The Joel MH: Pokemon Snap

Pokemon Snap is a first person on rails shooter involving the original 151 Pokemon, except you have a camera and some throwing objects such as bait and smoke bombs, as much as a first person shooter where you blast you way through team rocket with a klashnikoff and a assault rifle sounds awesome, this isn’t the case. Funny, for terrorists, you’d think Team Rocket members would carry guns, oh no i’ve been beaten by a 10 year old kid, oh well can’t have you telling anyone, bang.

The story involves a boy named Todd or in the DVD version of the anime just Snap, who takes pictures of Pokemon in their natural habits inside a protective dome like machine on a rail track for Professor Oak. I’m sorry his name is Snap in the anime, who were his parents, did they know he was gonna be a photographer when he was a baby, were they card playing gamblers who named him during a card game, or were his parents just cruel assholes. I mean what if Ash was named that because he’s destined to fight off zombies with a chainsaw, bloody hell, give your main character a proper name. Anyway Snap has to take photos of all the pokemon he can find to earn points, the better the shot is, the better the score which can unlock items which help get you furthur in the game and you can always keep your photos in your own personal album regardless of the score for them as the higher score version of the photo in the main album will replace the old one if it’s the same monster. Items on this game include Bait which can be used to lure wild pokemon towards an area to get a better shot or annoy a monster by hitting them with it which is also the purpose of the smoke ball which annoys them even more making them attack you, but luckily you’re invincible, so it’s not a problem and the other item is the Pokeflute which is used to awaken sleeping Pokemon as if they’re asleep you get a terrible score for them. By using these items you can effect nearly everything the Pokemon do, throw a smoke bomb at Charmeleon as he walks around a fire pit and knock him in and he emerges evolved as a Charizard and attacks you or leave a trail of Bait on the beach level to a surfboard for a Pikachu and he’ll leap onto it and act like he’s surfing which is a high scoring photo, and even the Pokeflute does more than wake pokemon, it makes some dance.

However this game does have it’s large problems, which can’t be said for the game itself, it only has a few levels which aren’t very long such as Beach, Tunnel, Volcano, River, Cave, Valley and Rainbow Cloud which is only unlockable after you’ve found all the special markings which level has of a pokemon that isn’t available normally such as a mountain range shaped like a Dugtrio or crystals on a wall that make the outline of Mewtwo. In fact each level is only 5 minutes long, not even that, you won’t clear everything in your first try through a level but this game can be beaten in mere hours. Mew itself is on the game, the only monster in Rainbow Cloud which to be beaten it’s shield needs to be taken out with smoke balls and then you have to quickly ‘snap’ it before it’s shield returns, but once you’ve ‘snapped’ it, there’s nothing to do until you reach the end of the level. This game also doesn’t even feature all 150 pokemon, it only features 65, so here we go:

Bulbasaur, Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard,

Squirtle, Metapod, Butterfree, Kakuna,

Pidgey, Pikachu, Sandshrew, Sandslash,

Vulpix, Jigglypuff, Zubat, Vileplume,

Diglett, Dugtrio, Meowth, Psyduck,

Mankey, Growlithe, Arcanine, Poliwag,

Weepinbell, Victreebel, Geodude, Graveler,

Rapidash, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Magnemite,

Magneton, Doduo, Grimer, Muk,

Shellder, Cloyster, Haunter, Voltorb,

Electrode, Koffing, Chansey, Kangaskhan,

Goldeen, Staryu, Starmie, Scyther,

Jynx, Electabuzz, Magmar, Magikarp,

Gyarados, Lapras, Ditto, Eevee,

Porygon, Snorlax, Articuno, Zapdos,

Moltres, Dratini, Dragonair, Dragonite, Mew.

Not really ‘Snapping’ them all are we, and I know there’s like 721 of them now but I’m talking about at the time. The game was made using the engine from Super Mario 64, like a lot of N64 games at the time and was developed by HAL, you know the guys behind Kirby and Super Smash bros. Rather than using the cries from the games, Pokemon tend to say their names like in the cartoon which I suppose is a good thing, and does slightly bug me why they don’t in the games now, but to be honest I prefer the animal cries. The game is filled with ‘side-quests’ which help you get better shots like in the cave level where you save Jigglypuff’s from attacking koffings which if you save them all it starts a jigglypuff concert at the end of the level. This game also had a crazy little ‘add-on’ where at the time you could take the cartridge to a participating Blockbuster store where they could print out your personal album, alas this is no longer the case. I guess the main problem with this game is that it feels rushed, like they ran out of time to add more levels so all the 151 were available. The game could of also benefited with some two player levels, see who can get the best snaps as it were but sadly this game can be beaten in under a day and if you see a copy, I wouldn’t spend to much on it, so is it bad, no, but I wouldn’t say it was good either, it was a new idea at the time, but it feels kind of bland like a lot of the Pokemon spin off games like Pokemon Puzzle Challenge. The music is rather bland and generic but it never gets annoying so it could be worse.