New Pokémon Snap (Part 1)

Through the years, I’ve seen a lot of franchises attempt ideas outside of their usual perimeters – as a result, I’ve seen both crashes and burns, and massive, unexpected successes. I don’t think it’s any surprise to say that Pokémon Snap is in the latter category. Released on July 26th, 1999, the Nintendo 64 game featured Todd Snap, a young photographer tasked by Professor Oak with taking pictures of all 63 Pokémon species found on an island.

For a franchise still in its early days, this came out of left field! The game, while short, had everything going for itself. It tickled that desire for gamers to hunt for better scores. It had unlockable tools and mechanics to get different reactions from the photography subjects. And there were plenty of secrets that could be found by just trying things and seeing what happens.

Catching the three 'puff on film is fun. Pissing
them off by playing the flute is even better.

This idea took a long time to return, which always felt odd to me; just make one at every Generation, add new Pokémon and locations, and that should be it, right? Imagine the possibilities! And yet, despite many attempts, several plans for a second Snap game didn’t make it far. Photography didn’t truly return to the franchise till Pokémon Sun/Moon; that side-quest felt like Game Freak testing the grounds. Even though their fans had been asking for this for 17 years by that point! Finally, our prayers were answered, with New Pokémon Snap releasing on April 30th, 2021, on the Nintendo Switch.

With all this time between installments, surely the system has been massively updated, right? Let’s take a look.

Welcome to the Lentil Region

This time, our character is an avatar representing a child. He is greeted on the first island of the Lentil Region by Professor Mirror and his assistant Rita. They direct the Laboratory of Ecological and Natural Sciences, or L.E.N.S., on Florio Island.

A Prof in Pokémon without a tree name? That's rare!
Also, neat pun for the name of the laboratory!
P.S. These screenshots come from the playthrough by
MunchingOrange. Go check it out!

We are introduced to a proper story this time around: Prof. Mirror hopes to unravel the mystery of Illumina Pokémon, a phenomenon discussed in a travelogue from an explorer, Captain Vince, who visited these islands a hundred years ago. The phenomenon seems to come from special flowers, but the professor needs an excellent photographer to take pictures of both the island wildlife, and anything peculiar that can unearth new secrets and solve this ecological riddle.

Ah, the start of a new adventure. New sights, new friends.
Hi, Dodrio! I'll be seeing you a lot in these starting stages!

Prof. Mirror and Rita explain what your kid will be doing: Safe within the NEO-ONE, a vehicle that will venture through the wilds, the child will be taking pictures of the creatures around him. The basic controls: To take a picture, press A; you can hold L to zoom in, though unlike Old Snap, zooming isn't necessary. You move your sights with the left analog stick – I felt you could move faster if you tilted both the right and left sticks in the same direction. Your sights can also move using the Switch’s motion sensing! …If you don’t mind moving your upper body for what can more easily be done with buttons, with more precision. There’s a reason we ditch some realism in the name of fun.

The REAL challenge for me with this game will be to NOT
comment under every screenshot "Awwww!" or "Cuuute!"

After a quick tutorial during which we take a picture of a Pikachu, we receive our first assignment, the Florio Nature Park. Our options are limited for now, so all we can really do is go down the path and take our first photos. This area alone has some two dozen Pokémon to catch on film. Take in the sights, look at the interactions the animals have with each other. This first run-through is as basic as it gets. You can take up to 72 photos in your roll; you can run out, but you’ll usually be close to the end of the route by that point anyway.

The Mirror Photo Briefing

Like the original, each ride through an environment is followed by a meeting with the Professor, who will check your photos and score them. The major difference with Snap '99 is that photos for every species get divided into four ranks, from one to four stars. The rarer the behavior caught on film is, the higher the rank, with four stars being given to extremely rare actions that can only happen through things your photographer does.

After a while in this game, you'll probably be skimming
through these, but the first few are pretty fun and Mirror
has good insight to offer.

Too bad the player couldn't get the birdie to look in the
direction of the camera. Give it time. Maybe the fluffruit
will help, once we get them.

However, when you return, the Professor will only rate one photo per species, no matter how many ranks of photos you’ve taken for that species. You could show a 1-star, 2-star, and 4-star picture? Nope, pick just one. The result is that you’ll have to make some heartbreaking choices. On one hand, I get why the game works this way; it encourages returning to areas to make new discoveries, and it ensures that progress isn’t too quick,. However, it runs into the opposite problem, where you very soon get the impression that this was done to artificially lengthen the game.

The Nature Park alone changes massively from one level to
the next. It's great, but you do feel like you're missing out
on stuff until a course has hit a higher level.

Your pictures are scored on multiple factors: The Pokémon’s size in the picture, a stat so important it gets scored up to 2,000 points instead of just 1,000; then, there's whether they are facing the camera, and whether they are in the center of the frame. You get extra points if there are more of their species visible in the frame, or if they’re doing a special action. All these things combined result in a score, which gets added to your entire score for that specific course.

Each photo also gets a medal ranking, going from Bronze, Silver, Gold, and then Diamond. It is a whole other quest for a dedicated player to try and collect Diamond-starred photos for every single species, at every possible photo rank.

There's a whole side-quest about finding every Vivillon
wing pattern in Lentil. There are soooooo many.
There's a similar quest for all the Eeveelutions, too.

If your score on that course reaches a threshold, the route will Level Up, which means that you will be able to revisit it with several differences, including new Pokémon appearing around the path and new interactions being made possible. Courses can be taken up to Level 2 or 3, the last at which any major changes happen; afterwards, you can keep playing to reach MAX Level, which is only an achievement and doesn’t make any additional modifications to its course.

Wanna go back to previous levels on a course? Of course! You can manually choose to play a stage at a lower level than what you’ve reached.

