Over a decade later, 1999’sPokemon Snapfinally got a new game.New Pokemon Snapgives Pokemon fans the opportunity to observe Pokemon in their natural habitats and interacting with their friends. For fans who were never into the idea of catching adorable creatures and pitting them against each other in battle,New Pokemon Snapis the alternative.
WhileNew Pokemon Snaphas gotten good reviewsoverall, it’s not perfect. Some fans are upset that the reboot didn’t include the evolution feature the original game had, and others feel limited by the small number of levels.New Pokemon Snapis not a mainline game, and as a result, it doesn’t have the same scope or selection of Pokemon. That said, the tutorial can feel out of place.
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New Pokemon Snap’s Tutorial is a Slow Start to the Game
When players startNew Pokemon Snap,they’re greeted by Professor Mirror and his research assistant, Rita. It’s exciting to meet these new characters, but they aren’t the main attraction. When players jump into the game, all they want is to get started on their first adventure.New Pokemon Snapis essentially a safari game that focuses on appreciating and uncoveringsecrets held by Pokemon and the environments they live in, but the game doesn’t start out that way.
After introducing themselves, Rita explains how touse the camera to take pictures of Pokemon, using Pikachu and Vivillon as examples. It wouldn’t be so bad, but Rita takes her time explaining how to use the camera and players can’t even move the camera until Rita instructs them to do so. The initial controls only consist of moving the joysticks and pressing A, which shouldn’t take that long to explain.
Professor Mirror joins in after players have had the chance to take three pictures that are mediocre at best due to the limitations, and explains how to rate the photos. It’s exciting to see which photos score really well and a challenge totake the perfect, four-star diamond photo, but nobody cares about the tutorial photos and everyone has the exact same ones. Professor Mirror doesn’t need to take another five minutes to explain the star rating system and score the sample photos, at least not before the player has gone on their first expedition.
The result is players clicking through the dialogue, impatient to embark on their first safari adventure. And it comes eventually, but the tutorial experience makes opening up the game much less exciting than it should be and hinders a lot of the magic. When players finally do get togo to Florio Nature Park, it’s a lot of fun, but they may start the level feeling annoyed rather than excited.
New Pokemon Snap’s Tutorial Doesn’t End With the First Course
Each track and research level brings new Pokemon into the gameand adds variety to their activities, but the tutorial continues to slow it down several more times. Once players know how to move the camera and snap pictures, they learn how to run a scan in an entirely new tutorial that’s separated from the rest of the game.
Running a scan only requires pressing X, so why does it need a whole tutorial? From there, players practice throwing Fluffruit to Rita’s Pikachu and learn how to use thelab to edit and share their photos online. Tutorials are necessary for any game and the features need to be explained, but they need to do so without taking the player out of the moment too much.
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What New Pokemon Snap’s Tutorial Should Be
Tutorials are a necessary and helpful part of the video game experience, but they should help enhance a player’s experience with the game rather than detract from it. When players open upNew Pokemon Snapfor the first time, they just can’t wait to get out into the wild and start taking pictures of Pokemon. Instead of spending fifteen minutes explaining how to use the camera’s most basic features,New Pokemon Snapshould drop players in and let them discover it for themselves. Or, at most, have a short explanation.
The thing aboutNew Pokemon Snapis that it’s not a particularly difficult game to master when it comes to the controls. That’s a big compliment because the controls are intuitive and for the most part the game is relaxing. Even though it’s a little bit difficult to aim Fluffruit and Illumina Orbs sometimes (especially when it comes to the"boss" Illumina Pokemon), the action itself doesn’t require a lot of thought.New Pokemon Snap’stutorial doesn’t need to take time away from the main game to explain the mechanics, and the fact that it does just to teach the player how to press X feels extremely tedious.
Instead,New Pokemon Snapshould have integrated the tutorial into the main experience. The characters already talk to the player while they’re on a course, so it would have been easy to have Rita explain the camera controls while fans get to interact with the game. Then once players have taken photos that they actually had to work for, Professor Mirror can score them and it will mean something much more.
New Pokemon Snapis an amazing gamethat really captures the heart of the original, but like any game, it does have its flaws. Thankfully, once players have unlocked all the major features in the game they won’t be interrupted with tutorials anymore and can focus on enjoying the ride throughSnap’sbeautifully designed levels.
