You're the master of the Pikmin, so abuse your authority! Press down on the D-pad to round of four Pikmin to carry you back to base camp. A brief fireworks display will be held in your honor. Standing idle long enough will produce the same royal treatment.

Once you have saved your progress once, a new option will be available from the main menu: Challenge Mode. This mode lets you go back and compete in the areas that you have already opend up in the main game. The idea is not to find spaceship pieces, but rather to build as big a Pikmin army as you can before the sun sets. The biggest army scores are saved and entered into a ranking.