It's the night. Everything is calm. Until it isn't.

After our first few trips through Florio Island’s Nature Park, we unlock… Nighttime trips! Some Pokémon species started appearing at nighttime in Gold and Silver, a mechanic that became a mainstay of the classic RPGs (barring a few exceptions). Therefore, it makes perfect sense that this would be adapted to a new Snap game, with several routes being visited in the daytime first, and then at night, with new creatures to spot and photograph on these now-familiar roads.

Tools and New Friends

Hoothoot's second foot! It DOES exist! The legends are true!

Early during your progression, you get regular briefings with Prof. Mirror and Rita, who have new tools to offer. The first is the Fluffruit, an apple-shaped, well, fruit that you can throw to feed Pokémon. And make them happy. Oooooor, you could toss it at their noggin. They won’t like that, but those reactions are going to be funny! A drive-by fruiting is the closest we’re gonna get to cruelty potential, since the Pester Balls from the N64 game haven’t returned. Too bad, I liked those.

After this, you are granted access to the scan function of your camera. Many critters will react to the noise of it alone. The scan itself will reveal names of Pokémon where some may be hidden (in case you don’t quite see them), and can also be used to discover spots of interest and alternate routes. The game will even tell you when there’s a spot of interest nearby!

Ooh, neat holographic hi-tech!

It's majestic, and it's brighter than a nightlight!
Tone that down, you're gonna wake up the other 'Mons!

Near the field of flowers, after we've made progress in the Nature Park at night, Prof. Mirror picks up a mysterious energy reading. He diverts the nighttime path towards a new area where those readings are strong. There’s an Illumina Pokémon here, he’s sure of it! Illumina Pokémon are special beasts who light up in the dark through unknown means for now. We will find out after more research, including one in the Illumina Spot, where we have only one photography target at first: A giant Meganium. The tall beast often stops to smell the “Crystalbloom” flowers we’ve ben spotting on our journey. And when it does, it lights the area with natural luminescence. Upon your return, Mirror and Rita marvel over your discovery. You have proven the existence of the phenomenon, and discovered how it happens!

The Prof will not accept pictures of these giant Pokémon
unless they are shining fro the Illumina phenomenon. That
part is what makes them "bosses", per se.

Easy there buddy. We are not here to compete, we are
solving an ecological mystery. Doing SCIENCE! But if you
want to compete, my photos will wipe the floor with yours!

The first visit to the Illumina Meganium results in the unlocking of a second island to visit: Belusylva Island. The lab is visited by a familiar face: Todd Snap, all grown up, now a world-renowned photographer. He has a protégé of his own, a kid named Phil, who seems to treat the relationship between Todd and the Lentil Region Lab like a competition. Looks like Pokémon games can’t help it, we’ve just gotta have a rival. Thankfully, Phil warms up quickly to the LENS crew, though he keeps an envious and mischievous streak. With Todd sticking around to lend a hand with Prof. Mirror’s goals, our player character now has two mentors to look up to!

The New Islands, and More Tools

Move, kitty! I want to get behind the waterfall!

I think we have better chances at night when it comes to
taking a pic of a lit 'bloom, no?

Belusylva Island is a dense jungle. So many things can block your view of the Pokémon: Branches, vines, leaves, and so on. That’s the biggest challenge in this zone. Once more, completing the daytime route unlocks its nighttime variant. However, Prof. Mirror has a new quest for us: He wants the player to take pictures of the lit Crystalblooms, which are different on every island. After we complete this quest for him, he comes up with a new tool: Illumina Orbs, which can be tossed at Pokémon to light them up (which can cause them to react in special ways), or at Crystalblooms to light up an area and all surrounding creatures. The caveat? Since they require study of the flowers, you won’t have instant access to Orbs on every island. Gotta unlock that stuff.

Luminescence! Quick!

More tools and features are discovered down the line. After Belusylva Island, we unlocks two regions: The Maricopia Islands (comprised of a beach and a coral reef), and Voluca Island (home to a desert and a volcano).

The game was released in April 2021, but it received a free update/DLC in August that opens a few extra courses, all with day and night variants. Two of them only open after beating the game, but one can be accessed on Florio. It’s brought up by Phil, who wants to try out a new feature of the NEO-ONE that’s secret, and it is still in its testing phase.

We are small and defenseless! But no worries, I don't think we
will visit a Pokémon's gullet. Mirror and Todd have covered
the NEO-ONE with the same nasty-tasting stuff Nintendo
puts on Switch cartridges.

You find the new area by scanning the hole in a tree trunk in the Nature Park. This will cause your vehicle to take a new path and shrink to enter that hole! I guess Mirror has contacts with some guy… Pym, I think, is the name? This leads to a new space where small Pokémon are suddenly enormous – and big Pokémon are even bigger. Nothing quite like having a Bidoof twice your size smiling at you, or riding up a Torterra’s back as if it was a mountain. To say nothing of other surprises, like a Snorlax that you can feed with Fluffruit!

This isn’t the only special feature the NEO-ONE gets; later, it can go underwater (yet you can still throw fruit and orbs out of it, somehow!), and it's even built to keep going within volcanoes and even on top of boiling lava.

Of course, the addition of the Melody is right before we
go on a course featuring Bellossom, the dancing Pokémon!

Another tool we unlock before the midway point is a throwback to the Poké-Flute: The Melody, which is emitted from the research camera. It is triggered with the R button, and will play until the song ends; though you can end it prematurely by re-pressing R. Many Pokémon will react with glee when they hear the melody. They certainly like it more than the sound emitted by the scan!

Alright, I think this has covered a pretty good chunk of the gameplay. I’ll keep going with a Part 2, in which I’ll discuss other features the game has, and cover the remainder of the plot as well.