Can a “New” instalment (dumb name btw) live up to one of my favourite N64 games? Turns out yes!
Pokemon Snap was such a unique idea: a sort of rail shooter, but you’re shooting photos. A Pokemon game, but one about observing the creatures in their natural habitats going about their lives, instead of enslaving them for pit fighting. It was fun and engaging in a totally different way to most other games, and an immersive look into the rich world of Pokemon that you don’t often see outside external media like the occasional anime episode.
It was also pretty brief and limited. A handful of stages, 63 Pokemon from Gen 1. Bandai Namco have now taken the ideas of HAL’s classic and expanded it immensely. Lots of stages with variations and alternate routes, 214 Pokemon pulled diversely from 8 Generations, side objectives and requests to keep you engaged through many repeat runs. They’ve really taken the concept satisfyingly far.
The “star” system especially adds a lot of depth. Your photos earn from one to four stars depending on the particular behaviours you manage to capture, and while you unfortunately can only submit one pic per species per run, it doesn’t feel like a chore to go again and again. Besides, it lets you see (and permanently record) several sides of these adorable creatures: at play, in conflict, snoozing, chowing down, etc. Discovering the rare habits and interactions is a special joy that is rewarding in itself but often rewards you in points or special filters and stickers for fulfilling requests.
Requests are a new feature I was split on. They give you hints on new behaviours to see and capture for stars (important for acquiring points to level up courses, unlocking new monsters), and achieving them gives you new decorations for photo editing (or half the time, nothing). But you can drive yourself mad trying to force some of these obscure, esoteric reactions. Not to mention the times you’re sure you got the right photo only for the game to simply ignore it.
I didn’t try to 100% this feature, nor was I that interested in the decoration aspect, but getting naturalistic photos of some of my favourites, or spotting a new creature on my way through a course, often brought me satisfaction or a gasp of surprise. Particular joys included tracking Mew in the jungle, seeing so many lovely Corsola in the reef, or coaxing different reactions out of Heliolisk in the desert. But the game is dense with these moments, and as much as I loved seeing old favourites, it also led me to cherish mons I’d never given a second glance before. That’s the power of seeing them in context, animated so well and reacting to their environments and your stimuli. I love this game a lot, and it only makes me wish there’d been more instalments in this sub-series between 1999 and now.
