[Review] New Pokémon Snap — Oh snap, it’s back!

I have been waiting for this moment for so long. I remember watching my friends play the original Pokémon Snap when I was little, probably around five or six in age. I was entranced in this world filled with these fantastical creatures, and later in high school, I finally got a chance to play it for myself. The calm-paced nature as opposed to the competitive gameplay of the mainline games brought new life to the Pokémon franchise. It is probably my favorite Nintendo 64 game of all time, and I know I am not the only one who holds it in such high regard. After years of begging and waiting, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company finally gave us a sequel about 22 years later, but does it hold up?

Yes. Yes, it does.

I want to be the very best (photographer): The Story of Snap

There wasn’t much of a story in the original Pokémon Snap. The goal was to casually explore Pokemon Island and help Professor Oak with his research of Pokémon, taking photos of them in their natural environment. Along the way you would discover new places and rare Pokémon, filling up your Pokédex — or Photodex, as it’s referred to in the new Snap. This time is not too much different, but there is a bit more of a plot.

You have just joined Professor Mirror’s research team to research Pokémon behavior and find the fabled Illumina Pokémon exclusive to the Lental region that you are exploring. These mysterious Pokémon are ones that glow at night with bizarre patterns that appear on their skin and were rumored to save the Lental Region from a past disaster. It’s your job to find these Pokémon and learn more about the past. 

Down to its core, it’s a very simplistic story, and to be honest, it’s not the most engaging — but that’s not a reason to skip New Pokémon Snap. I would argue that you’re not supposed to play it for the story but rather to explore a world that we’ve all been imagining ourselves in since we were little.

We all live in a Pokémon World: The characters and creatures

There are two types of characters you’ll encounter in New Pokémon Snap: Humans and Pokémon. Let’s start off with the humans because I know you’re more interested in the Pokémon you’ll meet, so we’ll get them out of the way.

As mentioned before, instead of Oak, you’ll be working under Professor Mirror, who will be guiding you through your journey. I admit I do miss the sound of Professor Oak as he encourages you when you hand him a good photo, but Professor Mirror is a lot more relaxed and it’s clear that he loves what he does, even if he might not be the best at it — we’ll get to this when it comes time to talk about the Gameplay.

You also have three other characters who hang around the lab with you. There’s Rita, a young girl who is Mirror’s self-proclaimed lab assistant. She’ll show you how all your gear works as you progress and obtain new gadgets to try out.

Then there’s our next character, who’s only a minor spoiler (he appears rather early on in the game, but if you’d prefer to go in blind, skip ahead to the Pokémon section): Our boy Todd is back and he’s all grown up! For those who don’t know, Todd was the protagonist from the original Pokémon Snap, and he’s been doing pretty well for himself over the years. He is now a professional Pokémon Photographer and will give you tips and tricks on how to get the best pictures when you’re out on safari. He has an apprentice, Phil, who is also part of the cast, but to be honest, I’m not really sure what he does that’s of importance.

The Pokémon are the real stars of the game, though. There are about 214 Pokémon for you to take photos of, and while that seems small in comparison to the grand total of Pokémon there are up to this point, the world is brimming with life. Without giving away the stages that are available, there are all sorts of environments that introduce all different types of Pokémon.

What I think was really well done was the fact that the game does not favor a certain region. There are Pokémon from all generations included, so if you’ve only played a few games, there will certainly be recognizable faces among the crowd. I personally haven’t played Sword or Shield, so while I didn’t recognize what some of these Pokémon were, it was still a ton of fun to discover them and learn about some cool, new Pokémon. Not to mention, Nintendo picked a lot of fan favorites, so you’re bound to be pleased with most of the selection. I’m still looking for my all-time favorite, but I wouldn’t be disappointed in the slightest if they never showed up. The selection we have is more than fulfilling.

Something I always loved about the original Snap is that you get to be an observer in this mythical world and watch the Pokémon in their natural habitat. They all have unique personalities, even though they’re portrayed more as real-world wildlife. The game’s developers even made a decision, which I personally love, to give all the Pokémon (aside from Pikachu) more natural cries rather than shouting their own name. I know some people will miss that as it’s what we’ve come to know for so long, but I think the more atmospheric, natural sounds really immerse you in the environment and don’t get too repetitious. I’m sorry, but there are only so many times you can take hearing “MEOWTH! MEOWTH!” in one level. 

