Pokémon Snap

Originally announced as a Nintendo 64DD title, the development of Pokémon Snap was moved to the Nintendo 64 due to the 64DD's delays. The gameplay is similar to other first-person games, viewing from the perspective of protagonist Todd Snap as he moves automatically on a rail. The objective of the game is to take pictures of Pokémon with an in-game camera, using items such as apples and "pester balls" to achieve better shots. After each round, players are judged based on the quality of their photos. The Nintendo 64 cartridge could be taken to either Blockbuster or Lawson stores in North America and Japan to have pictures from the game printed on stickers, whereas the Virtual Console version features the ability to send pictures taken in the game to the Wii Message Board and send them to friends. Its release was promoted heavily by Nintendo, including being featured in more than 86,000 hotels and a contest to send the winner to Australia. It was met with a mostly positive reception by critics, described as "addictive" by IGN and Boys' Life, and "innovative" by Electric Playground. It has also been compared to other video games with photography elements such as Afrika, Dead Rising, and Beyond Good & Evil. It has also been described as a notable example of photography video games. A sequel named New Pokémon Snap, developed by Bandai Namco Studios, was released for the Nintendo Switch on April 30, 2021.

• Developer — HAL Laboratory • Publisher — Nintendo • Director — * Yoichi Yamamoto • Koji Inokuchi • Akira Takeshima • Producer — * Satoru Iwata • Shigeru Miyamoto • Kenji Miki • Designer — * Shigezo Kawase • Takeyuki Machida • Masanobu Yamamoto • Shizu Higashiyama • Composer — Ikuko Mimori • Series — Pokémon • Platforms — Nintendo 64 • Genre — Photography • Modes — Single-player • Title — Pokémon Snap

• Illustration — A Pikachu surfing in the "Beach" level while being observed by the player. Pokémon Snap is a photography video game with rail shooter elements. The Zero-One follows a linear path throughout the level, viewing from a first-person perspective. Up to 60 pictures can be taken per visit. After completing a course, the player selects their best photo of each Pokémon to be rated by Professor Oak and added to the Pokémon Report. Scoring takes into account various aspects of the pictures, such as the Pokémon's size, its pose, and keeping the Pokémon in frame. Extra points are awarded for capturing a "special" pose or Pokémon, such as a surfing Pikachu, and if there are multiples of the same Pokémon within the frame. Scoring well in the Pokémon Report and photographing a wide variety of Pokémon is required to make progress in the game. Players can also use an "Album Mark" to bookmark their favorite pictures; this adds the pictures to a personal in-game album to view at a later date or show to friends. Players start out with only a camera, but as they progress, Professor Oak will provide them with a number of special accessories used to obtain better photographs. The game features seven levels: Beach, Tunnel, Volcano, River, Cave, Valley, and the special course "Rainbow Cloud". However, the staggered acquisition of accessories ensures that the player must re-explore the courses to discover new material. Levels must be replayed after acquiring new accessories in order to locate hidden Pokémon, alternate routes, or photographic opportunities that yield the best scores. The first accessory, apple-shaped Pokémon food, can be thrown to either stun or attract Pokémon. Another, "Pester Balls", are able to knock out Pokémon or flush them out of hiding. The Poké-Flute object is used in a variety of ways, such as awakening, irritating, or hatching Pokémon. It can also cause Pokémon to dance, and it can play three different songs, resulting in different dances from certain Pokémon. Additionally, players can obtain a Dash Engine for the Zero One, allowing the vehicle to accelerate and move faster than normal. The game features 63 of the original generation of 151 Pokémon.

Todd Snap, a Pokémon photographer, is summoned by Professor Oak to Pokémon Island, a place with a variety of climatic and geographic regions where Pokémon live relatively undisturbed by humans. Oak needs quality pictures to accompany his scientific findings and knows from past experience that Todd is the right person for the job. Using a motorized, amphibious buggy named the Zero-One, Todd explores the island and takes photographs of the wide variety of Pokémon that inhabit its environments.

Pokémon Snap was developed by HAL Laboratory with assistance from Pax Softnica. It originally started out as a non-Pokémon game called Jack and the Beanstalk. Named after the English fairy tale of the same name, the game was intended for the 64DD, a peripheral for the Nintendo 64. The game was developed at HAL's office on the second floor of the Nintendo Kanda building in Sudachō, Tokyo, by a development team called "Jack and Beans". This name can be seen in the intro video of Pokémon Snap, as well as in the credits. Jack and the Beanstalk was first revealed in February 1995, a year before the Japanese release of the N64, but the game was not heard from again. No screenshots or videos have been publicly released of it, and little is known about what the game looked or played like. However, it is speculated that some gameplay elements ended up in EarthBound 64, which started development in 1994 but was cancelled in 2000. Benimaru Itoh, one of the art designers of EarthBound 64, said in an interview that the game was to feature seeds. When planted, these seeds would grow in real-time, utilising the 64DD's internal clock.

