New Pokemon Snap: A Revival of the 20 Year Old Classic

Its time to dust off your apple throwing arm. After over twenty years, the popular Pokémon photography game is getting a sequel. Introducing New Pokémon Snap!

The Pokémon Company recently held a showcase called Pokémon Presents to reveal some of their upcoming plans and projects. The event began a bit underwhelmingly with Pokémon Smile, a mobile app that encourages children to brush their teeth, it followed into news that took every 25 to 34 year old by surprise: Pokémon Snap is getting a modern sequel for the Nintendo Switch.



Formally called New Pokémon Snap. Its based on the 1999 Nintendo 64 game of the same name (sans the new). Like in the original game, the player controls a nature photographer aboard a special vehicle that follows a predetermined path. As they move throughout a variety of different environments, they have to try and take the best photos they can of the local Pokémon. They can also use bait to feed and lure the wildlife into a premiere photo position of action.

The new game will feature HD graphics fitting for the Nintendo Switch. It will also feature Pokémon from every generation, whereas the original only drew from the original 150. Its not clear at this time if the new game will follow the same rules for scoring photos, or if the player can unlock alternate pathways by interacting with the world.

Its worth mentioning: why the name? Nintendo products are infamous for having unclear or confusing names for continuations and sequels. We still remember the New 3DS XL and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe. Why do it with this game?

The original Pokémon Snap is 20 years old now. The primary audience for Pokémon games are kids and teenagers. People who are too young to have played the original. When a company introduces a game as a sequel, they give the implication that the player needs to be familiar with the first game before they can enjoy the second one. By avoiding a 2, they avoid alienating their main audience.

To be fair, there are better ways than tacking new on the front. A perfect example is with Monster Hunter: World. While technically the fifth main game in the series, they intentionally replaced a five with World for the same reason described above. In our opinion, a tasteful suffix like this would have done Pokémon Snap more justice than the working title.

Not that this will stop us from playing, of course.

New Pokémon Snap currently does not have a release date.