Reviews from

in the past


it's cute a fun, but rail anything is a bit annoying for me..

In a bit of an early Christmas present to myself, I recently picked up a big pile of cheap N64 games that I’d been meaning to nab from a local used games shop. This was one of those games that I ended up picking up, as it’s always one I’ve been meaning to pick up and play all the way through. Or at least it was one of those XD. During the course of playing it, there were just too many things that seemed far too familiar, and while I’d originally assumed that I’d only briefly played Pokemon Snap but never ultimately finished it, I now think that I actually have played and beaten this game before at some time in the past XD. Regardless, that was so long ago I could barely begin to guess when it was, and I also had a great time (re)playing through it now! It took me around 4 or so hours to beat the game while snapping pictures of 58 out of 63 Pokemon, and I played the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.

The story of Pokemon Snap is one of main character Todd Snap (yes, really) who is a photographer in the Pokemon world. During one expedition of his, he manages to snap what he thinks are photos of the mirage Pokemon Mew, and it’s his mission to take a proper photo of it someday. Here is where Professor Oak enters our story, as he leads our main character to the ever so creatively named Pokemon Island. Using the auto-progressing vehicle, the Zero One, he wants you to photograph all sorts of Pokemon to help complete his Pokemon Report on what lives on the island. It’s a fairly threadbare story, but it more than adequately sets up the premise for your photo snapping adventure.

The actual gameplay of Pokemon Snap is, as the name suggests, “snapping” photos of Pokemon to submit them to Professor Oak. However, there’s a big difference between a good photo and a bad photo, so it’s up to you to aim for as high a score as you can for each shot you’re going to submit (as only one photo per Pokemon can be submitted at the end of one of the game’s seven stages). You’re judged on how big the Pokemon is in frame, how they’re posed (are they doing a special action or at least facing the camera?), whether they’re centered or not, and how many other Pokemon of their same species are in the frame with them (if possible). It’s something that doesn’t sound that ultimately great for a video game, admittedly, but it’s a much more addicting score attack kind of game than it first seems.

The rules are simple and intuitive enough that they’re easy to grasp even for someone like me who’s far from the biggest score attack or photography fan <w>. The Zero One also always follows a track in each level, and the same Pokemon appear at the same times, so there’s always an opportunity to try again if you mess up a particular trick or shot you’re trying to do. You even get more tools like Pokemon food or a Poke Flute as you progress, so there’s also a lot of value in revisiting old stages to find new secrets too~. It’s remarkably simple and as fun as it is novel, and it’s a gameplay loop that ends up working really well~.

The aesthetics would need to be pretty darn good in a game all about looking around and taking photos, and they thankfully achieve that really well! Despite the first (two) Pokemon Stadium games predating this, I’d wager almost none (if any) of those models were reused for this. You need to be so much more up close and personal with the Pokemon, and you also need the Pokemon themselves to be much more expressive (not to mention do things like ambulate around, which they never do in the Stadium games). The end result is a bunch of Pokemon that move great and look awesome, and the polygonal look of the N64 gives the whole thing a very fun retro charm on top of it all. The soundtrack is also great, with a lot of new very Pokemon-y feeling tracks to help make your adventure that much more fun~.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a really great, super clever little game! It’s not too long, and it’s not too deep, but you can go really nuts with trying to improve your scores and find extra Pokemon if you got really into it. A bit like Pilotwings 64, while this certainly wasn’t my favorite game ever, I can absolutely see how this could be someone’s favorite game ever if it hit for them the right way. But even then, this game is so unique and fun that it’s well worth trying out, especially if you’re a Pokemon fan (and especially if you have the Switch Online N64 service, which this is also on~).

As a kid, seeing your favorite Pokemon in 3D was one of the major appeals of this game. Also, the Pokemon Snap Stations at blockbuster where you could print out your photos as stickers....

A really clever idea being literally a shooter, but with a camera instead of guns.
Also amazing music!

The only thing cooler than going on a trip to different biomes and taking pictures of Pokemon is going to your Blockbuster and printing out said photos. The 90s ruled.


I always heard that this game was wonderful and thought it was just childhood nostalgia talking. I decided to give it a chance, and it turned out to be the most enjoyable nearly 5 hours of my life! If I were a kid when this was released, I probably would have become attached in ways I can't describe. Give it a chance!

Pictures of Pokemons, what else i can ask?

A childhood classic, this game was the first game I ever beat. Which is relatively quick to do in 3-5 hours, but the replay value comes from trying multiple times to get the best photo of different Pokemon on each track. This will always be one of my favourite N64 games to return to time after time.

The concept of this game has always been fascinating to me. I have a (very casual) interest in photography and the idea of a game that mixes it with a franchise as iconic as Pokemon is frankly brilliant. I had seen at least a playthrough or two of this game before trying it myself and still had a great time after loading it up on a whim when looking through NSO. The number of levels is pretty slim and the game only features 63 Pokemon, but what's here is both charming and just an overall good time despite its admittedly short runtime.

Fun for a bit, but not a lot here

Pros
- Brief but fun for what it offers.
- Finding ways to make new Pokémon appear was great.
- Areas are short, but going back to better your score lies the real value.
- Cool variety in area locales.

Cons
- Number of Pokémon is lacking.
- The secret final area was disappointing.

definitely nostalgic for this one but replayed the full thing recently
very lovely concept, stages can be fun to explore and find all of the secrets in.
leaves a lot to be desired, mainly in length of stages and variety of pokemon

A really cute game that works on a simple mechanic. Its fun to pick up and play it casually for sure! Though I remember being a little lost on how to progress to new levels at times. Its plenty satisfying to figure it out on your own, though.

