New Pokemon Snap – The Fatherly Review

Recently, my son and I started playing New Pokemon Snap together, and it got me thinking, “You know what would be a fun idea? Let’s review this game!” With that, The Fatherly Review was born, and my 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter instantly became pumped by the prospect of contributing to one review a month or so.

Since we were already playing New Pokemon Snap, we decided that this would be a perfect game to start off with, since it made the cut and was part of our Game of the Year 2021 Honorable Mentions. The Fatherly Review will be a bit different than usual, as my children will be giving me their insight and thoughts about the game, and I will put their thoughts together for a coherent review.

So what do we think of New Pokemon Snap? Is this a fun game? Or a poopy game? (Okay. I regret this already.) Let’s find out!

NOTE: These are mostly my son’s words, so please enjoy and give him some love!

The story of New Pokemon Snap is about Professor Mirror finding Ilumina Pokemon from a long time ago, and he wants you to take pictures of them.

When you start your journey for the first time, Professor Mirror talks about the meteorite that makes the Pokemon glow, like the Illumina Pokemon. And then you find three friends to help catch you up by learning new skills for the camera. For example, one of the first ones you learn is to take a picture, like press A. And after you do that, you unlock more areas, and you get better and better photos of Pokemon.

When you meet Phil, that’s how you unlock the lava level, I think. When you meet Todd, he wants you to know that he takes good pictures, like him taking pictures and putting stickers on Pokemon. These two are annoying, because when Phil says, “YEAH!”, it is loud and hurts my ears like a humming bird. Todd especially is annoying, because he likes saying that your pictures are good, even when they are bad.

When you see a Pokemon that you like, you usually take a lot of pictures of them, right? So if you want to take a lot of pictures of that one Pokemon, you can just take as much as you want. Also, in New Pokemon Snap, they don’t have all the Pokemon, which may be sad for some people, because your favorite Pokemon might not be in the game. There are only 234 Pokemon, which is about one-fourth of the current total.

Fluffruit, which are basically apples, are fruits that Pokemon like a lot. Or love a lot. Or some times don’t like. Fluffruits can also distract Pokemon by hitting them with the fluffruit. This might make them angry or wake them up if they are sleeping, but if they’re hungry, they will eat it. This is funny to me, because it makes me laugh some times when the Pokemon get stunned by getting hit by the fluffruit.

Some times when you see a Pokemon too close to you, you can take a picture of just their eye. Some times the Pokemon are also in the way of other Pokemon that I want to take a picture of, which I don’t like.

Your goal is to get all of the Pokemon in an area, so Professor Mirror can judge your pictures and give you points. If you level up, you can see new Pokemon in the same area, which is good for taking pictures of all the Pokemon. There are also Illumina Pokemon that glow and look really beautiful, and I really like taking pictures of these Pokemon. But also, some times it is hard to take Illumina pictures, because they have to glow a very particular way.

Now let’s talk about stars and points of the pictures. Each picture can have 1, 2, 3, or 4 stars depending on something (Rarity of the shot?), and Professor Mirror gives each picture points and bronze, silver, gold, or diamond stars. Bronze is the lowest, and diamond is the highest. A Pokemon is complete when you have a 1, 2, 3, and 4-star picture of that Pokemon, but I don’t think it is finished until you get all diamonds.

The graphics are better than the older Pokemon Snap, because the Switch is better and newer than the old Nintendo 64. New Pokemon Snap has already gotten a couple updates, so it can keep getting better than the old one. I think it looks really nice, especially the Pokemon that I love.

There is not a whole lot of music, but there is a Music Player that plays a silly song if you press R1. It is supposed to make Pokemon dance, but not really. They usually ignore it or go back to sleep.

Some times there are some secret things in the game that you have to level up to find. For example, the first area, called the Floria Nature Park, has a secret area that unlocks after you level up the area to 2 and complete more story. I think this is really cool!

I think that New Pokemon Snap is a really great game, especially for a person who likes to take pictures. It has a lot of stuff that you can do, like going to the internet or playing the story. The internet is fun to use, because you can share pictures that are really cute or funny or cool and you can also look at other people’s pictures.

It is really fun to play, it looks beautiful, and you can take lots and lots of pictures. My favorite Pokemon is not in the game, so that makes me a little sad. But it’s fine! There are still some Pokemon that I really like.

I think people who like Pokemon should play this game. It is really great, but Phil is the worst.

New Pokemon Snap The Fatherly Review provided by Nintendo Link
Review also found on OpenCritic
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: BANDI NAMCO Studios
Release Date: April 30th, 2021
Price: $59.99, £49.99, €59,99
Game Size: 6.0 GB