New Pokémon Snap

New Pokémon Snap is a three-dimensional (3D) photography video game with elements of the rail shooter and puzzle genres.^[1][2][3] The player controls a Pokémon photographer who is tasked by a research team led by Professor Mirror with taking pictures of Pokémon species in their natural habitat in the Lental region for their ecological survey.^[4] Additionally, the player is asked to investigate Illumina phenomenon, where Pokémon and plants known as crystablooms exhibit a strange luminescence.^[5] The region consists of six main islands that are divided into multiple areas representing biomes such as jungles, deserts, reefs and caves.^[6][7] The player explores these areas through designated courses, with certain courses being visited more than once but at different times of the day,^[8][9] a new feature to this game. These different versions are typically set at night, and can feature species and routes that cannot be seen in the daytime courses.^[10] On each expedition, the player rides in a pod-shaped multi-terrain hovering transportation vehicle, known as the NEO-ONE,^[11] that automatically follows along a linear pre-set pathway steadily.^[1] The NEO-ONE allows the player to take photos of the courses safety and rotate 360 degrees;^[12][13] the D-pad buttons can be used to immediately see behind the player.^[14] The player can also unlock a function that allows them to speed up the NEO-ONE on a given course.^[11] To control the camera, players can choose to use either the analog stick or gyro controls.^[15] In each expedition, the player is limited to 72 photos.^[14][16] Upon finishing the course, the NEO-ONE teleports back to Professor Mirror's lab, which acts as the game's hub.^[17] The lab, alongside the Research Camp outside it, also function as one of the game's courses.^[18]

The game originally featured 214 Pokémon species,^[19] increased to 234 species in the 2.0.0 update, from the first eight generations of the mainline Pokémon series.^[20] Taking photographs of each species adds their information to a compendium called a Photodex,^[21] where each photo the player takes is graded by Professor Mirror on a scale of one to four stars based on how rare the current activity of the Pokémon is.^[22] Photos are also given a score taking into account factors like shot composition, how close the Pokémon is, and whether they are facing the camera or not.^[23] Depending on the score, the photo would be awarded a bronze, silver, gold or platinum rating.^[24][25] As the player takes higher-quality photos, they earn Expedition Points that go toward improving the Research Level of each area in the Lental region. Achieving higher research levels will open up more levels to explore in that courses,^[26] allowing for new species to appear or for already existing Pokémon to exhibit new behavior.^[27] After Professor Mirror grades the player's photographs, players can retouch their photos using the Re-Snap feature.^[28] This allows the player to change the photo's parameters like zoom, brightness, and blur,^[29] as well as add photographic filters, photo frames, and stickers.^[30] These edited photos can be saved to a personal photo album separate from the Photodex.^[26][28] Players can upload their photos online to share with other players using the Nintendo Switch Online service, who in turn can help get their favorite photos be featured in-game by liking them, known as giving Sweet! Medals.^[31][32] Another system, known as the LenTalk, allows the player to take on tasks requested by the research team.^[23][33] By completing various tasks in a given course such as through exploring or by photographing specific actions of a Pokémon, the player can also unlock research titles that can be added to their in-game profile.^[27] The tasks also act as hints on how to achieve rarer three- and four-star photos.^[34]

To get better pictures, the player can unlock tools throughout the game and are encouraged to use them to coax out rarely-seen Pokémon reactions on camera.^[22][8] To lure out Pokémon or get their attention, players can use an apple-like fruit called a fluffruit.^[35][36] By taking a photo of a crystabloom flower, the player can unlock the Illumina orb item.^[37] Throwing a Pokémon an Illumina orb, it will cause the Pokémon to exhibit temporary effects of the Illumina phenomena by glowing; the orbs also serve to not only help the player take pictures at night,^[26] but also potentially change a Pokémon's behavior.^[38] Depending on the Pokémon, the Illumina orb can cause them display different actions such as help waking them sleeping, or even sometimes cheering them up.^[39] Activating crystablooms that are nearby Pokémon with the orbs can also have the same effect.^[40] Each island has their own orbs.^[38] Similar, the player can activate a music box that causes nearby Pokémon to dance.^[39][41] The player's camera can also act as a scanner, whereby they can identify points of interest hidden Pokémon as well as identify objects in the surrounding area.^[11][30] Certain areas of scenery can be scanned in order to unlock an alternate path, causing the NEO-ONE to divert on the new path and follow it to a new area.^[42]

At the end of each island, the player is sent on a research expedition to investigate the island's Illumina Spot, which are home to a large vibrantly-glowing Pokémon known as an Illumina Pokémon,^[43] which act as the island's guardian.^[44] These encounters act as a sort of boss battle, whereby the player needs to use fluffruit and Illumina orbs in-order to be able to get it pose and take hiqher-quality photos of them.^[45]

