Mainline Pokémon games are so ubiquitous in their genre they often set the bar for every other monster collector. However, a large number of the Pokémon spin-off games have been less widely-praised, often falling short of the series’ standard. New Pokémon Snap, on the other hand, is one of the most beautiful and authentic Pokémon experiences in recent memory, offering a departure from the franchises capturing and battling that still works brilliantly.
New Pokémon Snap is developed by Bandai Namco Studios and is a sequel to 1999’s Pokémon Snap. The original Pokémon Snap was developed by HAL Laboratory and Pax Softnica and was well-received by consumers, who have since requested a sequel to the Pokémon photography simulator for the past 20 years. Instead of using Pokéballs to capture Pokémon, players were tasked with exploring their natural habitats and capturing photos of them. Instead of free-roaming and battling, Pokémon Snap removed the need for violence and put players in a scenic on-rails camera “shooter.”
Twenty years later, New Pokémon Snap once again takes players on an unforgettable adventure filled with beautiful environments, countless photo opportunities, and Pokémon encounters. The game still offers the same on-rails experience as its 1999 counterpart, but adds depth to the gameplay by adding new items, more Pokémon, and a photo editor.
New Pokémon Snap gives each Pokémon a new HD model and an array of crisp animations. Wild Pokémon don’t meander back and forth in a straight line or use a single animation for multiple moves – they behave much more like realistic fauna. The Pokémon in New Pokémon Snap are gorgeous, and their independent actions and reactions to players makes them feel alive.
Bandai Namco also manages to capture what Pokémon games have struggled to convey in previous titles, and that’s how big or small Pokémon actually are. Pokémon models usually share the same size constraints despite how big they are actually supposed to be. It’s a little disorienting to see a Wailord next to another Pokémon and visualize them in-game as roughly the same size. When a trainer approaches a sleeping Slaking in the jungle of New Pokémon Snap, that encounter is as daunting and tense as a trainer might expect from a large, intimidating creature.
On top of the way the Pokémon look, they also sound amazing. Bandai Namco made the decision to replace the Pokémon’s digitized cries with lifelike animal noises that accurately reflect that Pokémon’s inspirations. Wingulls sound like actual seagulls, and some Pokémon have been given original soundbites that make the game feel like a real Pokémon safari. The rest of the game’s sound design is just as impressive as the Pokémon cries, and it’s an enjoyable experience for players to close their eyes and listen to their beautiful in-game surroundings.
The environments of the Lental region are also visually compelling, and players will get plenty of opportunity to explore them while playing through New Pokémon Snap. Each level is well-designed and enjoyable to look at, which is important since each one will have to be visited a number of times. They are all pretty short courses that only take a handful of minutes to complete, however, and they serve as suitable backdrops for photographing wildlife.
The actual gameplay in New Pokémon Snap is where the title struggles a little. The core concept of photographing wild Pokémon is executed well in the original Pokémon Snap, but New Pokémon Snap adds a lot of gameplay mechanics that make taking photos feels less natural. Players now have control over the camera and a pointer inside the frame, both of which can change the direction in which the camera is pointed. Motion controls help in getting the perfect angle for a shot, but the pointer doesn’t feel like much of a helpful addition.
In the original Pokémon Snap, players were able to throw Fluffruit at Pokémon to get them to behave in different ways. In New Pokémon Snap, this arsenal is expanded to include Illumina orbs and a music player. These mechanics can feel a bit gimmicky since they all have the same intended purpose of making Pokémon perform a unique action. Not every Pokémon is affected by every tool, and some Pokémon are only affected by a tool during a certain part of the course. Juggling this many mechanics feels less like puzzle solving and more like random chance. Players will end up throwing everything they have at a single Pokémon in hopes that it might do something different this time, which doesn’t feel as organic as some of the game’s better implementations.
This is counteracted by New Pokémon Snap’s missions, however, which provide hints as to how players can draw out these different poses. One of the game’s side characters will request that a specific photo be taken by following vague steps. Sometimes these steps are too obscure and can cause frustration, while others are straightforward explanations that are welcome. In addition to helping progress the Photodex, these New Pokémon Snap missions also unlock new borders, stickers, and filters for the game’s photo editor.
The main goal in New Pokémon Snap is to capture four different poses of each Pokémon in the Lental region. That is a huge undertaking, yet that’s not where the meat of the game is found. The ability to share and rate photos of Pokémon adds replayability and seems poised to be the feature most likely to keep players engaged with the game after they’ve completed it. Not only can photos of Pokémon be uploaded to the game’s own faux-social media platform, but photos can be edited to further enhance the perfect shot. Browsing other people’s photos is inspiring, and it can also help players figure out where certain Pokémon are located.
New Pokémon Snap is a stunning experience that, at its best, feels like Pokémon for the first time. It’s a little awkward to start, and the number of Pokémon on screen at one time can feel overwhelming, but it quickly becomes a relaxing and enjoyable trip through a newly discovered region. Despite not having the intense battle sequences of mainline entries in the series, New Pokémon Snap is just as exciting and challenging as a traditional creature battler. New Pokémon Snap is a game that Pokémon fans will fall in love with, while anyone put off by the battling aspect of the franchise will find a game that extolls the aesthetic virtues of the series in a much calmer, often engaging manner.
New Pokémon Snap releases on April 30 for the Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a digital code for the purpose of this review.
