9/10. Would have been a perfect 10, but I can't find a blockbuster to print out some stickers.

 

Lol, isn't that feature still in the game? I never did it so I've no nostalgia for it.

 

They pretty much replaced it with Pokemon Instagram.

 

God damn I love this game. I don't know how much replayability it will have, but playing through it is so wholesome.

Seeing a Scorbunny doing tricks on a sign, and then realizing that there's a couple Pokemon sitting below watching the performance.
Mareanie absolutely wrecking a Corsola.
Wingull scooping up a fish Pokemon.
Machamp just fuckin' flexing on the beach.

10/10, would throw an apple to murder help a pokemon take a "friendly nap" again.

 

> Machamp just fuckin' flexing on the beach.

Spoiler

The sharpedo eventually convinces it to do a swimming race. The machamp loses and sits there exhausted.

I wonder if they'll do DLC? Pokken had DLC iirc, but it might be harder here.

 

I want one of my tools to be a Gengar so that I can freak out pokemon and get that snap. The 'spooked' star lmao

 

Pre-ordered Snap, then played it for about two hours.

It feels a lot like the original, and maybe this is my lack of time sunk into it showing, but it feels like it's missing a lot of the interactivity. Whereas in the original you would change the behaviour of pokemon by bopping them on the head with apples, send them scurrying into a flock of pidgeys which would get riled up and make a little gust cyclone, in this one you seem to be watching a much more static environment. Oh, sure, it changes, but not because of your interactions. It changes because you rank up from multiple visits, and the static behaviours on level x+1 are more exaggerated than on level x.

This feels almost inevitable in the dumbing down and padding out of Pokemon, even in the side games. Lol, Mystery Dungeon DX outright has an autoplay feature.

I hear New Snap is genuinely good and loved by people who've sunk lots of time into it. That's cool. I enjoyed it for the nostalgia, and my serious lack of free time and many other games waiting for me to play are all factors in my restraint here. I wasn't immediately hooked and engrossed, but I definitely feel that's a me issue, not a Snap issue. Hell, it's a super chill paced game. It's supposed to be low-excitement. That's a valid design choice for a relaxing experience. Despite the fact that I've got almost no time out of the game, I really wanted it for those rose-tinted feels. I don't resent buying it because I really wanted it. Such is the experience of trying to play games as an old man. RIP.

 

There's definitely interactivity still, but you're right it's a bit more muted. The illumina orbs are the things that change a lot of behaviour -- for example you can throw the orb at a pokemon that powers it up so it uses an attack that opens an alternate path. There's a few of those puzzles in every level - the challenges you get are hints of the behaviour changes you can figure out.

 

Lol, I didn't even mention my biggest, most scathing criticism.

The apples have been replaced by "fluffruit" which look exactly like apples but are promised to be light and gentle and not hurt the hoothoot I'm pitching it at with the fury of a summer storm.

Violence against animals is a core concept of the pokemon universe, gawwwwwd.

 

Free DLC, apparently.

 

Oh fuck, it's Mew, they got me.

I still want my boy Dragonite in there somewhere, though.