☆ An honest review of the New Pokemon Snap ☆
I didn't really go into this game with the same nostalgia factor as so many others. At risk of showing my age here, I remember renting the original from Blockbuster as a kid & thinking it was boring.
But it did strike my curiosity, which slowly grew into the "hype" zone as the release date grew closer. It was a familiar feeling, because its basically the same kind of hype I felt towards Animal Crossing New Horizons last year. I also hadn't played that one as a kid, but was still curious about the franchise. Since then I've dropped around 1000 hours into ACNH.
I almost skipped out on purchasing the New Pokemon Snap on release day, but because of this I decided to go for it. And I haven't been disappointed.
Being both a gamer & an artist, I adore games that allow you to exercise your creativity, & that's something both ACNH & Pokemon Snap sucked me in with (on top of being adorable as shit.... of course, Pokemon being a franchise I've loved since age 6 doesn't hurt at all.... if you haven't been clued in by my Blockbuster comment, I'm almost 30...)
Now, I doubt It'll rival ACNH total playtime, or even Pokemon Shield's total (I'm currently sitting at about 245 hours on that one) but I didn't expect it would. Pokemon games always have fairly short, not very in depth stories, even the main games don't really deliver longevity on that front.
The hours come from how much time I can spend grinding & fulfilling my little completionist, post-game loving heart. & on that front, Pokemon Snap brings the goods. With around 200 pokemon to photograph in 4 separate tiers, each with their own individual ranking system of bronze to diamond tier stars, chances are you didn't get the perfect shot the first time around.... or the second, or third...
Especially since each course has its own level system where different Pokemon may appear & behave differently. And not to mention how legendaries don't come out of hiding until post game either. Just the photodex alone should keep players occupied for some time.
The photodex isn't the only thing to occupy players time though. There's also over 100 requests to complete, & many of these are a bit tricky. I personally chose to ignore these during my playthrough. If I happened to complete any by chance, then great, but I didn't go out of my way to stress over it. I wanted to ensure I had more to do later on.
On top of requests, there's also hundreds of titles to unlock by reaching certain milestones. Some requests & titles (& leveling up the courses) will reward you with new stickers, profile icons, & filters to collect. Idk about anyone else, but that's incentive enough for me to get my grind on! Lol
Soo while many may be skeptical of spending $60 on a game as simple as Pokemon Snap (I was at first too) I fully expect to at least get my money's worth sooner rather than later. I'm not sure how others determine the worth of their gaming purchases, but for me if I can spend one hour playing per every dollar spent on the game, then I consider it worth the price. I'm already sitting at 30 hours & it just came out on Friday, so I'm halfway there! Its been an addictive experience that I've barely been able to put down these past few days, so I definitely recommend checking it out if you haven't already!
*Fingers crossed that they announce plans for DLC some day. I can't help but crave more.* 🤞🤞
