Why Does The New Pokémon Snap Game On Nintendo Switch Look So Stunning?

An on-rails game is going to be a lot simpler to maximize scenery than an open world game.

@Maelwolf Still no excuse for bad quality models

@mikegamer Models in S&S look fine to me.

I'm super excited for this. Played the 64 one a lot when I was younger. The fact that it looks great is nice too. This will probably be a day one purchase for me.

I think the models are fine (maybe a bit more motion). I would have liked a gang like Team Rocket and Giovanni in there. Even someone like Guzma would have been great.

While watching this trailer, the graphics were one of the big things that stood out to me.

Just wonder how many Pokemons will be in New Pokemon Snap.

"Bamco"???? Is it short for Bandai Namco or just a typo?

This game looks gorgeous. The water especially. That is some nice looking water.

Of course the graphics are better. It’s not being made by gamefreak. As much as we love game freak for what they’ve done with the series. It’s no secret that they are terrible when it comes to graphics animations. I hate to say it but game freaks formula has become stale. I would rather have someone else take a crack at the Pokémon franchise. Someone that know about online games, online community, and optimizing graphics for the system they are developing the game for.

It's not hard to look better than Sword and Shield but this looks amazing.

I wish someone else had the chance to do a mainline Pokemon game. Gamefreak doesn't cut it anymore.

@Maelwolf lol at “open world game” ... are we just throwing away those words at every modern game just because it had 2 “big” areas and it’s the fad?

Lmao... yeah yeah...... and no... they don’t have any excuse.... look at what Monolith Soft created with their world. Game Freak has no excuse to make such a dull barren land. I mean, I’m not even complaining about the graphics of their “areas” (which, yeah, look like ass)... I’m talking about the laziness of it.... there’s no inspired design in any of the wild areas.

When ps2 games like Shadow of the Colossus have a better design, elevation, bridges, settings, caves, ruins, vistas, etc than your game which was released 3 generations later... then you know the team is not the adequate for the task at hand.

Because one is a partly-open world game (both DLC packs are entirely open-world) and the other is perhaps the most on-rails game ever.

With that said, Sword/Shield still looks pretty underwhelming. An update to the ground and tree textures alone would improve the visuals drastically, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next mainline Pokemon game to see such enhancements.

Pokken Tournament DX is still the best-looking Pokemon game to date, though being a fighting game with under 30 Pokemon helps immensely.

@Maelwolf look at Breath of the Wild and tell me it can't work in a more linear game like Pokemon

@Tendogamerxxx don't you get tired of being negative in literally every single one of your comments?

@Isaix It’s been a common nickname for Bandai Namco for some time now.

@Isaix common shorthand

I'm fairly certain that the models in New Snap are the same as the ones in Sword & Shield. The things that are really making this stand out are the animations and the environments. I'm still very much of the mind that Sword & Shield were meant to be 3DS games, but had a hard change in plans when the Switch took off like a rocket while new 3DS releases were largely getting ignored by consumers. They tried to patch things up where they could, but had little to no time to do so with no wiggle room in the release schedule.

New Snap on the other hand looks like it's been made from the ground up for the Switch. The water in the screenshot used above looks a lot like the beach kingdom in Mario Odyssey in style. This being a picture taking focused game the animations are everything, so it makes sense that Bamco would put extra attention into those details. I imagine Sakurai has also been a great influence on them when it comes to quality and understanding their fanbase after working together on Smash Bros.

Now, I'm not saying GameFreak should get a pass for what they pulled. They really should have delayed, or at least hired a temp to fix the N64 trees in the wild area after the E3 response. They should also have YEARS of data of fan feedback to know that literally every 3D Pokemon game has had people checking DOUBLE KICK to see if they finally gave it a real animation.

At least now it seems like they are acting on some of that years worth of feedback. The Armour Isle looks good, and the time I've spent in it I feel like they've made much better use of the environment design. I also feel like there's been a bit more attention given to the animations, and there have been long requested features like having your Pokemon follow you making a return. I kinda feel a bit optimistic that if they can show some real progress with these DLC that they could actually give us something good next gen when they actually do make it for the Switch from the start. I think what would be wise is bringing in Bamco to assist with the next gen games. Let them take care of the detail work to make the games really shine.

I would like any AAA studio to make a mainline Pokémon over Gamefreak. The Pokémon titles deserve more polish and direction than they’ve given them in years. Look at Zelda BotW or Mario Odyssey from 2017 and tell me you wouldn’t prefer a Pokémon game to look as good as them.

@HammerKirby However awesome BotW is..

