Soon Pokémon trainers can compete to be the very best photographer, like no one ever was, as New Pokémon Snap launches on Nintendo Switch April 30.
Over twenty years after the Nintendo 64 original, players will head to the Lental region on a mission to photograph wild Pokémon. Lental is a series of isles with various ecosystems, “an untouched natural marvel” packed with critters from all regions. The core gameplay mechanic remains the same: ride an automated cart through an environment, taking pictures of the creatures who cross your path and maybe using food to lure out rarer encounters.
What has changed, however, is the sheer scale of the franchise. While the original Snap featured 63 Pokemon from the original 151, New Pokemon Snap will feature over 200 out of approximately 900 current species of Pokemon. A trailer released today shows a wide variety, including classics like Lapras and Meganium as well as newer creatures like Grookey and Primarina.
Players will be able to choose a female avatar, unlike the original, but will still submit their photos for scoring by a professor—not Professor Oak, but Professor Mirror, Lental’s resident expert. Picture composition and the placement of the Pokemon in the picture remains the main basis of grading, making the game a crash course in photography as well.
In every way, New Pokémon Snap appears to be a faithful update to the N64 original’s formula. This is just the tip of the spear for the franchise’s 25th anniversary, as Nintendo Game Freak have teased many more announcements to come (with a teaser trailer featuring Katy Perry, for some reason).
