Pokemon Snap

"A game that is easy to learn, but hard to master."

First of all, I've heard many people that claim this game's way too easy. These people are probably right, if they do things JUST to finish, and don't do quality work, since much of this game is learning to get a near-perfect picture every time.

GAMEPLAY - too addictive
When I first played this game, I thought I was going to hate it. But, after a few minutes, I learned the control style, and a little while later, picked up a few items, and before I knew it, an hour had passed in what seemed like ten minutes! But sadly, after two hours had passed, I had INITIALLY beaten the game. I say INITIALLY because I was nowhere near to being the best photographer I could be. What I like the most about this game are the many reactions each Pokemon has for each object, which will make you expirement to get the best photo. What would have been a great addition, though, is a random placement generator, so you would have no idea where the Pokemon are hiding!

GRAPHICS - fantastic
Although the levels are very-well detailed, I have never seen the frame-rate drop, not one bit. It also seems that Nintendo took their time for creating the characters, because they look very cool, too. In some of the later levels, you may see a pop-up from a distance, but you might not see it if you're not looking in the distance. All of the photos that you collect in your Album and Report look pretty cool, and some, (like my Pikachu and Zapdos), look absolutely incredible. Since I have printed out one-set of stickers at Blockbuster, I can tell you that no quality is lost from the game to the paper.

SOUND - fairly good
Even though the Pokemon don't exhibit too much sound (a major dissapointment), the voices do sound pretty realistic. I really liked the background music, because it really fits the mood of that level, and it's slow enough to hum to, therefore it got stuck in my head for a few days! In every game I play, I depend upon the sound to provide another way to tell me if something just happened. This game does this very well, because when something happens, a sound comes up to tell me I should take out the camera, and snap 'til my fingers go numb!

Value - you should buy it
For only $50.00, you can own a game, which is easy to learn, very-diffucult to master, and a lot of fun. I also think that Nintendo was smart to include only 63 Pokemon, because the levels would be far to crowded with all 151. However, if I were making the game, I would have made a few more Pokemon, and replaced a few spots where Pikachu is, because he simply appears too much.

Gameplay - 9.1
Graphics - 8.7
Sound - 8.3

Favorite Level - The Beach
Best Picture - Mew; for 9,860 points

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 07/05/02