1. The game has a WAAAY LONGER development time than S & S.
2. It has a lot less "monsters" than Pokémon. (Every single Pokémon in the game needs to be modelled, animated, textured, etc)
3. It doesn't have some other features Pokémon requires to have; trading, battling, multiplayer, etc.

@sanderev I would love for the Pokemon Company to get longer development times. I also think it would help if they outsourced the models and animations to another company so they can just focus on gameplay. Sword and Shield was decent, but could've been better.

@ComposedJam lmao get better excuses

Here's the thing about SwSh that demonstrates GameFreak's incompetency. The split-screen shots of allies and opponents before battle, and in between raid actions. Nothing complex is happening during those times, yet they not only run at 15fps, but animations run at half-speed.

Man need more of bandai namco haha.

Why? because the game as a whole is just one big script

i think the Pokémon series needs a reboot. Forget all the previous games, trading, pokémon just all of them. It needs a fresh start with completely new RPG mechanics, new battle system, new Pokémon and new worlds.

I'm glad all gaming advice doesn't come from twitter randos.

This announcement was a dream come true. Day 1. 🙂

@Maelwolf SWSH is hardly open world though. The Wild Area has quite empty, has terrible pop-in, and even then, the ground textures and tree models aren't that detailed. If it was a stunning open world game, you'd have a point, maybe, but it isn't. The differences between BOTW and SWSH are night and day, and one is actually a true open world game.

If the next mainline Pokemon game is designed like the Sword/Shield DLC (where all/most of the game is a Wild Area-esque 3D region), all it would need is a photo mode and some basic graphical improvements to the ground/trees textures to render Pokemon Snap's existence as moot.

@Octane
Even a "fake open world" like Sword/Shield is still far more open than Pokemon Snap.

Were we watching the same presentation? I thought it looked pretty basic.

The water as Wailord was surfacing was awful. The apple that had only two states of being eaten. The rest of world looked nice but it was all fairly static. I'm sure it will improve. The "not actual gameplay footage" disclaimer made it obvious they're probably very early on in development.

What I'm really starting to get fed up with is how every Pokemon of the same species looks absolutely identical. Not every tabby cat looks the same.

Are folk really basic enough to think it's because it's Namco? Really?

Man, that's quite depressing. Where are all the gaming enthusiasts at?

@westman98 That would require ambition from Gamefreak, so for now, there's a definite niche for Pokemon snap.

@ROBLOGNICK Don't say that, this looks already better than Sword and Shield, so you can't critique it

No, but I do think you're right. The water splash animations could use a little more detail. Primarina swimming looked a bit awkward as well, but maybe that's because it's just a weird looking Pokemon, not designed for graceful swimming in the first place...

@westman98 In terms of gameplay, yes, but you still need to render all of it.

S&S fans don't seem to be having an easy time. Let Monolith Soft develop a Pokemon game, and watch how much easier it becomes to defend. Unironically, this would be ideal—for me, at least.

I avoided buying S&S because nothing really interested me there, but I plan to pick them up on sale somewhere down the line. They're strictly going to be games I buy for the sole purpose of adding them to my collection. That said, it's likely New Pokémon Snap will be my second Pokémon game on the Switch. I would've called it my first, but I completely forgot about Pokken. I'll undoubtedly get more time out of New Pokémon Snap than I did with Pokken. New Pokémon Snap has about 2 decades of anticipation behind it. Can't wait!

Imagine a game that's all about taking photos looked like SWSH does.

“Fans have been requesting a follow-up of sorts for the past 20 years now and it's finally happening.”

I’ve been dreaming of a new Wave Race, advance wars, pilotwings (a proper one) and F-Zero for many years now and it’s nice that fans of snap are finally getting their wishes filled! Now if only Nintendo would help me out...

@sanderev Yeah it had a shorter dev time than BoTW but three years is by no means a short period of time. That's the same schedule that the last Assassin's Creed game and many other big AAA sequels get.

Gamefreak didn't need to model 800 Mons for SWSH. They upgraded all of those when SuMo came out so the only new creature models were 82 new ones.

Saying other games don't feature battling seems silly. And given the piss poor state multiplayer for SWSH launched in it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that we can't blame multiplayer for the game being ugly.

I thought we’d heard the last of the Sword & Shield crybaby’s.....but no, they’re still here complaining about a game which they no doubt purchased and enjoyed. The negativity on here is so tiresome sometimes.

@MysticX
Fully open 3D regions have already been done in the Wild Area + both DLC expansions, and upgrading the ground/tree textures is not ambition - it's expected lol.

@Octane
Sure but the rendering pipeline becomes much more simplified and streamlined when you are on-rails with little control over your own movement.