Say click, take a pic: The gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the original game, being a slow-paced rail “shooter.” You pick a course, roughly about 10 or 15 minutes each, and the NEO-ONE, your vehicle of transportation, will slowly chug along as you take photos from the safety of the pod. Pokémon are very powerful creatures and many of them don’t want to be disturbed, but you have protection, so you’re able to take photos without worry — and trust me, you’re going to want to bug some of these guys if you want to get some really amazing shots. If you’re really plowing through it, it’s about a 10-hour game, but I think I’ve already gotten way more time out of it than that.

So how does one get a Pokémon to do what they want from inside a transportation vehicle? You throw things, of course! You will get Flufffruit and Orbs to catch the attention of Pokémon as you travel along your route — but don’t worry, the game stresses that these items are not harmful to the Pokémon, so chuck away. You’ll also get a scanner to find hidden Pokémon, routes, and other mysterious relics. 

After you’ve returned to the lab from your journey, Professor Mirror will evaluate your photos. There is a star system when you take photos, but don’t worry if you only get one star — it just means it’s pose number one of four. The color of the stars, however, will tell you how good the photos are. Your ranking goes from bronze being the lowest quality to diamond being the highest. He’ll then give you a score based on qualities such as size, pose, if the subject is in the center of the photo, and if there are other Pokémon included. However, if you’re just trying to fill out the Photodex, Professor Mirror is very lenient on what counts or not. 

Each time you complete a course, those points you earn for your photos convert into experience toward the course you completed. When the course goes up to the next Research Level, certain things about the course will change. New Pokémon could appear or different routes could be available that were once blocked off — it’s always worth it to play every level. Not to mention there are also night and day variants for certain levels. There are 11 stages in total, but plus the research levels and daytime alterations, there’s even more to explore! Granted, some of these levels require a bit of grinding to level up, which can be tedious, but they’re almost always worth it. I would just recommend taking breaks and trying new levels after a while so you don’t wear yourself out trying to unlock the next levels.

It’s also very simple in terms of gameplay, but it’s still a lot of fun. It’s almost like being on a dark ride at Disney World and being encouraged to take photos and throwing things. (Don’t do that at Disney, though.) It’s also the same in that regard even when going on the same route again. There’s always something new to find if you just look in a different direction. The atmosphere and capturing the special moments are really what this game is all about, making you feel like a nature documentarian with super-powered animals. 

To snap, or not to snap: Personal likes and dislikes

Everyone always wants to know what’s wrong with a game before they buy it, so I’ll get my personal gripes with it out of the way first, but I have to say, there really was much more for me to love than hate.

The thing I find most irritating in New Pokémon Snap is the previously mentioned grinding. I absolutely love that there are multiple levels of the same stages, giving you more reasons to return to them, but sometimes it just takes so long to unlock the next level. Having to play the same course repeatedly can be strenuous, and sometimes it’s difficult to take new photos that out-stage your old ones to get you more experience. The best thing I can recommend is to show the Professor one of each Pokémon you’ve taken a photo of, even if the photo is not as good as your previous one. You can always pick to keep whichever one you deem better for the Photodex and it will give you more EXP, even if only a little.

Another thing that bugs me about this process is that for every course, you can only show the Professor one picture per Pokémon. I know this is likely done to extend the gameplay, but it’s so annoying that you can only show one picture when you’ve taken multiple great pictures. Granted you can save the pictures you didn’t show him and even edit them to make them to your liking, but none of it will be saved to the Photodex and you have to replay that course and hope that you can take a similar enough photo that time around. If they could have changed it to allow four photos of one Pokémon, one of each star-ranked pose, that would have made a world of difference. You’d have to replay the course for more experience before moving to the next level and get to keep the photos you were happy with as part of the Photodex the first time around. Of course, if you weren’t happy with them, you could go back of your own will and try to do better than before.