On February 27, 1996, Nintendo affiliate Game Freak released Pocket Monsters Red and Green (released in the west as Pokémon Red and Blue). The pair of games became a sleeper hit and were followed the same year by manga and a trading card game. On April 1, 1997, an anime TV series debuted, turning the franchise into a national phenomenon that was later successfully exported to the rest of the world. After progress in the development of Jack and the Beanstalk was deemed unsatisfactory, the idea arose to turn it into a Pokémon spin-off. The game, now known as Pokémon Snap, was shown at Nintendo Space World '97. Satoru Iwata, one of the producers of the game, explained in a 2010 interview: "Originally, Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo 64 system wasn't a Pokémon game, but rather a normal game in which you took photos, but the motivation for playing the game wasn't clear. We wondered what players would enjoy taking pictures of, and later on we made a somewhat forced switch to taking pictures of Pokémon." Masanobu Yamamoto, one of the character designers, initially had a negative reaction to the switch, since it meant that a lot of work he had put into the project had to be scrapped. He eventually realised the change was for the better though: "That time, adopting the Pokémon world clarified what we should do and the direction we should head, and I came to like Pokémon, so I felt like that had saved us." During development, the team considered the ability to transfer photos to the Game Boy Camera using the Transfer Pak so that they could be printed using the Game Boy Printer; however, they felt too much of the image's quality was lost in the conversion to Game Boy, which output a low-resolution monochrome image, leading them to remove the feature. In 1999, Mother/EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi posted a five-part article series about Jack and the Beanstalk on his site, 1101.com. The series includes interviews with various people involved with the game, including Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto.

After turning the project into a Pokémon game, the title initially continued to be developed with support for the 64DD, an accessory for the Nintendo 64 that used magnetic disk cartridges with a bigger storage capacity, and which featured an internet modem and internal clock. The device made its first public appearance at Shoshinkai 1996, but after numerous delays, it eventually received a limited, Japan-only release on December 1, 1999, with only a handful of games. Almost all of the games that would have a 64DD version, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong 64, were given an N64-only release. In January 1999, the magazine Dengeki Nintendo 64 announced that Pokémon Snap was also no longer appearing on the 64DD, being published only as an N64 cartridge. Two months later, the game saw its release in Japan.

Pokémon Snap was released on March 21, 1999, in Japan, July 26, 1999, in North America, and September 15, 2000, in PAL regions. Nintendo and Japanese convenience store Lawson formed a deal where people could bring their copies of Pokémon Snap to Lawson stores in Japan and have pictures from the game printed as stickers. A similar deal was formed with Blockbuster, which exclusively printed stickers from players' copies of Pokémon Snap in the United States. They hosted a contest called "Take Your Best Shot", where the player who produces the best picture from Pokémon Snap to Nintendo would win a trip to Australia. Nintendo, partnering with LodgeNet, included Nintendo 64s with Pokémon Snap for more than 86,000 hotels with the intent of capitalizing on the Pokémon franchise for the holiday travel season. Nintendo displayed Pokémon Snap at a Pokémon event called "Pokémon League Summer Training Tour". The game's protagonist, Todd Snap, also briefly appeared in the Pokémon anime series shortly before the game's release.

Pokémon Snap was fourth on the chart for top-selling games in Japan for the week of its release, March 18 to March 24. For the week ending May 21, 1999, in Japan, it ranked fifth. In the United States, Pokémon Snap sold in excess of 151,000 copies in the first three days of its release. Since its release, it was the most rented game, up to October 22, 1999. For the month of November, it was featured in the United States' top 10 list of best-selling video games. For the week ending November 27, it ranked as the 10th best-selling video game, while it remained the most-rented video game for the same week. By the end of 1999, Pokémon Snap was the sixth best-selling video game in the United States, having sold in excess of 1.5 million copies. IGN attributed this success with "well targeted promotions" and the tie in with Blockbuster. According to the NPD Group, Pokémon Snap was the top-selling Nintendo 64 game of 1999 in the United States, as well as the fifth top-selling video game altogether. In the United Kingdom, it sold 6,500 units at launch, reaching No.9 in that week's charts, and replacing Perfect Dark as the top-selling game in the N64 Top Ten chart.