New Pokémon Snap is designed to be a relaxing game that allows players to sit back and take in the world of Pokémon around them, as they take snapshots of wild Pokémon playing, fighting, sleeping, or just living their best life. But as with any game, some fans will rush to complete the game as quickly as possible, and exactly how fast can that be? Releasing on April 30th for Nintendo Switch, New Pokémon Snap will be a challenge for players looking to do a speed-run of this game during it's opening weekend.
Since the game's announcement in 2020, New Pokémon Snap has had several trailers released that left fans speculating about what players will get to see in this addition to the Pokémon universe. With the new Scan Function announced in the latest trailer from Nintendo, players are opened up to a whole host of possible secret areas and potentially secret Pokémon, giving the game some room for longer play times. Nintendo has also done a great job of making this latest installment in the Pokémon series feel modern and connected to the real world, with easy photo sharing to the web, players will surely see a whole new class of photography, and have access to top-notch reaction and meme photos.
The original Pokémon Snap, which released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, took about 6.5 hours to fully complete, according to HowLongToBeat polls, and just 4 hours to beat the main story. New Pokémon Snap appears significantly longer; a few early HowLongToBeat responses put its main story at around 9 hours, and IGN reports two of its writers took 12 and 15 hours to finish the campaign.
How Long New Pokémon Snap's Main Story Is
The player will start off by meeting Professor Mirror, and his assistants Rita and Phil, who are researching Pokémon in the Lental region. Players are asked to photograph wild Pokémon in order to build up a compendium called the Photodex. Throughout the game, Professor Mirror will rate the photos that are taken based on a variety of different factors including pose, placement, and whether or not there are other Pokémon in the shot.
New Pokémon Snap players are seated in the NEO-ONE, a bubble-like vehicle that auto drives throughout the islands in the Lental region, as the player takes photos of said wild Pokémon. There are over 200 Pokémon to capture on film and players will have to be quick on the trigger if they want to catch the more highly rated action shots. So, even though it may only take a less than 10 hours to beat the main story, there's plenty of time to still spend with the game.
Source: HowLongToBeat, IGN