It's almost as if a developer forced into doing yearly releases isn't going to have the same level of polish compared one who does occasional ones.

Was there even a slight hint of a release date?

@Isaix i think it a typo! It dont make sense!? Bit like jedward? 🤔

Graphics don't matter. Only gameplay. In fact I'm upset the graphics look so good because it probably means the gameplay is trash. You can only have one or the other which is why I play Nintendo games and not xbox games. Xbox games look great but they all have trash gameplay. Nintendo games all look like trash but the gameplay is great. That's how I like it. Hopefully this runs at 504p 30fps to win me back.

@ComposedJam
You also don't need to release a pokemon game every 12 months. Fact.

I'd be down for almost anyone taking a stab at it other than GameFreak - but it'll never happen ever, sadly. Regardless of anything else they release, Pokemon will always be the name they can slap on something and watch it make millions. No sane corporate executive would ever let that money-maker go.

Also, as evidenced by last year, people see GameFreak as a family member rather than a development company - kicking them would lose a lot of what goodwill they have remaining.

@ryobi85 Bamco is common shorthand for Bandai Namco

What a crappy click bait article this is, a new low!

It's almost like Game Freak are complete hacks. Who knew.

Much in the same way Monolith Soft brought their expertise in open world planning to Nintendo's rock solid game design for Breath of the Wild, it would be great to see Bamco collaborate with Game Freak to bring their skill with visual design, and optimisation, to the next Pokémon game

@GrailUK This exactly! I'm a decent enough fan of Bamco properties, but I can't say in good conscience that their games always look great, or even good. The 10fps distant enemies from Code Vein haunt me to date.

@BlackenedHalo But then why call it Pokemon? If you want that in a game then play Shin Megami Tensai or Digimon Adventure: Cyber Sleuth. They need to find a way to translate what they’ve already go into a better system.

This is such a bait article, comparing this game to the mainline games from a visual point of view is unfair.

@NintendoPok
Any reason why you're being an ass? Just curious is all

@J-Biz because it would be about Pokémon...

To be honest, Game freaks worst game is better than Bamcos best game. So no, I want them nowhere near the mainline Pokémon series. I want Nintendo to develop the mainline Pokémon series.

An on-rails game will always have a graphical advantage over a game with freedom of movement.. take Crash Bandicoot in the PS1, because it was on a linear path literally nothing outside what you could see existed so it could put more muscle into the things you could. It couldn't run otherwise.

GameFreak definitely should have brought in more help from Nintendo to get their 3D engine up to par but it's not as easy as GameFreak bad, Bandai good. Looking at a Bandai game is one thing, playing is quite another.

@mesome713 Going to have to disagree with that, especially when game freak makes stuff like Little town hero, which no one cared about.

@Rodan2000 That's a pretty big assumption you're making if you think the people who don't like the game still bought it.

Sw/Sh were bland and ugly. Were there even 5 different things to do in the wild area? Ugly I can forgive. Bland I cannot.

Oh well, bring on Pokemon Snap! Played the original again last night and it's still perfect for some light pick up and play gaming. I imagine I'll be filling gaps with New Snap for a long time, especially with the portability.

@Kalmaro O yeah, I was just talking about the Pokémon team.Bandi Namco hasn't developed a single game I've like. Nor one that has sold big in numbers.

@mesome713 Have you played a lot of t of Namco games? They helped make a lot of stuff I like, such as the Digimon games and Dragon ball fighters Z

Graphics aside, it's the ANIMATIONS that make the Pokémon look so much more lively here than they ever did in the main series ever since those started going 3D and that makes me really happy here.

I'm happy with how good the game looks in general of course but the game could have looked like Sword/Shield in terms of actual graphics and I still would have been really happy if the animations remained as good and lively as they are in Snap. They actually look like living, breathing creatures here rather than animated mannequins made to look like animals. I don't even care if this game comes out in like 2022 or something, I want them to take their sweet time with this one, it looks really promising. I'm really happy with this one.

@Kalmaro Yeah, they are good helpers. Just suck at making massively appealing games. That's why I want Nintendo to develop Pokemon, nobody developes more massively appealing games than Nintendo.

@HammerKirby How is it negative?
You literally just agreed with what I said with in your comment. If you’ve been playing like Pokémon for a while now you’ll agree that Gamefreak has really had issues with the 3D jump. Perhaps the best thing for them to do is to stick with the mon designs and outsource everything else like you said. It’s not negative it’s the reality of things at this point. I feel like the mainline Pokémon series could do so much better in every category.

I thought Pokemon would at least match BOTW for graphics since it came out years earlier and was originally designed for a less powerful platform. But Gamefreak’s titles still act and look more like DS titles in 1080p. They are trying to make too many games and they need to step back and retool their entire pipeline.

