Well, this has been a long time coming. Pokémon Snap for the N64 was a hit that nobody expected, and has been a beloved fan favourite since 1999. Its premise was simple, its execution smooth (well, smooth for the N64). And ever since then, Pokemon fans have been begging Nintendo for a sequel. But the Pokémon franchise has grown exponentially since the N64 days: there are over 700 new Pokémon across 8 regions (9 if you include this new Lental Region).

There’s always a sense of trepidation when such a long-awaited sequel finally gets announced. It’s been sought after for so long, but now that it’s real, will it really live up to all of our hopes and dreams?

Well, Nintendo really hit it out of the park this time. It doesn’t take long to discover that New Pokémon Snap exceeds far beyond any scope the original game could have dreamed of. Everything Snap 64 offered is blown sky-high. When you venture out to take your first few photos, you’ll be instantly charmed by how much love and effort has gone into this sequel.

As before, you control a young photographer tasked with taking photos of Pokémon in their natural habitat. Each level is on rails, so you only control the camera as well as a few other abilities such as scanning for points of interest and throwing various objects out of your vehicle. After the level is complete, you may choose which photos to show to your Pokémon professor, who will evaluate the photo based on a few different criteria. Pretty simple stuff, especially these days, so the details really need to be right to make the game a hit. Luckily, Nintendo has really understood what made the original game so beloved. There are more Pokémon, more ways to interact with them, more levels, and more things to do with your photos once you’ve snapped them.

Each Pokémon has several unique actions or poses that are ranked by an order of 1 to 4 stars. That doesn’t mean that each Pokémon only has 4 poses – in fact, each Pokémon has a fantastic variation of behaviours that depend on which stage you encounter them in, what you throw at them, and often even what other Pokemon are nearby. The new Professor Mirror, who is researching Pokémon behaviours in the Lental Region, will evaluate each rank separately so your ‘photodex’ will always be able to hold up to 4 photos of each Pokémon. The new Prof. is a bit better than good ol’ Oak at the evaluation process, but there are still times where your photo has registered the wrong Pokémon as the subject. It’s uncommon enough to be a minor issue, until you start trying to complete the many Requests you get (more on that later). You can still only submit one photo per Pokémon, which helps incentivise return trips.

A photographer’s work is never done

As you unlock new areas, your research mates will give you Requests: these are sidequests that challenge you to snap a shot of a particular Pokémon. The clear conditions of these requests are sometimes obvious and sometimes not, with some requiring a bit of puzzle-solving or trial and error. These should be welcome additions, since the puzzle-solving aspect of unlocking new areas as seen in the original N64 title is not present here. But thanks to the boneheaded way in which these Requests are implemented, they’re just an annoyance.

The problem lies in how you’re supposed to complete these Requests. You must present the picture you believe fulfils the conditions to the Professor, meaning you have to wait through the whole level until you get to the right moment. This also means you need to waste your evaluation for the Pokémon in question, which is tough luck if you happened to have snapped a different photo you know will get a great score. You cannot select a photo from your album to complete Requests, which is especially infuriating when you’ve already taken a photo of the Request by accident.