The Illumina Pokémon are a big deal in this game, being the fabled creatures you’re trying to research, but if I’m being honest, these courses were the least interesting. If you’re like me and were disinterested in the Mew course in the original Pokémon Snap, you’ll likely share my opinion on these levels. There are five of these courses where you follow an Illumina Pokémon and have to take pictures of them while they’re in their Illumina state. If they don’t have glowing patterns, they don’t count — even if they’re really nice photos. Of course, it’s super fun seeing these mythical Pokémon and getting photos of them is exciting, but I feel that excitement only lasts about the first half of the course. These are basically the games equivalent to boss battles, but they’re all too easy. By the second half of the course, I’m getting bored and just want the level to end. When you get to level 2 of these courses, there are at least more Pokémon to take photos of as well, but they’re usually ones you’ve already encountered and gotten better photos of in other stages.

These were honestly my only three complaints about the game. The rest of it I found thoroughly enjoyable and was fangirl-squealing throughout a bulk of the game. I could simply list “the rest of the game” as my personal likes, but I’ll just point out three particular features that I personally enjoyed and think most fans will as well.

As I mentioned before, even though most of the photos you take in a course won’t be used for the Photodex, you can still keep the photos that you liked. Better yet, you can Re-Snap them. As a bit of a perfectionist, I live for those perfectly cropped photos, and the Re-Snap tool basically allows you to go back to the moment when you took that photo and re-crop and edit the pictures that you took. Everything will be still, so you can maneuver the camera without worry that the Pokémon will move — you’re basically retaking the photo you like. Then, if you really want to get into the details, you can brighten, blur, and focus with slider tools to make your photo to your exact liking. There are even some cool and goofy filters just for fun! 

I honestly can not stop gushing about how brilliant the atmospheres of this game are. As an avid fan of diving simulation games, I particularly found the Lental Seafloor as a personal favorite. As a fan of sea life, I could clearly see all the real-world influence that was put into this stage in particular, recreating natural phenomena with a Pokémon twist. This is the level where it was apparent to me the most, but in each level, I could clearly see the influence put into the Pokémon’s behavior and it breathed new life into this franchise for sure. Although I will admit that, as cool as it is, always feels strange watching Pokémon hunt or eat other Pokémon — though the Professor claims they’re merely playing a “friendly game of tag.”

I also applaud the variety of everything — the scenery, the Pokémon, and even the poses and actions they do. Again, I know 214 out of 898 isn’t a lot, but it feels like it is — and imagine what DLC could be like for this game! Even without eventual DLC, I honestly feel satisfied with what we were given in the base game. As I said, no single generation was favored, which made the game feel balanced and inclusive to fans from all entry points in the series. Even if you’ve never played a Pokémon game in your life, this is something that anyone could enjoy. It’s a super-relaxed game that boasts beautiful graphics, scenes, and imagination galore!

Final Thoughts

It’s evident that I hold this game in high regard, but would I say it’s for everyone? Honestly, I would argue that I think a lot of people would enjoy this game. I can bet you anything if I played this game in front of my mom, who has no interest in gaming at all, she would be interested. If anything I mentioned to you resonates with you in the slightest, please try this game. I know paying full price for a game like this might seem a lot, but even I, a self-admitted cheapskate, found it to be absolutely worth every penny.

It’s a game for all ages to enjoy just as well. I’m sure if you have any young ones and played this in front of them, they’d be entranced by all the Pokémon they’d see dancing across the screen and would want to give it a try themselves. This game lends itself to players of all ages and would be a perfect way to introduce a child to Pokémon games. It’s an easy enough concept for them to grasp as opposed to all the battle mechanics of the mainline games that could fly over their heads if they’re too young.

I do understand, however, that there are people who wouldn’t particularly care for it either. I see more people liking it than not, but as I said before, I would compare it to a dark ride at a theme park. If those types of rides aren’t your jam, you’re probably not going to care much for this game. It’s a lot of taking in the scenery as opposed to battling Pokémon in competitions, so if that doesn’t sound like something you’d be interested in, then it might be worth a pass.

As a fan of the original Snap, I am absolutely blown away by how much love and care was put into this game. Again, if they ever decided to make DLC for this game, I would totally be on board! I can not get enough of this game and I am so grateful that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company finally decided to give the original Pokemon Snap the sequel it deserved. 

Final Score: 9/10