Pikmin 3 is..... different. I really mean that, as I don't think I had ever played a game that was quite like it before I picked it up on launch day last year. If you've played "micro-managing" games in the past, yeah, it's kind of like that I guess. But Pikmin is way more geared towards utilizing the different types of Pikmin and characters you have at your disposal to explore certain maps, usually with a larger emphasis on puzzle solving than actual combat.
Funny story, the only reason I got Pikmin 3 was because my little sister (8 years old) fell in love with playing as Olimar in Brawl. It was a pretty nice experience, playing through the whole thing with here. I got stumped on some of the puzzles, and there's way more optional things you can collect that you don't need for the main story, which added on a pretty good amount of hours to my first playthrough. I doubt I'll go back to playing it, simply because it wasn't THAT awesome of a game (and the control scheme wasn't my favorite of all time, either), but I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to try out a new type of game/different way to play a game.