After waiting for more than two decades, fans of the original Pokemon Snap finally have a true sequel to enjoy. New Pokemon Snap is bigger and better than its predecessor in almost every conceivable way, although that's not to say that it doesn't have its fair share of flaws as well. All things considered, however, it should provide a fairly enjoyable experience for most players.
Exploration plays a huge role in the game and goes some way towards making up for the game's relatively short main story. It's incredibly replayable too, although some of the secondary tasks that are given to players can at times feel a little more like grinding than good honest fun. For fans of Pokemon games though, this shouldn't feel too out of place.
10 Love: The Huge Variety Of Pokemon
Those who have played it will already know that there are only 63 Pokemon in the first Pokemon Snap game. New Pokemon Snap, on the other hand, contains 214 unique types of Pokemon spread out across its 24 courses. Finding them all provides players with a lot of incentive to really explore and finally finishing the Photodex can be incredibly rewarding as a result.
While there are still some fairly notable omissions (Gyarados, Mewtwo, etc), the possibility of downloadable content for the game could easily rectify this. Data mining suggests that as many as forty Pokemon may have been cut from the game during development and so it's possible that at least some of these may return before all's said and done.
9 Hate: One To Four Star Photographs
Catching each and every Pokemon has always been a central theme in Pokemon games, but New Pokemon Snap arguably takes this idea a little too far. Not only are players expected to photograph each of the game's 214 Pokemon, but they're also asked to capture four different pictures of them all in slightly different poses.
This wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that there's a set limit on the number of photos that a player can take in a single run, nor if many of the poses weren't incredibly generic and dull. To make matters worse, players can only submit one image of each Pokemon for review at the end of each run, meaning that as well as figuring out what all four poses are for each Pokemon, they'll also need to replay each course at least four times to photograph and submit them.
8 Love: The Course Design
Not only are there more courses in New Pokemon Snap than there are in the original game, but they are also a lot better than their predecessors. There are plenty of alternate routes for players to discover and the general theming of each course really makes them feel alive. No Pokemon feels out of place either and, for the most part, at least, everything looks great.
Even the nighttime variants work well, as despite their layouts being the same as their daytime counterparts, the Pokemon placement and the way that their behavior changes at nighttime completely changes the vibe. All things considered, the Lental region is one of the most well designed in the Pokemon universe and the perfect setting for a game like New Pokemon Snap.
7 Hate: The Implementation Of Requests
While requests can be useful for figuring out how to capture some of the 214 four star poses in the game, the way that they are implemented leaves a lot to be desired. Some of the clues are far too cryptic to figure out without a lot of trial and error or the help of a guide and the example pictures don't always make it clear exactly where in the course the photos must be taken.
The biggest problem with requests, however, is turning them in. Usually, they'll show up in the requests tab after players have completed a run in which the request could have been completed. Unfortunately though, even if players happen to have captured the pose in their original run it won't count as fulfilling the request. Allowing requests to instantly be completed if an acceptable photo is already in the player's Photodex should be a given in this day and age and it would also be nice if any qualifying photos were flagged as being so on the photo select screen at the end of the course.
6 Love: The Legendary Pokemon
In the original Pokemon Snap for the N64, players are able to find and photograph Mew after they have completed the game. Two decades on and the little pink Pokemon shows up again in New Pokemon Snap; this time bringing with it nine additional Legendary Pokemon. Sadly, players will once again have to wait until they've finished the main story before they can find them, but it's arguably worth the wait.
It's clear that a lot of care and attention has been given to the game's ten Legendary Pokemon, with each one having their own elaborate four star poses. It would perhaps have been nice to have gotten a few more of the larger Legendary Pokemon like Groudon and Kyogre, although they could well still show up later on if the rumors about potential DLC turn out to be true.
5 Hate: The Length Of The Story
Despite its many courses, New Pokemon Snap is not a particularly long game. Its main story can be completed in around ten hours even if players take their time with each of the courses, which is nowhere near long enough for a full-priced triple-A title.
To the game's credit, there is a fair amount to do aside from completing the main story, but filling out the photodex with four photographs of each Pokemon can feel like more of a grind than a rewarding experience. The requests are more of the same in this regard, as although some of them can be fun to complete, the majority just feel like a chore.
4 Love: The Replayability
Most of the courses in New Pokemon Snap are fairly short and can be completed within under five minutes. This makes it easy for players to jump in whenever they like without having to commit to a few hours of playtime as is sometimes the case with other games. The way that the courses develop and change the more that players explore them also helps a lot with replayability.
Each course has its own research level and raising this will typically change the Pokemon that appear and the routes that are available for players to explore. As a result, courses manage to remain fresh for a lot longer than they otherwise would. This bodes well really, considering how many times players will need to revisit them in order to photograph everything that's on offer.
3 Hate: The Completion Rewards
The additions of nine new Legendary Pokemon, burst mode and a bonus course are a nice start, but things go downhill pretty quickly after that. The game offers no real reward for completing the Photodex, nor does it provide any real incentive for players to take four photos of each Pokemon other than perhaps for bragging rights.
End game content can be an incredibly difficult thing to get right and it makes sense that some developers may not want to spend too much time working on content that most players will never see. Given the mammoth task that completely filling out the Photodex and handing in all of the photo requests presents though, giving players a new research title as a reward feels a little like a slap in the face.
2 Love: The Ability To Interact With The Surroundings
Players are given several items to play around with in New Pokemon Snap; all of which can have a direct impact on the Pokemon around them. This is usually something as simple as waking a sleeping Pokemon or knocking one off a ledge or branch, but it's also possible to cause fights between Pokemon and even get them to open up new parts of a course.
The game takes this a step further with its day and night course variants, with certain actions in one version of a course often carrying over into the other. In Shiver Snowfields, for example, players can unlock a new route in the daytime course that is then available at nighttime and following it there will allow them to unlock another route in both the day and nighttime courses.
1 Hate: The Lack Of Evolution
Hate is perhaps a strong word for this one as the absence of Pokemon evolving is nothing when compared with some of the game's other flaws. Even so though, it would have been nice if there was a way for players to trigger evolutions by interacting with Pokemon, especially as this was already a feature in the first Pokemon Snap game.
What makes this so frustrating is that there are several places where it could easily have been implemented, particularly the whirlpool in the Maricopia Reef (Day) course. Rather than evolving, however, the Magikarp inside simply jumps higher and higher with each additional Fluffruit that the player throws in. It's a little underwhelming and almost feels as if the game is teasing players a little; allowing them to believe that the next time it jumps out just might be the time that it turns into a Gyarados.