Pokemon Snap exists in the same bubble as Pokemon Stadium, both being from a very early period in the franchise where seeing your favorite Pokemon in 3D was still novel. Whereas Stadium largely depicted Pokemon from the narrow viewpoint of battling, Snap lets you see them in their natural habitat, just being Pokemon. You can observe them forging for food, chasing prey, bathing... yeah and then you can take pictures of them... yeeeah...
Uh, I mean, it's all strictly for scientific purposes! Everything is on the up-and-up in Professor Oak's lab, yes sir.
Pokemon Stadium easily makes my list of games best enjoyed during the Summer. It's barely a game at all, it's almost entirely vibes, the sort of thing you play when it's sweltering out, AC on full blast and sitting in front of a buzzing CRT. Every level is on rails, and your only task is to take pictures of as many Pokemon as you can, with each snapshot rated on certain criteria like how close to the center of the frame the Pokemon is, or whether or not the pose you got from them was unique. The only other things you do is throw fruit at and gas Pokemon. Again, it's for scientific purposes.
Whereas Stadium presented a narrow part of the Game Boy games on a larger scale, Snap gave us something that players had yet to really see outside of the anime. It was a lot of fun just seeing these little bastards interact, or pelting them in the face with apples and watching them go all googly-eyed from blunt force trauma. Different events would play out depending on whether you could coral a Pokemon to a certain location, triggering evolutions or changing your route through a level, even unlocking new levels or causing legendary Pokemon to appear in the process. It gave you a good reason to go back through each of the courses over and over again, just to see what new things you could trigger on each run.
While it's still perfectly enjoyable today, I think some of that charm might be lost on people who experienced Pokemon well after the fact. A lot of the novelty of Snap was due to the core series being on a handheld that was extremely rudimentary compared to its console contemporary, which itself could still only do so much. Of course, being able to save the photos you took and taking the cart to a Blockbuster to then print them out is another element of this game that's kind of lost to time. Snap absolutely holds up, but it was incredibly special in the moment.
I also really love the presentation. The music is very cheerful, and the whole game has a very carefree attitude. Even when Oak is laying waste to your photos and asking if you've even heard of the rule of thirds, you never feel like the game is asking anything more of you than to just have fun. Did find it a little weird when Oak asked me to do surveillance on his wife, though.
Uh, I mean, it's all strictly for scientific purposes! Everything is on the up-and-up in Professor Oak's lab, yes sir.
Pokemon Stadium easily makes my list of games best enjoyed during the Summer. It's barely a game at all, it's almost entirely vibes, the sort of thing you play when it's sweltering out, AC on full blast and sitting in front of a buzzing CRT. Every level is on rails, and your only task is to take pictures of as many Pokemon as you can, with each snapshot rated on certain criteria like how close to the center of the frame the Pokemon is, or whether or not the pose you got from them was unique. The only other things you do is throw fruit at and gas Pokemon. Again, it's for scientific purposes.
Whereas Stadium presented a narrow part of the Game Boy games on a larger scale, Snap gave us something that players had yet to really see outside of the anime. It was a lot of fun just seeing these little bastards interact, or pelting them in the face with apples and watching them go all googly-eyed from blunt force trauma. Different events would play out depending on whether you could coral a Pokemon to a certain location, triggering evolutions or changing your route through a level, even unlocking new levels or causing legendary Pokemon to appear in the process. It gave you a good reason to go back through each of the courses over and over again, just to see what new things you could trigger on each run.
While it's still perfectly enjoyable today, I think some of that charm might be lost on people who experienced Pokemon well after the fact. A lot of the novelty of Snap was due to the core series being on a handheld that was extremely rudimentary compared to its console contemporary, which itself could still only do so much. Of course, being able to save the photos you took and taking the cart to a Blockbuster to then print them out is another element of this game that's kind of lost to time. Snap absolutely holds up, but it was incredibly special in the moment.
I also really love the presentation. The music is very cheerful, and the whole game has a very carefree attitude. Even when Oak is laying waste to your photos and asking if you've even heard of the rule of thirds, you never feel like the game is asking anything more of you than to just have fun. Did find it a little weird when Oak asked me to do surveillance on his wife, though.