The Pokemon franchise has mostly reached the dizzying heights it has via the core series of RPG games and the trading cards, but fans will know there are plenty of spinoff games out there, and most of them are pretty damn good.
One of the most fondly-remembered spinoff games is the N64 gem Pokemon Snap. Released in 1999, nearly 20 years ago, Pokemon Snap was essentially an on-rails shooter – but instead of blowing Pikachu’s head off with an assault rifle, you just take nice photos of all the wild monsters. Bless.
Of all the N64 hits that never got a sequel (and there are so many), the lack of a Pokemon Snap 2 is the one that stings the most. While Game Freak has added plenty of photo-taking features in subsequent releases that feel… Snap-esque, what the people really want is a full blooded sequel.
It’s especially frustrating when you consider that the Wii U, the 3DS, and the Nintendo Switch all feel like they were purpose-built for a game in which you move around taking photos of Pokemon, so what gives? Are we just never going to get a Pokemon Snap 2? Is it healthy for me to tie my happiness so closely to the release of a sequel for a 20 year old game? I have so many questions.
As it turns out, there’s still a tiny sliver of hope that a sequel may well one day become reality. Metro’s Game Central recently spoke with Pokemon producer Junichi Masuda, and asked him the one question I think we’d all ask if we were in a room with him – where the hell is my Pokemon Snap sequel?
When Game Central pointed out that the Wii U and Labo VR are perfect tools for Pokemon Snap, Masuda simply said that they’d need to come with a “unique twist” to make the game a reality.
Masuda explained:
All I can say is that I don’t think we can just make the same thing again. So we’d have to come up with a very unique twist on this if we do make another one.
I’m all for unique twists, but at this point the real twist would be Pokemon Snap 2 actually being made. 20 years, guys. 20 years.
So there we go. Masuda obviously hasn’t explicitly confirmed that Pokemon Snap 2 is in development, but his comment certainly implies that a sequel could be released one day. That’s something to hold on to on those cold, lonely nights.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.