It’s been a little over 20 years since Pokémon Snap for the N64 came out, and about 20 years since I’ve played the original game. This new version, aptly named “New Pokémon Snap” is a remake (or sequel, as they say) of that original game.
Having played for a few hours, I have some thoughts on it, so let’s dive in.
Ah, Pokémon Snap. I’ll be honest, when I played the original game 20+ years ago, my young self didn’t think much of it. In fact, while it was fun to try and snap a terribly anxiety-driven shot of the occasional rare pokemon (I unfortunately didn’t do well under pressure), the game didn’t have that much more than that to offer. To me, the achievements weren’t celebrated enough, the photo masterpieces I took weren’t acknowledged enough, and the world of that game was very limited. To be fair, this was a time when floppy disks were still a thing (that save icon on your computer is indeed a floppy disk, for my young dear friends), which meant memory was very limited. It was true games had to be creative with those limitations, and Pokémon Snap was no different.
Now, with that in mind, I didn’t have a high expectation going into this New Pokémon Snap game; I didn’t expect it to be too different, but I did expect some form of improvement or mechanic or something. Unfortunately, it really isn’t really that different from 20-some years ago. You ride in a little pod posed with your camera, you are forced to follow a short trail through a jungle or volcano or wherever, and you hit pokemon with some apples to see if you can get them to turn around so you can snap a picture of their face (spoiler: most pokemon don’t even bother looking up).
As I’ve said, the game is fairly simple. You go out, you take pictures of pokemon, occasionally glowing pokemon, and then the prof. gives you a score based on the pictures you’ve taken. Here’s where the first problem lies for me; you can only ever assess one photo per pokemon per joyride. That means, any other good pictures you’ve taken are taken out of the picture. Not the worst thing, but not the best either. However, you do get experience points so you can unlock new areas, which is fun.
Another point, there is a story but it’s not much of one. Just a simple story about a crystal flower causing the pokemon to glow. Very exciting. At this point, I’d expect every pokemon game to have some sort of world-saving plot. But, nope, not this time, it seems. (Nitpicky, I know.)
Third point, there’s really not much to do in the game outside of going for those rides. And that’s totally fine and all, but at $60, it feels like I’m only paying for one feature. To be fair though, this is probably all people who played the original really wanted. It probably hit it out of the park on the nostalgia factor.
Fourth point, (and don’t take this seriously) the game makes me feel bad because it encourages me to keep hitting pokemon with appl… fluffruit in order to instigate a response. This was a commonly accepted mechanic back in the day but, as we’ve found, a lot of the things we accepted back in the day are not okay in the to-day, like me being abusive to pokemon who just want to take a nap.
Fifth point, there are these small challenges you can unlock after you’ve completed a track/level for the first time. What’s frustrating to me is that I often get some of the shots required to complete the task on the first run, but they don’t end up counting towards the challenge because they technically haven’t been unlocked yet when you do that first run (this goes back to you being unable to use your previous photos for anything). You don’t get anything for completing the individual challenges so it feels like wasted effort to try and get those rare shots again for pretty much nothing.
All said and done, the game can be a bit repetitive and predictable (there’s a noticeable pattern of chance for certain pokemon or behaviors to appear after the first ride – this might just be me and my luck though). It’s not very intuitive in menu or controls (it was very slow for me to move the camera, aim, and fire) and nothing really pulls me in, incentivizes me to keep going except my need for completion. For those who don’t enjoy the grind in games, this is definitely not for you, especially since a lot of the pokemon continue to exhibit the same behaviors and the number of islands is pretty limited (I unlocked and got through all maps within 24-hours).
Other than that, let me just say one last thing. Opening up the case was seriously the most disappointing thing. Cause it was just… empty.
Anyway, that’s about it for my post. Please remember, this is all just my humble opinion and it in no way reflects other people’s experiences or views about the game.
Well, hope to see you around again. Talk to you later!
EVERY DAY A MYSTERY 