New Pokémon Snap was developed by Bandai Namco Studios,^[63] with the game being published by The Pokémon Company in Japan and by Nintendo everywhere else.^[64] Japanese game designer Haruki Suzaki served as the game's director, who had previously directed multiple Bandai Namco fighting games including Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Soul Calibur V,^[65] and Pokkén Tournament.^[16] The Pokémon Company's CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara serves as one of the game's executive producer,^[66] a role he has held for all projects of the Pokémon franchise.^[16] Other producers also include Toyokazu Nonaka, Akira Kinashi, Takato Utsunomiya and Kazunori Sugiura.^[67] Snap's lead designers include Yasuhito Kobayashi, programmer Sei Nakatani, and artists Tomoko Moriya, Makoto Watarai and Hidekazu Shirai.^[68] The lead composers and sound designers were Katsuhiko Iwama and Hiroki Hashimoto.^[69]

Prior to the development of New Pokémon Snap, the prospects of a sequel to Pokémon Snap being made had been discussed over multiple years. Tsunekazu Ishihara and Haruki Suzaki both stated in an interview with Famitsu that a sequel had always been discussed every new console generation, such as with the GameCube and Wii, but mentioned that development on a project was difficult to start up due to debates about how the game's gimmick would work and believed that "taking photos has become something we do every day and its novelty isn't what it once was, so it was a difficult concept to design a game around."^[16][70] During an interview with Polygon in 2012, series director and producer Junichi Masuda was asked about a Snap game for the Wii U that took advantage of the Wii U GamePad, to which he dismissed the idea. Comparing the idea of a new game from the original Pokémon Snap, Masuda stated that while "photography wasn't as widely spread in those days" releasing a new Snap would not be as interesting without a new idea as "everyone has a camera and can take photos whenever they want".^[71] The following year, Masuda would be asked a similar question about a Wii U version by Nintendo World Report. In response, he commented that "at the Pokemon brand we’re always challenging ourselves to try new things, to come up with new ways to surprise our fans and come up with new ways to play the game", insisting that a similar experience to the original on the Wii U would not be enough and that only when they have new ideas for the concept is when they would announce a new game.^[72] He made similar comments to Polygon the same month, with additional comments rejecting a similar experience on the Nintendo 3DS as well.^[73] Masuda would continue to get asked in 2014 in interviews with both Kotaku UK and Computer and Video Games, where he would acknowledge the amount of requests for a new game and admired fans' admiration for Snap, admitting that he would like to see a "cool new version of Pokémon Snap" as a player but believed that a remake with just better graphics would not be interesting; he added though that The Pokemon Company would not stop a new game from coming out and acknowledged that a direct port of the original would be "kind of neat as well".^[74][75] The original Snap would eventually be ported to the Wii U via the Virtual Console service, first releasing in Japan and Europe in April and August 2016 respectively,^[76] and later in January 2017 in North America.^[77] When asked by GameCentral in 2019 why there was not a "Pokémon Snap 2" on the Wii U or a part of the Nintendo Labo VR Kit, both Masuda and game designer Shigeru Ohmori laughed at the questioning, with Masuda reiterating that a sequel would need a "very unique twist" in order for it to be made.^[78] Snap's influence has also been seen in other Pokémon games. During an interview with Game Informer in 2016, Ohmori, director of Pokémon Sun and Moon, compared the games' Poke-Finder mode to Snap and believed fans would enjoy photography return in a Pokémon game.^[79] Critics also believe Pokémon Go to be a spiritual successor to Snap due to its real-world photography mechanic,^[80] with IGN writer Terri Schwartz elaborating that it was "a smart progression of Pokémon Snap's legacy." Additionally, Schwartz lamented the lack of a new game on the Wii U, calling it "a huge mistake that Nintendo wouldn't try to capitalize on the Wii U's technology".^[81]

