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> and has a camera for some reason. There is a new Pokemon game coming out called "Pokemon Snap" where apparently the whole game consists of traveling through

> and has a camera for some reason. There is a new Pokemon game coming out called "Pokemon Snap" where apparently the whole game consists of traveling through the game world and taking photos of Pokemon. Similarly there is a feature in the Pokemon Go game where you can take photos of your Pokemon in AR. I just cannot even fathom who this would appeal to, but apparently there must be a demand for it. Are people sharing these photos on social media or something? That's the only thing I can think of that would make sense.

p1necone 6y ago
It's a sequel to a game that came out in 1999 which was pretty successful (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Snap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Snap). The focus of the game is taking photos of Pokemon, but it's more involved than just that. It's really a puzzle game - where you need to work out what to do to get certain Pokemon to come out, or get them to do certain things to get better photos. (Getting Pikachu to surf is a stand out moment). You can make any game sound pointless by describing it with only surface level detail like this - "Tetris is stupid, you just move squares to the bottom of the screen until they disappear", "Mario is stupid, you just jump up and down while moving to the right" and so on.
- freetime2 6y ago
  Honest question - would you say the gameplay of Pokemon Snap is as good as Mario 64 (which came out for the same system as Pokemon Snap) or Tetris?
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    "Gameplay" is not a scalar, and it's not a function of game alone - it's a function of the game and the player. Never played Pokémon Snap, but if the gameplay resembles even a little the photography side-game of Beyond Good and Evil, or Subnautica, I'd probably find it fun to an extent. And beating Tetris gameplay, for me, is a pretty low bar. About the only thing I liked about it was the memorable music - as a kid, I never had patience to become good at it. The racing game on the same "100-in-1" handheld, now, that was another thing :).
  - chownie 6y ago
    Pokemon Snap has a lot of depth below the facade. It's an on-rails type game where your job is to take high quality photographs of Pokemon as you venture through the zones that game offers. Crucially you cannot stop the cart you're on, it trudges forward at a mostly static pace through the level. This means you have to run through zones a couple times to learn the timings for certain pokemon to appear. At some point you unlock apples (lures) and rocks (activators) which you can use to influence the movements that pokemon make through those zones. It culminates in things like seeing a Magikarp early on in a river rapids level, lining up your shot perfectly to hit it with a stone so it flies into a waterfall, that allows it to evolve and you'll want to get your camera pointed up for the dramatic moment it bursts back out through the waterfall. You get extra points for things like the pokemon being centered in the shot, them facing the camera, making specific movements, rare happenings (like evolutions, or using moves), etc. So I'd say so, yeah. It lacks the grandiose appeal that Mario 64 had at the time but I'd say it beats out Tetris no matter what way you look at it.
    - klmadfejno 6y ago
      I'd agree. Pokemon snap (N64) was a really awesome game, and I've never seen anything like it since. The really important bit is that it's not random at all. Everything is pre-scripted, and it's a puzzle to manipulate the game state to discover secret photo opportunities. Short, but highly memorable. Back in the day you could take your cartridge to a blockbuster and print out your in game photos too (or something like that). That was the coolest thing in existence. The new one looks like a pretty faithful sequel, even, pointlessly, drawing on some of the canon from the first game. I think it will great.
- mrisoli 6y ago
  It also had a competitiveness to it by using a points system in photos, it was quite clever and it rated photos based on a wide set of criteria, including pose, framing, you'd get multipliers for having groups on the frame, it was quite unique for its time. I loved that game, I'm glad they are coming out with a sequel but I outgrew Pokemon as the newer generations came and I am probably not as interested in the sequel, might try it out for the nostalgia factor. Pokemon Snap is truly a testament to Nintendo's creativity in coming up with innovative gameplay, it leveraged their new 3D system in a cool way back then.
  - Izkata 6y ago
    > It also had a competitiveness to it by using a points system in photos And to top that off, there was an arcade version of the game (or possibly just the normal game in arcade stand, not sure anymore). We had one in the local Blockbuster, so kids could do a quick run while their parents were looking for a movie.
natchy 6y ago
> There is a new Pokemon game coming out called "Pokemon Snap" where apparently the whole game consists of traveling through the game world and taking photos of Pokemon At first I thought you were joking as if we were in the 90s again with this tamagotchi thread. People were equally confused by the original Pokémon snap, they said the exact same thing as you. Originally, kids were disappointed that the first 3D Pokémon game was a photography game, but it ended up being a memorable hit. I played the hell out of that when I was 9 years old.
- freetime2 6y ago
  Nope, not joking. And I honestly wasn't trying to bash the game - I just watched some game play videos the other day trying to get a sense of whether it would make a good gift for my son, and didn't get it at all. I had written it off, but I am tempted now to get it for my son (who adores Pokemon) and see if he likes it. Admittedly there are a lot of things I don't "get" until I see them through the eyes of a 6 year old.

