may bring memories of thwacking golf balls as high and as far as possible at a driving range or a golf course.
2 Sticky Jewel
Ring pops have been around for multiple generations, serving as nostalgic relics of many people's childhoods. Given their geometric features, the edible part of the candy resembles the structure of a refined gem, and since it's saturated with sugar, it's quite sticky.
Thus, aside from being a fun name to throw around, Sticky Jewel is the most logical name for such features. Since many kinds of gems appear in Pikmin 2, it's not strange for the characters in this game to recognize gem-like objects; Hocotate Freight likely kept a record of such profitable items.
1 Jiggle-Jiggle
Jiggle-Jiggle is such a good name for flan that it's hard to not want to start a petition for an official name change. The delicious dessert is novel not only in flavor but also with regard to its bouncy, almost elastic nature.
If you've never done it before, the next time you have flan in front of you, try tapping it with a spoon!
Beyond just viewing it in the Treasure Log, if you do discover this item on your own, as your Pikmin carry it, you'll get to see just how jiggly it is in the game; which is a much more wholesome use for jiggle physics in video games.