Fans have been waiting for a Pokémon Snap sequel for over 20 years, and now New Pokémon Snap director Haruki Suzaki explains why. Released on the Nintendo 64 back in 1999, the original Pokémon Snap tasked players with capturing Nintendo’s beloved pocket monsters in a completely different way - through flash photography.
This novel approach to the Pokémon RPG franchise was quite popular, so much so that players have been wondering for years and years about the possibilities of a sequel or remake featuring the expanded Pokédex to photograph that the series has built up since the Game Boy era. However, the only releases since then have been a couple of remasters of the original Pokémon Snap on the Wii and Wii U (with the latter being exclusive to Japan, at that) until a surprise announcement for New Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo Switch in the summer of 2020.
In an interview with Metro, New Pokémon Snap director Haruki Suzaki reveals why it has taken nearly 20 years and three home console generations to get the long-awaited sequel off the ground. He explained that there were actually "a couple of attempts at making a new Pokémon Snap before," but Nintendo decided that now was the perfect time to start on a new title given how "the idea of photography has changed so much in the last 20 years,” as well as the technical capabilities of the Nintendo Switch’s motion and touchscreen-based controls.
Many details regarding New Pokémon Snap have been slowly unveiled since it was announced back in July, including the game’s file size, scoring system, and improvements on the original’s fabled Photo Mode. In anticipation of New Pokémon Snap’s planned release on April 30, Nintendo has started to employ some creative marketing in the form of a new Twitter emoji and a brief gameplay video showing just how brutal the typically cute and colorful Pokémon world can be.
It's interesting to know that Nintendo was planning Pokémon Snap sequels before last year, as the motion controls of both the Wii and Wii U would have lent themselves well to the idea of aiming a camera and taking pictures of various Pokémon in their natural habitats. However, Nintendo decided to wait to see how photography has evolved over the past few years, hence why New Pokémon Snap was in the works for so long. This long wait will soon be over though, giving Pokémon fans one more reason to get excited.
New Pokémon Snap will be available for Nintendo Switch on April 30.
Source: Metro