p1necone 6y ago

It's a sequel to a game that came out in 1999 which was pretty successful (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Snap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Snap). The focus of the game is taking photos of Pokemon, but it's more involved than just that. It's really a puzzle game - where you need to work out what to do to get certain Pokemon to come out, or get them to do certain things to get better photos. (Getting Pikachu to surf is a stand out moment). You can make any game sound pointless by describing it with only surface level detail like this - "Tetris is stupid, you just move squares to the bottom of the screen until they disappear", "Mario is stupid, you just jump up and down while moving to the right" and so on.

freetime2 6y ago
Honest question - would you say the gameplay of Pokemon Snap is as good as Mario 64 (which came out for the same system as Pokemon Snap) or Tetris?
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  "Gameplay" is not a scalar, and it's not a function of game alone - it's a function of the game and the player. Never played Pokémon Snap, but if the gameplay resembles even a little the photography side-game of Beyond Good and Evil, or Subnautica, I'd probably find it fun to an extent. And beating Tetris gameplay, for me, is a pretty low bar. About the only thing I liked about it was the memorable music - as a kid, I never had patience to become good at it. The racing game on the same "100-in-1" handheld, now, that was another thing :).
- chownie 6y ago
  Pokemon Snap has a lot of depth below the facade. It's an on-rails type game where your job is to take high quality photographs of Pokemon as you venture through the zones that game offers. Crucially you cannot stop the cart you're on, it trudges forward at a mostly static pace through the level. This means you have to run through zones a couple times to learn the timings for certain pokemon to appear. At some point you unlock apples (lures) and rocks (activators) which you can use to influence the movements that pokemon make through those zones. It culminates in things like seeing a Magikarp early on in a river rapids level, lining up your shot perfectly to hit it with a stone so it flies into a waterfall, that allows it to evolve and you'll want to get your camera pointed up for the dramatic moment it bursts back out through the waterfall. You get extra points for things like the pokemon being centered in the shot, them facing the camera, making specific movements, rare happenings (like evolutions, or using moves), etc. So I'd say so, yeah. It lacks the grandiose appeal that Mario 64 had at the time but I'd say it beats out Tetris no matter what way you look at it.
  - klmadfejno 6y ago
    I'd agree. Pokemon snap (N64) was a really awesome game, and I've never seen anything like it since. The really important bit is that it's not random at all. Everything is pre-scripted, and it's a puzzle to manipulate the game state to discover secret photo opportunities. Short, but highly memorable. Back in the day you could take your cartridge to a blockbuster and print out your in game photos too (or something like that). That was the coolest thing in existence. The new one looks like a pretty faithful sequel, even, pointlessly, drawing on some of the canon from the first game. I think it will great.
mrisoli 6y ago
It also had a competitiveness to it by using a points system in photos, it was quite clever and it rated photos based on a wide set of criteria, including pose, framing, you'd get multipliers for having groups on the frame, it was quite unique for its time. I loved that game, I'm glad they are coming out with a sequel but I outgrew Pokemon as the newer generations came and I am probably not as interested in the sequel, might try it out for the nostalgia factor. Pokemon Snap is truly a testament to Nintendo's creativity in coming up with innovative gameplay, it leveraged their new 3D system in a cool way back then.
- Izkata 6y ago
  > It also had a competitiveness to it by using a points system in photos And to top that off, there was an arcade version of the game (or possibly just the normal game in arcade stand, not sure anymore). We had one in the local Blockbuster, so kids could do a quick run while their parents were looking for a movie.

natchy 6y ago

> There is a new Pokemon game coming out called "Pokemon Snap" where apparently the whole game consists of traveling through the game world and taking photos of Pokemon At first I thought you were joking as if we were in the 90s again with this tamagotchi thread. People were equally confused by the original Pokémon snap, they said the exact same thing as you. Originally, kids were disappointed that the first 3D Pokémon game was a photography game, but it ended up being a memorable hit. I played the hell out of that when I was 9 years old.

freetime2 6y ago
Nope, not joking. And I honestly wasn't trying to bash the game - I just watched some game play videos the other day trying to get a sense of whether it would make a good gift for my son, and didn't get it at all. I had written it off, but I am tempted now to get it for my son (who adores Pokemon) and see if he likes it. Admittedly there are a lot of things I don't "get" until I see them through the eyes of a 6 year old.