Pokémon Snap

It’s been nearly 10 years since Pokémania has hit here in the states, and in that time there have been numerous games, spinoffs, and sequels covering almost every genre you can think of. Snap is technically what you’d call a rail shooter. Yes, you shoot Pokémon, with your camera.

You are the latest assistant to Professor Oak, preeminent pokémon guy in the pokémon universe. He wants you to go out and get photographs of all the different kinds of pokémon that inhabit an island. Your weapons: a camera, and eventually food, ‘pester balls’ (they look like they smell bad), and a flute. You have a car that’s on tracks and goes through an environment where pre-scripted events happen. You need to take clear photographs of the pokémon for the Prof to complete his book. You get points for the style of the picture. More points for a pokémon being centered, more points for it multiples of the same thing in a shot, more points for the pokémon in a cute pose, etc. etc.

The real challenge in this game is to use the tools at your disposal to get the best pictures possible, and to get the most points. For a time, Blockbuster would let you print out stickers with your pictures, which was kind of neat, but those machines are long gone.

It’s a pretty neat concept for a game, but it’s way too short. I ended up finishing all of the courses in a couple of hours, and finished the whole game in less than a day. You can play the courses over and over again to get more points and better pictures, but it does get kind of old seeing the same few scenes over and over again.

One Response to “Pokémon Snap”

  1. [...] game is a rail-shooter, but with a bit of a twist. Depending on what you hit (i.e. how well your aim and reflexes are) you [...]

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