I don’t regret having recently purchased the Wii U Virtual Console version
Many of you still have your original Pokémon Snap cartridge, but for those of us who never bought the 1999 photo spin-off (or who tried it out strictly as a weekend rental), it’s not too late to come back before New Pokémon Snap carries the torch for Nintendo Switch in late April.
Inspired by the trailer for the recent release date, I fished my Wii U out of storage, cleaned the GamePad with shiny fingerprint, added ten dollars to my account, and bought the original N64 so fondly remembered – a discreet experience as someone who was extremely comfortable with your Switch and tends to forget how slow the Wii U can be, even when you’re just opening menus.
Yes, you can still buy games on the Wii U eShop in 2021. It’s not ideal, and I would like more of these Virtual Console favorites to go to the Switch. Its continuous absence confuses me. That said, if you don’t have the original hardware or your current TV is not well equipped to handle old platforms (latency, lack of inputs, etc.), this is an option. Playing on Wii U made sense for my setup.
It takes a while to adjust to the (intentionally) darker image quality of the Nintendo 64 games running on the Wii U, and I would say that many of those games feel better in the control for which they were originally designed, but I did it. And the ability to create saved states is useful for Pokémon Snap.
I’m not here to convince you that this is the best place to play Pokémon Snap – there are clear pros and cons – but I am here to tell you that it is absolutely valid. It is still the perfect video game for the “weekend”.
It’s as short and relaxed as you want. The puzzles that baffled me as a child obsessed with Poké seem more intuitive now, and after exhausting all environmental interactions in all areas in the best possible way, well, there is the internet – I don’t mind looking for some of the solutions more obscure.
There is pure theme park joy in watching Pokémon “at work” around you while you are stranded on a walk in different habitats. Yes, the levels are super short. And yes, many of your interactions involve littering all over the place until you get up from these wild creatures.
But the game basically works. It’s fun the first time – and the thirtieth. I still love it in 2021.
even though Pokémon Snap is a game full of scripts with outdated graphics and a very simple premise, there is chaos in motion fast enough to keep you fighting. The controls resist just enough. It seems that there is a healthy combination of skill and luck involved in capturing rarer Pokémon from the perfect angle at the right time. If that balance seemed wrong, it would be frustrating. The climate would change.
Instead, you don’t really know what you achieved in the field until you consult Professor Oak. I think the delay in judgment has a big impact on the flow of the game and on the players’ continued motivation to improve each shot. It is inherently pleasant to take pictures, be they good or bad, and it doesn’t hurt much when you analyze your photos and end up finding a lot of flaws.
Does nostalgia play a role here? Sure. There’s something to be said about having a group curated by iconic Pokémon taken from the original Red and Blue list, not to mention the N64 as a console in general. But I also think New Pokémon Snap can succeed with those of us who are not as involved in a broader series as before. The footage from the last trailer is clicking with me. It looks perfect.
As long as the interactions in the dark and a-ha moments can match the vastly enhanced visuals, we must have something special again. Two whole decades have passed. I’m beyond ready.
I can’t wait to see a flurry of ridiculous Pokémon photos on my social media feed.
[Image Credit: LaunchBox Games Database]
Filed in …