After about two decades of waiting, Pokemon fans are finally getting a sequel for the N64 photography game, Pokemon Snap. New Pokemon Snap launches in just a few short weeks, bringing the series to the Switch in full HD glory.
To offer players a deep dive into New Pokemon Snap's gameplay features, Nintendo has released a new 6-minute overview trailer for fans to sink their teeth into. The trailer shows off some of the game's new biomes, new Pokemon, and how players will interact with these creatures. And of course, there's a ton of photo-taking to be seen.
Similar to the first Pokemon Snap game, New Pokemon Snap players will help out Pokemon Professor Mirror and his assistants to capture the most visually appealing photos of Pokemon while riding on an on-rails machine. Each photo will get rated from 1 to 4 stars by the professor, and these ratings are based on how the picture looks. If the Pokemon is centered, close to the camera, and doing something interesting, there's a high chance that players will get a good score.
And on the other hand, if a Pokemon isn't facing the camera or if it's too far away, the professor will be more likely to give the photo a lower score. It'll be up to the player to get in the most optimal position for the shot so that they can get high scores to unlock new areas to explore that are sure to be full of undiscovered critters.
Players will also be able to customize their photos with stickers, filters, frames, and more, and then share them online to show them off to friends on social media. There's also a ranking system in-game that shows off the players with the best photos, so players can definitely get a bit competitive with how they play New Pokemon Snap.
There are almost 1000 unique Pokemon in the Pokemon universe throughout each region, but New Pokemon Snap will only have about 200 of these pocket monsters for players to find. While this may seem like a low number, people have to consider that the original Pokemon Snap title only had 63 Pokemon total. There's also the factor that New Pokemon Snap has more modern visuals than the mainline Pokemon games, so creating the designs and models takes a lot more work from the developers.
New Pokemon Snap will launch for the Nintendo Switch on April 30.