Welcome to Pokémon Snap

 So...

I haven't been in a good place mentally for a few months. My mental health went from standard passable to I can barely function as a human being over the span of a month. 

Thankfully, I have loving and supporting people in my life to help me out. I also have a doctor who listened to my concerns and took them seriously. 

Needless to say, I'm getting better, but it's a slow process. 

This weekend, my friend came over and brought her Nintendo Switch. She brought an array of games that were meant to be soothing and relaxing. I picked Pokémon Snap.

Pokémon Snap is a nostalgic game. Though I didn't have a Nintendo 64 growing up, plenty of my friends did. We'd spend hours going head to head in Mario Cart and Smash Bros or trading off playing Mario 64, Golden Eye, and Pokémon Snap. I remember you could go to the local Blockbuster and print out your Pokémon Snap pictures (I was, sadly, never able to).

Pokémon Snap stands out as one of the best games on the Nintendo 64 (definitely in my top 5). It was only in my 20s that I ended up with a copy and a Nintendo 64 of my own. It's a relaxing game where you take pictures of Pokémon. There's some plot and secrets you need to unlock in order to "beat" the game, but for the most part, the objective is to throw "apples" (that's not what they're called, but it's what they look like), play the flute, throw smoke balls, and take pictures. You get points for how "awesome" your pictures are - it's some kind of internal algorithm that can drive you batty if you think too hard about it.

Some of my favorite moments in the original Pokémon Snap include creating a zombie army of charmanders, knocking down metapods to block your path in the river course to extend your time, bopping a bulbasaur on the head with a smoke ball only for it to turn into a ditto, and, of course, surfing pikachu. 

The only downside is that Professor Oak in the game is a total jerk if you don't get the best picture. He won't even finish rating the photo if there's one thing off with it. It's quite infuriating after spending hours trying to get pikachu to pose just right on the surfboard only for the little guy to not be dead center in the frame. Can't have that.

This brings me to the new Pokémon Snap.

It's amazing.

When we first logged on, new places had shown up on the map - so more updates and unlockable items are still coming. Some courses have both a day and night mode or multiple tracks you can take to see different pokémon. Each new unlocked level for a course shows the pokémon doing different things and hanging out in different places. In Level 1 of a course, Koffing might be hiding in one corner of the screen, but by Level 2 he's flying around blowing noxious gas all over the place. New pokémon show up all the time. We even managed to unlock a new season in one course without knowing that that was a possibility.

There's a lot of play back opportunity for this latest Pokémon Snap. Now instead of only taking one photo per pokémon, you need to find four photos based on a star system. You get more stars based on the position and actions of the pokémon you get pictures of. There are also optional requested photos Professor Mirror (the new Oak - don't know why they got rid of the tree names) and his assistants ask for. 

Todd is all grown up. He was the protagonist of the original game. Now, you can create your own avatar to navigate and take pictures. It still takes a little getting used to the controls, but once you do, it's fun to catch pokémon at their craziest!

The picture reviewing mechanic in this game is fantastic!

Gone is Professor Oak's grumpy grumblings about not getting the pokémon in just the right location. Instead we have the overwhelmingly positive Professor Mirror and his young assistants Rita and Phil. Rite, Phil, and Todd all pop up occasionally to tell you how awesome your photography skills are. Professor Mirror is equally positive and encouraging while judging your photos.

Playing this game is a huge kick to the dopamine. It's positive, relaxing, and soothing. I don't stress about not getting a perfect shot and am delightfully surprised by new unlockable places and items. I think my favorite was when I accidently discovered that you could get the season spring in the elsewhere forest level. It was so pretty!

This game is one of the best I've played in a long time. My only question is why Nintendo and the Pokémon creators took so long to make a second game (it's been over two decades!). If you have the Nintendo Switch, I can't recommend this game enough.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I have.

Until next week. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.