It's a game where you take pictures of creatures. Why would that be fun? (Pokemon Snap)

    When I was a young kid, Nintendo 64 ruled the day, and Playstation, its main opponent, was close on the console's heels. I got a Playstation when I was in first grade, and the next year, Gamecube and PS2 came out, so I ended up never getting a Nintendo 64 until the Wii had already come out. I heard so many things about the different amazing games for the old console, such as Super Mario 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Stadium, Banjo Kazooie, etc. Among all of these however, I heard tales of a game called Pokemon Snap, a game where you just drove around in a car and took pictures of Pokemon. As a kid, I was completely baffled by this idea. How could any game like that be fun? On top of that, how was this a game to have a cult following of people who had all played and loved it? Well, I got it for Christmas one year after we got an N64, and I immediately understood the appeal. It wasn't just about getting pictures of these creatures, it was about setting up the best shots and getting the Pokemon in just the right place in the frame to get the best score. On top of this, there were many puzzle elements where you would have to interact and work with the Pokemon to unlock new pathways for you to travel on, as well as find new Pokemon to take pictures of. This game has much more going on under the hood than you would think, and the people that told me good things were completely right. That's why today, I'd like to talk about the little gem that is the original Pokemon Snap.

One of the most nostalgic pictures in my mind

Wonderful!

    This game is a joy from start to finish. You begin as Todd Snap, the new assistant to the famous Professor Oak, who tasks you with taking pictures of different Pokemon in different locations to make the Professor's "PhotoDex," a field guide to Pokemon complete with pictures. You begin with just the camera, but then over time, Oak gives Todd more and more things to use. You get apples, then Pester balls, which annoy the Pokemon and sometimes coerce them into giving you more interesting poses, a Poke Flute, which can make Pokemon dance or other sort of interactions, and eventually the ability to make your car go faster. That last feature isn't super helpful, though does help gameplay become less tedious in the late game. All of these tools help with the puzzle aspect of this game, learning how to put the apples in the right place to lure Pikachu onto a surfboard at the beach, or to get a bunch of Charmanders to gather around which then begin to sing in the volcano. My favorite interaction like this would have to be when you throw an apple or pester ball at a Charmeleon so it falls into a volcano and evolves into a Charizard. It was so unexpected and cool that I really felt like I'd accomplished something, although Charizard is also my favorite Pokemon just in general, so I was probably slightly biased. There's another area where you throw apples into a whirlpool and a Dragonair comes out, then a Dragonite if you throw enough in. There are a lot of cool secrets, and it was easy to see why people continued to come back to this game again and again.

You were Close!

    Though so much in this game is just serene and wonderful to see and experience, there is a period of time eventually that you think you've explored everything that you can, but the professor won't let you progress farther until you take pictures of 4 new Pokemon or you don't have enough points, so your only move is to backtrack through the levels that you've already gone through. This is the downside of the original Pokemon Snap, which is that it only had 9 levels I think, and it made up for that by making you go back through the levels time and time again. You just had to hope to catch a random shot that you didn't get last time, or to find out some new trick that got you a lot of points. The part of the game where you're looking for Poke Signs is especially like this, where you seemingly have to check every nook and cranny to find what you're supposed to do, and even then, if you don't already know about the locations, you may have a hard time figuring it out even if you're looking at a strategy guide. Some of these signs involve making a bunch of Pokemon doing seemingly unrelated things that end up making this special sign appear, and others just amount to looking at this one rock at a particular time in the stage. The one that is forever burned into my brain because it took me forever to figure it out is the shadow of Pinsir in the cave. You have to get three Electabuzzes to electrocute generators in order to turn a light on later in the level, and once the light is on, it shines on this scrap metal which makes a shadow of the Pokemon on the wall, which you then have to take a picture of. It took me so long to figure out how to do that as a kid, it was insane. Part of what makes this game great however is the challenge of figuring new things out, and the feeling of satisfaction once you realized what the game wanted you to do.

Truly a unique game!

    The payoff for finding all of the Pokemon Signs was unlocking the final level of the game, the Rainbow Cloud, where the legendary Pokemon Mew awaited you. This was the only boss fight of the game because he was surrounded by a shield the whole time. You had to throw pester balls at him to get him out of the bubble shield before taking a picture, because the shield would put such a glare on the picture that you couldn't even see what the picture was of. Once you achieved your goal of taking a picture of Mew, the only Pokemon in the last level, the game comes to a close. With one final rousing speech from Professor Oak's incredible voice acting, he declares you the king of all Pokemon Snap or something and gives you a slideshow of your pictures as the credits roll. I remember the first time I beat the game, I was blown away by the fact that my own pictures were in the credits, which wasn't that impressive in retrospect, but at the time, I truly felt like a master photographer for getting that Surfing Pikachu picture in my photo album. Just because the credits roll doesn't mean that you're finished with the game however, chances are you're still missing quite a few rare pictures or Pokemon in your PhotoDex, and you know what they say, "Gotta Snap Em All!" Certainly wouldn't want to disappoint Professor Oak, you need to hear more and more of his incredible voice lines, such as "You were close!" and "Wonderful!" To this day, I still bring up Professor Oak's amazing voice acting from this game, and it's actually one of my favorite things about it, which is saying something pretty significant, since I love this game a lot.

    Pokemon Snap is a great time for fans of the Pokemon series, or even people who don't care much about it (like me) and just want to play a genuinely fun and relaxing game. While it does have its rough edges and obvious gameplay loop which stems from there not being many levels, it's a concept that really works, even if it seems like it shouldn't. I haven't played enough of New Pokemon Snap yet to make a case for it being better or worse than the original game, but I will say that the team at Bandai Namco did a great job of capturing some of the magic of the original game and bringing in some truly beautiful visuals to catch these new Pokemon in. It's a worthy successor, and I'm just happy that we finally got a sequel after 22 years or something like that. I, along with many others, have certainly waited a long time for it.

    Thanks so much for reading this article, friends! I hope you're all having a good week and I hope you know how much I really appreciate all of your support during these times. I have to say that I'll probably write a post about New Pokemon Snap soon as well, but I haven't finished it yet, so I can't really give my full review unfortunately. I've been your Self-Proclaimed Pokemon Snap Champion, and I'll talk to you all next week.