This was pretty much the perfect rental game (along with Pokemon Stadium) back when physical rentals were a thing!

"What if a rail shooter, but instead of killing things you're taking pictures of them" is honestly a great idea for video games, and I do kind of wish there were more franchises that went for that idea than just the two Pokemon Snap games. This one definitely isn't perfect, although it's considerably less obtuse than the sequel; most of the special photos don't have really insane requirements and the difficulty therein is mostly down to arcing your throw correctly or getting the timing right.

Or getting things appropriately centered, which feels more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes something will feel vaguely off center and Oak will tell you it's fine, and other times you're pretty sure you got that bastard right in the middle and he'll be like UHH NO IT'S A PIXEL OR TWO OFF YOU DON'T GET YOUR BONUS. I don't think you actually know anything about photography, Professor. What about the rule of thirds, huh. I also feel like the controls feel a touch janky but that's probably down to playing on a Switch Pro controller instead of an original N64 controller. I don't remember it feeling that bad when I played it as a kid. A lot of the other jank is part of the charm, though, I think. I think I like the sequel a little better but there really is something about the original that has that nostalgic Gen 1 charm.

Anyway, with the prevalence of photo modes in other games in pretty much every franchise it feels like this series will just be a singular series rather than something that influences anything else, even if I think that's kind of a shame. I think there's a difference between getting to take selfies with the boss and being, like, an actual wildlife photographer bonking animals on the head with apples or playing music to get them to dance so you can take a picture of them. I think I'd rather do that with a Rathalos instead of slaughtering it and chopping bits off its corpse for clothes. Where's my Monster Hunter Snap, huh, Capcom?

If there is any game that champions the "short and sweet" mantle, it is Pokemon Snap.

Pokemon Snap is the on-rails phototaking game one would expect from this genre, expect it's way more endearing since you're taking photos of Pokemon in their habitat.

What also puts Pokemon Snap above other games in this genre is the gameplay loop, which also makes it a semi-puzzle game. The gameplay loop will find you replaying levels using tools you've unlocked to uncover new Pokémon you might have missed in your first run, or new poses for existing Pokemon, resulting in a higher score and therefore more tools to uncover more secrets.

While fun, it is sadly short lived and can be fully completed in an hour. It feels like a concept for a much bigger game that would be developed decades later (foreshadowing). Although the replayability factor on this is great like star fox 64 where replaying to get the best scores can become addicting.

I would have been mad if I bought this for full price back in the day, but playing today as part of my NSO subscription service totally makes this game worth your time if you are a fan of Pokemon, and on-rails games.

As a person who is not really big on Pokémon, I always had curiosity on this game, because it looked pretty enjoyable taking pictures of these creatures.

And that's pretty much the game. It's short, but sweet. You can take pictures of various Pokémon, doing many poses, and you get some items along the way to help you make Pokémon do different poses, or to find new Pokémon altogether.

It's a fun short ride, that I recommend, even for people who aren't into Pokémon.

Cute game, it's neat seeing 3D models of Pokemon doing cute things. It's fun interacting with the Pokemon and the environment to see what you can unlock or what events you can see.

All PBG's Pokemon Snap content echoed around my head the whole time I played

This was another game my grandparents had for their N64. Will forever be another nostalgic experience going forward.

So much nostalgia for me on this game. Never had so much fun taking photos.

It's ok, I played it because it's a classic but it has aged awfully

Since we have (only) Two Snap games I'm sure I'll have fun with both.

It has some N64 crustyness (especially with the camera controls) like almost all the N64 library but it sure has that indistinguishable charm.

Love this game had an awesome time beating it after playing it for years and never being able too

During the Pokemon craze this game was released sometime after the game boy games I believe. I was bored for a while before getting the hang of it but after ”finishing” it, there wasn’t much replay value.

Lots of fun little secrets and cute scenes to play out and also you can beat the shit out of wild Pokemon with apples and gas balls. What a game.


La verdad es que tras revisitarlo, no es estrictamente un mal juego pero las comparaciones dejando mal a la entrega de Switch eran bastante injustas. Lo de los puzles es una cosa que debería estar en la secuela pero es cierto que este juego tenía 2 o 3 a lo sumo.

i really REALLY like when he says 'you were close!'

The Game Nobody Was Asking For, Now Beloved
See, the Pokemon Company of the late 90’s was a lot smarter than people give them credit for. This era of Pokemon games for consoles were defined primarily by NOT giving fans what they wanted. Instead we got bizarro experiments like Hey You Pikachu, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Puzzle League and Pokemon Snap, games that decidedly did not realize the potential of a full 3D Pokemon RPG that everyone was clamoring for (and something that wouldn’t happen for many years) but instead teased the rabid fanbase with ideas of what could be, working them up into a frenzy. I remember being kind of baffled and underwhelmed by Pokemon Snap back in 99’ but as time has gone by, my appreciation for it has only grown. I really like the idea of this on-rails photography game where instead of making Pokemon battle one another, you are simply observing them in their native environment. Well, and throwing a bunch of junk at them. Not the most responsible thing to be teaching kids perhaps?

One of my favorite N64 games.
A genius concept with a brilliant execution.
It lets me throw mustard gas at Pokémon while being encouraged by the Gilf agenda.
Espurr isn't in this game, so the devs better sleep with one eye open. I know this game pre-dates him, but that's no excuse.