New Pokémon Snap Highlights an Underappreciated Side of the Series
New Pokémon Snap is one of Nintendo Switch’s most exciting 2021 releases, offering a fresh perspective on its series. Here’s why it’s so special.
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While Pokémon’s 25th anniversary celebration is largely a mystery still, New Pokémon Snap seems like it will be the beginning of the festivities. After all, a recent trailer confirmed that the game is launching on April 30th. For as soon as that release date is, New Pokémon Snap feels like it has been forever in the making, following up the Nintendo 64 original Pokémon Snap from 1999. Considering how stunning the game looks, the wait will certainly be worth it. After all, not only will New Pokémon Snap be a seemingly gorgeous revitalization of the classic formula, but it will offer a glimpse at the often overlooked natural element of the series.
The Pokémon Snap formula, more than any other Pokémon experience, reconnects the player with the roots of the franchise. Pokémon was originally conceived based on Satoshi Tajiri’s love of being in nature. Tajiri, the grandfather of the Pokémon series, was an avid insect collector as a kid and spent a lot of time observing the natural world. This childhood passion led to the creation of Pokémon Red and Blue. However, as influential and engaging as the core RPG Pokémon titles are, they have lost sight of this natural inspiration.
The Problem with RPG Pokémon Games
The emphasis on collection, trade, and battling in the RPG titles leads to Pokémon themselves being commodified. It’s hard to view a Charizard as the natural creature it’s supposed to be when viewed through the lens of a role-playing game. Charizard becomes a series of stats to battle with or an item to exchange for something better. Some players lean into the notion that a Pokémon is a living, breathing animal, but that’s not what the games themselves promote. While NPCs in the world live in harmony with Pokémon, the gameplay systems incentivize an artificial relationship with the creatures. They’re a thing to collect, use, and dominate.
That isn’t to say that the core Pokémon RPG formula is nefarious by any means. However, the intrinsic, stat-based systems of a role-playing game force the player to view Pokémon as either stores of utility or value. This is especially true of post-game competitive play and shiny hunting. At the same time, the technical limitations of the systems Pokémon games have released on don’t help remind the player that Pokémon truly exist in natural ecosystems. Design necessities due to underpowered hardware like random encounters in patches of grass feel artificial and isolating. They don’t sell the idea that these Pokémon truly exist.
For as flawed as they are, Pokémon Sword and Shield on Nintendo Switch get the closest to bringing Pokémon to life. The base game’s Wild Area shows Pokémon truly roaming about, and both the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra expansions double down on this. The RPG core of these games still drives a wedge between the player’s interactions with Pokémon and their roots as life-like creatures.
The Success of Pokémon Snap
By contrast, the Pokémon Snap formula puts all its weight behind the celebration of Pokémon as living creatures to respect and study. The crux of the N64 original was exploring a Pokémon-filled island to photograph and research them. Doing so required the player to observe them in their natural environment, affect their behavior through various items, and snap their photo for Professor Oak. It’s a simplistic but special formula. It gives the player a different appreciation for Pokémon as living organisms, as the player watches and interacts from a distance. There is both a sense of scientific curiosity and natural connection in Pokémon Snap that other titles lack.
Of course, the limitation of the Nintendo 64 meant that for as organic as the game feels, it’s imperfect. Those early polygonal models are charming in a nostalgic sense but not especially realistic. Pokémon behavior is very static, following simple pathfinding AI. For as dynamic and alive as the game feels, it’s held back by its platform. New Pokémon Snap won’t have these limitations. The game looks both beautifully realized and beautifully animated. Seeing a Pinsir and a Heracross fight in the new trailer, for instance, feels more lifelike and exciting than anything the Pokémon series has created before.
As such, there’s every reason to be excited for New Pokémon Snap. It looks like a captivating evolution of the Snap sub-series in the context of a game that truly sells Pokémon as living creatures. The only question now is whether Bandai Namco can stick the landing. Considering that team’s excellent work on everything from Mario Baseball to Pokkén Tournament, there’s little cause for concern.
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