Development of New Pokémon Snap began around the end of Pokkén Tournament DX's DLC cycle in 2018 and took just under 3 years to fully develop.^[65] According to Suzaki in an interview with IGN, Bandai Namco Studios earned the opportunity to develop the game because of their work on Pokkén Tournament. He elaborated that Pokkén incorporated world building into the background of the game by depicting Pokémon interacting with the world and cohabitating with people,^[83] with Ishihara even praising the team for the level of attention to detail in the backgrounds.^[16] Suzaki stated that this experience of showcasing naturally living Pokémon was got the developers to collaborate with The Pokémon Company again.^[84] However, Suzaki mentioned the main focus of Snap was to "build the world where wild Pokémon actually live" rather than just in the background of arenas.^[85] The developers began creating the world by thinking about the environment Pokémon species would live and create detail scenery whilst fully utilizing the Nintendo Switch's capabilities. Throughout the development, the team aimed to make "Pokémon the star of the game" by making them move naturally in their environments, with the goal that this would make the Pokémon fun to watch and take pictures of.^[83] When designing the environments, as well as the overall pacing of the game, Suzaki had in mind for them to be modelled like a theme park ride so that players would repeatedly play them to fill out their Photodex. Within the environments, Pokémon are allowed to freely roam around and was designed to balance with the replayable game elements. Over the course of development, the development team created different interactions and movements based on various scenarios in order to demonstrate a Pokémon's relationship with its environment, itself and other species. These behaviors were based on the species' nature, their appearances in other games and the behavior and characteristics of similar real-world animal lineage.^[82] These ideas would then be presented and reviewed by The Pokémon Company and Game Freak to make sure they matched the characteristics of the given species.^[82][86] One of the big decisions made during development was decided what Pokémon should be represented in the game, which was "truly hard" according to Suzaki as compared to the original Snap featuring 63 of the total 151 species available at the time,^[87] there were nearly 900 species to choose from during New Snap's development. To help guide the development team with this decision, they imagined a Pokémon's natural habitats and ecosystems in order to research them, before then narrowing down the roster by considering how a Pokémon would live and act in its environment, ending up with a final roster of over 200.^[88] Using the Pokémon species Quagsire as an example, he explained that while he wanted to add it based on its chilled nature, it was only added to the game because of the opinions of multiple people. He also added that during development, he grew fond of the Pokémon Bidoof.^[89] One Pokémon species, Shroomish, was originally cut from the final game despite appearing in the game's reveal trailer. The reason for the decision is unknown,^[90] however, Shroomish were later added in one of the courses added in the 2.0.0 update.^[91][92]

Multiple developers were brought onto the project over the course of development, with the team starting out small and ending development with a team of around a "few hundred".^[65] At the start of development, the developers of the first Snap game, HAL Laboratory, were approached and consulted during the start of the project.^[83][93] During this phase, the development team considered many different ideas for environments that could appear in-game, with one of the potential environments being in outer space. This idea was eventually rejected due to the selection of Pokémon that could appear being rather limited.^[89] Suzaki admitted in an interview that the development team had discussed whether to change Snap's core concept. The team would eventually decide to stick with the core concept after reflecting on the original game and hearing about its development, which he said served as "a big influence on development," and instead the team focused on finding aspects of the concept to expand on in order to sell it to a modern audience.^[70] This was in part due to believing that taking photos had become commonplace unlike the first game's release 20 years prior due to the presence of social media and smartphones.^[65] Through this, the team developed a vision of the game that kept the core gameplay whilst also adding new features that reflected how people currently interact with photographs.^[86] Suzaki explained that "the result is a simple game of taking pictures in a world where Pokémon are alive and well in nature, but at the same time there is a variety of contemporary ways to play with photography",^[93] and encouraged for players to use a "combination of these tools, timing, and situations" in order to get better shots.^[88] According to Suzaki, one of the major additions was the addition of research levels. Whilst the behavior of a course's Pokémon will remain the same, the research levels allow for variations of a course that can exhibit different behavior without a need for the base version to randomly change.^[82] The star rating system was another new addition and was created to allow players to understand Pokémon better by taking various different scenes of it, with each star acting as rarity scale on how rare each behavior or action is to encounter.^[93] The system itself was built off of the original evaluation system from the first game due to it being perceived as "easy for everyone to understand", and so whilst some internal mechanism of the system was changed, they wanted to keep it simple without it being "too strict or complicated." ^[65] Another feature from the original Snap that faced scrutiny was the photographic film limit, as modern cameras can store significantly more frames than cameras at the time. Suzaki believed that having a limit was what made playing the game fun so opted to keep the limit but expanded the total camera film to 72 shots; Ishihara elaborated the number was chosen as it was double the original's 36-exposure film, which was the standard limit for cameras around that time. Both the evaluation system and the film limits were designed in order for players to enjoy the other modes such as photo editing and sharing, as the pair anticipated players would want to share their photos on social media.^[16] Other additions made included the zoom function on the camera and the ability to edit photos with the Re-Snap feature, with the latter being mentioned by Suzaki as an example of how the game was to designed to enjoyed by everyone and not specifically new players.^[86] One of the biggest differences between the original Snap and New Snap is the removal of the Pester Ball item. In the original, the Pester Ball could be thrown at Pokémon to stun, irritate or even knock them out, which according to Suzaki could be "perceived as something a little less kind in current times", so the item did not return.^[93] However, he acknowledged that the item did serve a key purpose in Snap's gameplay, so it was decided that it's functionality would be added to the Fluffruit item instead, whereby the player can choose to toss the fruit at a Pokémon to annoy it without harm rather than tossing the fruit near them instead.^[86]

