Becoming a Photography Master with *New Pokémon Snap* (Review) - CULTURETAP

Welcome, one and all, to my first proper game review on this blog! As you've already figured out, I'll be discussing a Pokémon game that has been highly anticipated by modern fans and old-school nostalgia lovers alike: New Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo Switch! I'm actually very surprised that it took me this long to find a game I felt I could talk about exhaustively - and of course, it has to be Pokémon. Technically this review is spoiler-free, but that definition is different for everyone with a game like this - for me, this means that I didn't talk about anything beyond the premise of the story, core mechanics, and I don't mention any included Pokémon beyond what was in promotional material. Anyways, let's not waste any time and get into it!

GRAPHICS

I'm the type of person who loves to play pretty games. It's stupidly easy to reel me in based on graphics and aesthetics alone - it's part of why I enjoy the Kirby series so much, for example. So obviously, the promotional material for this game looked promising to me - and I'm happy to say that I was even more enchanted by the game itself in this regard. From the moment you start up the game, you can tell that the developers cared deeply about creating an environment beyond just the core gameplay. Loading screens, menus, and cutscenes are adorned with an environmentally-charged theme, rich with greens, beiges, and browns, and charming animations to match. Right off the bat, the player is reminded of real-world spots like conservation parks, bioresearch centres and other kinds of nature conservatories we've all visited before. I adore this aspect of the game and I always appreciate a good theme.

And what would a Pokémon Snap game be without good Pokémon design? The ball isn't dropped here: each respective creature that you can discover in the game has so much personality to their movements and behaviours - they don't feel so rigidly and lazily implemented, the way that I felt the character models in Sword and Shield were (and I believe that speaks to the poor effort put in by the developers at Game Freak on S&S...but that's a conversation for a different day). The New Pokémon Snap experience is deeply immersive in the sense that it truly feels like you're photographing wild animals that could react in any way to your movements, and that's (in part) thanks to the stunning graphics in this game. Environments are also finely-detailed and intuitive, building on some of the concepts of the first game but also introducing different times of day and new landscapes, so the game is kept new and interesting. My only complaint in this category is the fact that sometimes I noticed shadows could sometimes be slow to move and a bit too pixelated, but this was not a problem that significantly took away from the visuals overall.

STORY

Before starting this game, I thought a bit about the factors I wanted to focus on in a potential review - as I do so often. I can certainly tell you that during this process, story was not something that came to mind for a game like this one. But alas, there is a story in New Pokémon Snap. I don't really have much to say about it, though, because I felt it to be kind of unnecessary. The premise is that you are a research assistant employed to take photos of wild Pokémon as a part of a research team, and that by taking photos in the game's different areas, you're aiding in an investigation about a mysterious energy that affects Pokémon coming from said areas. I won't discuss anything past that for the sake of spoilers, in case that matters to you more than it does to me. All in all, though, it seemed like something the developers implemented simply because didn't want their game to be criticized for not having one. It wasn't particularly interesting in my opinion, and it wasn't the thing that kept me coming back to the game. It's not all bad, though. Besides a few cutscenes/character dialogue that could have been cut down, it wasn't particularly bothersome, so I'm willing to let it slide.

I'm not sure if this next point fits under "story", but I also wanted to point it out here because of how important I find it to be. I really, really appreciated the fact that I couldn't seem to find any bias towards which Pokémon were included in New Pokémon Snap. The Pokémon Company has tended to do this with their games lately: there has been a big focus on either the first generation of Pokémon or which ever generation happens to be the latest one, meaning fans of other generations don't get to see their favourite characters and Pokémon in games as often. This is not the case in New Pokémon Snap. Bandai-Namco did a really fantastic job at including both popular and not-as-popular generations and Pokémon, meaning that regardless of what your favourites are, you have a fairly equal shot at seeing them represented in this game. As a gen four fan through and through, I was personally really happy in this regard.

MECHANICS & CONTROLS

Most of the core mechanics of this game have been brought over from the first Snap game that came out in 1999, but most of it has also been expanded upon. Firstly, players now have the option to change controls to suit their own preferences. This is obviously not revolutionary in the modern sense, but I felt that it was a nice touch since I didn't really expect Snap to have customizable controls...maybe that's just me. It makes sense, though, since there are a multitude of new tools that the player can use to their benefit, more than there was in the first game. This includes an area scanning tool, a button to play melodies that Pokémon will react to, and the return of "fluffruit", fruits that resemble apples and can be used as lure. I enjoyed these new options, as they gave courses more replay-ability than they would have had with just the tools from the first game. This game also featured the introduction of "illumina orbs", balls of energy that could be used on Pokémon to make them react differently to the world around them. However, I felt that sometimes too heavy of an emphasis was placed on using the Illumina orbs in order to get good photos - it was especially bothersome for me when I had to use them to clear a stage. I felt I would have enjoyed them more if they were less integral to the game. It was (at times) annoying to have to aim a single orb perfectly in order to advance to the next area. That aside, there are also some postgame edits you can make to your camera in order to take more photos quicker, but I wasn't really motivated to utilize them once I had finished the main game and gotten used to the settings I was already using.

Now, for some smaller details. Something I've always enjoyed about Pokémon games is the fact that difficulty is often easily customizable depending on how you play the game. Snap is no exception: if you want to just clear the main campaign and then put the game down, you can, but you can also make it a goal to see every Pokémon, get all the possible four star photos in each respective area, etc. There's a lot of choice for everyone depending on how you'd like to play the game.

Another feature that I enjoy is the online portion. Photo customization and sharing them with your friends is a lot of fun! Something I appreciated a lot was the fact that there is a nifty little spoiler censor automatically implemented into the game, so you can still share your photos online without having parts of the game you haven't discovered yet spoiled for you. Additionally, an issue that Nintendo has had in the past with online sharing is that some folks tend to abuse the tool to share content that is...uh...not exactly safe for work. While I can appreciate some dark humour every now and then, I also think younger audiences shouldn't have to be subjected to stuff like that, and from what I've seen, the developers at Snap did a great job at giving players leeway to customize their photos appropriately without being super limiting, so we won't be seeing the same issues we saw with Miiverse or the Smash Ultimate level creator, for example.

BIG TAKEAWAYS

It's always awesome to see a company turn around and start listening to the fanbase's opinions, but it's even more appreciated when the company doesn't really have to. It's no secret: Pokémon is a massive moneymaker. And even though New Pokémon Snap was going to be a commercial hit regardless of its actual quality, the folks behind this game took extra care to please absolutely everyone that decides to pick it up. Not just those 90's kids playing the game for the nostalgia, but fans from every demographic - this is achieved through varied difficulties, vibrant visuals, and revamped gameplay for a new age of players. There was overcompensation in some areas, yes, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a charming game I believe fans will come back to over and over again.

Rating: 8.5/10