In the Pokémon Snap games, you’re not capturing mons and forcing them to fight — you’re taking pictures of them in their natural habitats. Screenshot by Kaity Kline/Nintendo hide caption
toggle caption Screenshot by Kaity Kline/Nintendo
In the Pokémon Snap games, you’re not capturing mons and forcing them to fight — you’re taking pictures of them in their natural habitats.
Screenshot by Kaity Kline/Nintendo
When I was a kid, playing the original Nintendo 64 version of Pokémon Snap was magical. It brought all the little monsters I got to know in the anime and the other games to life in a new way. In Snap, you play as a wildlife photographer, taking pictures of the original Pokémon in a 3D world, watching how they behave in their natural habitat, without the interference of the humans that normally capture, train, and battle them — the first spinoff Pokémon game to break away from that structure.
I remember the first level, moving slowly through a beach; a few Pidgey fly in front of my face so I can practice snagging some pictures. As I move through the sand, I see a sleeping Snorlax on the side of the track that will wake up and start dancing if I play some music from my Pokéflute. I throw fruit at a Kangaskhan enjoying the ocean view to make it turn around for a photoshoot.
I would play the levels over and over again to get the perfect shots and hopefully get the approval of Professor Oak, the original Pokémon Professor, who rated my photos after each level. Other people in my generation felt the same magic I did, and the original Snap actually outsold — by a little — another classic N64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, a favorite of many Zelda fans.
But it’s been 22 years since the release of the original Pokémon Snap. I’ve seen hardcore Pokémon fans online beg for a new version for years, and when the Nintendo Switch was released the calls intensified. The Switch is a pretty ideal console for a new Snap, since its handheld size and motion control capabilities give it the feel of a real camera.
I thought the series had been abandoned forever, but a long-awaited sequel has arrived in the form of New Pokémon Snap. It’s a brand new game that includes 200 Pokémon from every generation, versus the 63 from the first generation. (Though if you’re more of a fan of the earlier Pokémon, there are plenty of them in there.)…