When developing the game for the Nintendo Switch system, developers wanted to utilize as much of the console as possible, such as using its updated graphics in order to create more detailed environments and varied Pokémon expressions not capable on previous hardware.^[93] Suzaki explained it was particularly important for the Pokémon to have complex animations in order to sell the idea that they are part of the world the player would explore. He also mentioned that whilst he wanted the environments to look realistic, they were not meant to be photorealistic, with the end goal of creating a world that "[combined] beautiful backgrounds and complex Pokémon movements that emphasize their individual characteristics."^[86] Other functions of the Switch Suzaki mentioned was its gyro function that allowed the console to function like a real camera, its portability that would make it easier for players to show their photos to others, and the Nintendo Switch Online service which would allow players to send their photos to other players globally.^[65][86]

The game was first revealed in a Pokémon Presents livestream on June 17, 2020,^[94][95] showcasing some of the features and Pokémon that would appear in the game.^[96] More details would be revealed in January 2021, such as the game's file size,^[97] pricing and a release date of April 30, 2021.^[98][99] The game would later receive another trailer in the following Pokémon Presents in late-February 2021, which was in-celebration of the Pokémon franchise's 25th anniversary.^[100] More gameplay footage would eventually be revealed closer to the game's launch date.^[101] In Japan, a web video was aired that acted as an overview of the game and featured narration by actor Eiji Akaso. According to Akaso, this was his first time trying narration and for his work received Pokémon-related merchandise from the recording staff.^[102] Another commercial for the game featured actor Kokoro Terada and YouTuber Fuwa-chan.^[103] The Pokémon Company also partnered with Japanese content creators to promote the game by providing an early live commentaries on their YouTube channels, such comedy duo Shimofuri Myojo and vtubers Shirakami Fubuki, Minato Aqua, and Omaru Polka of Hololive Productions.^[104][105] In the lead up to the release of the game, Nintendo launched a website that allowed users to explore the Lental region and earn exclusive rewards such as a picture frame as well as Nintendo Reward Points.^[106]

New Pokémon Snap was released worldwide on April 30, 2021, about 22 years after the release of the original Pokémon Snap.^[106] Alongside of the release of the game, Nintendo launched a line of themed stationary, such as a letter set, on the My Nintendo loyalty program; the merchandise could be exchanged using Platinum Points.^[107] In Japan, CoroCoro Comic hosted a competition where readers would send the publication their best in-game photos for the chance to win. The winner would receive a custom New Pokémon Snap-inspired Nintendo Switch dock decorated with drawings of a camera and the Pokémon Pichu and Meganium, as well as a signature from Pokémon series artist Machito Gomi.^[108][109] On July 16, 2024, New Pokémon Snap released in mainland China due to a partnership between Nintendo and Tencent, becoming the first Pokémon to release in the region since 2000 due to the country's video game console ban lasting from 2000–2015. In this version, certain iconography was slightly altered, which was speculated to have been changed due to the icons resembling the emblem of Taiwan.^[110]

To promote the game, Nintendo announced collaborations with different brands and companies. A Pokémon Go in-game event, held from April 29 to May 2, featured Pokémon from the Lental region.^[111] In Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, which released four months prior to Snap, a scene involving the protagonists Ash Ketchum and Koko features cameo appearances of both Phil and Rita in the background taking photos together. Conversely, concept art for the movie appear in the game's laboratory.^[112] Nintendo worked with Fujifilm to introduce a mobile app on launch day that lets players use their Instax brand of Mini Link printers to print out screenshots stored on the Nintendo Switch, including photos taken in New Pokémon Snap. Before printing, the app allows users to decorate their photos with filters and photo frames inspired by the game, as well as from other games like the Mario franchise and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.^[113][114] Alongside the release of Snap, a special edition version of the Mini Link with a Nintendo Switch color scheme and a Pikachu-shaped silicon case was also released,^[115][116] which quickly sold out.^[117] Japanese network printing service Lawson Print [ja] (ネットワークプリントサービス) collaborated with the game by offering a service to players to have there images from the game become real photos real photos or be used to create calendars. Additionally, they provided print numbers for their multi-copy machines [ja] (マルチメディアステーション) where people could convert their photos into stickers or bromides.^[118] This service was later discontinued at the end of September 2021.^[119][120] Nintendo also collaborated with Seven-Eleven Japan for a marketing campaign from April to May 2021, whereby customers who purchased a download card for the game at any Japanese 7-Eleven store could redeem digital wallpaper for their smartphone through a provided website.^[121] In June 2021, the official Japanese Pokémon Twitter account held a contest for players called the "Clumsy Photo Contest". The contest saw players go against the game's typically gameplay by tasking them to take and upload "clumsy-looking" photos; entries for the contest saw photos depicting Pokémon that are mid-blink, extremely close to the camera, cut-off or that are not acting photogenic.^[122][123]