@Yosher I think the importance of animations are going over some people's heads. Good animation can make even a stick figure come to life. Imagine that times 100 for a passable 3D model and you get what should have happened with Pokémon.

I'm tired of seeing Pokémon awkwardly wobble back and forth for double kick.

@Brydontk Well they did say they sucked at making games but are good at helping make them.

Now I'm curious to see which games did Bamco made first party that I like.

@Octane "The water splash animations could use a little more detail."

New Snap doesn't have a release time frame yet. Not even "tentative" or "targeting" so they still have time to make improvements and it should look a little better than this. Who knows, maybe it's a Switch Pro launch title. New Snap may release after HFW. And I don't think anybody here commenting on how good New Snap looks watched the HFW trailer. 😂

@Yorumi Yeah, like I said in another article, it's sad that I'm more hyped for spinoff games now over mainline ones for Pokémon.

@Kalmaro Exactly why I'm so happy the Pokémon (so far) seem to be very well animated in New Pokémon Snap! The lackluster animation was part of the reason why I didn't buy Sword/Shield, and actually the whole reason why I didn't buy the Mystery Dungeon DX game, because all the Pokémon just looked lifeless with the way they were animated. So it's really nice to see a change of pace with this one.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way either.

@Yosher I will admit that I got DX out of just pure fanboyism over the dungeon games, I will also admit that it didn't look as nice as the others. I almost wished they stuck with 2D.

@Kalmaro Same here. And I was pretty excited when it got announced, but when I tried the demo was when I noticed the lackluster animations and it just ruined any kind of immersion for me. Which is why I did not get it.

I still have the originals so if I wanna play it I'll just play either of those. Those old 2D sprites have a ton of charm to them, unlike the 3D animated models.

@rjejr please tell me what HFW stands for, Google only returns results for high frequency words and I'm almost certain that's not what you're referring to!

@Otoemetry re:HFW

You are correct, just tried google myself and yeah, I have no idea what any of that HFW stuff was. My apologies.

So I could just tell ya, or I could show you the trailer, b/c I'm guessing if you didn't know what HFW stood for you probably haven't seen it.

@Yorumi It's because people keep paying them to slack off, basically. Why try hard when just slapping a Pikachu on the cover nets you millions?

@Rodan2000 I would try to ignore them, if you can, people are just entitled - they like to act as if minor things have personally been done to upset them. I loved sword/shield, they were my favourite main pokemon games since gold/silver (and whilst I feel a few things could have been improved upon, I thought they looked great + were a lot of fun).

On the plus side, just about everyone has wanted a new pokemon snap game for years (and imo this looks like it has a tonne of potential to be excellent), so hopefully people will accept they had niggles about the main games, get over it, and focus their attention on the exciting future.

(Just wanted to add for anyone reading, I completely understand people being disappointed with a game - I have been excited for plenty of games, which turned out, weren't for me... having said that, the carry on is a little bit much).

Nintendo should have Bamco or Monolith help Gamefreak.

Xenoblade 2 looked fantastic on Switch, and it’s not like they have more models in Pokémon running around. I didn’t love the gameplay loop, but Xenoblade games look fantastic. Whereas S&S look like a PS2 game a lot of the time.

@RareGames You can't, on one hand, say people are carrying on too much ehile also downplaying the complaints people have had.

The complaints go much further than a few things. We were lied to from the start, just a lot of people either don't care or never knew... Or they know and still don't care.

@Maelwolf

I agree, the game is massive and with that number of pokemon some corners cut are fine.

@rjejr Are you actually expecting them to make a game for the Switch look as good as a PS5 game?

@Kalmaro
As I have already stated - people are allowed to dislike something, and I don't in any way think people should avoid voicing complaints. My issues stem from the fact that the same people have been complaining about issues they had with the game/s since November. Accepting things and then letting them go is a big part of life, and if people can't do that - they're setting themselves up for disappointment down the line.

I followed the news about pokemon fairly closely, so i'm well aware of the misrepresentations - and as I said there are things that could be changed. That does not mean that I have to dislike the game, nor does it mean someone else has to accept it. I understand that some long term fans might feel betrayed (although, I am unsure that's the correct way to put it), but so many people, like me, have played since gen 1 and still had a great time, despite the innapropriate mis-selling of the game/s.

I will reiterate, the same people that have complained about it from day one, and still continue to do so every opportunity they get, really need to accept things for what they are.

My last few points are(also part summary):
I agree, lying when you're selling a product is unacceptable, but at the end of the day it's just a game and it isn't worth getting so worked up about.
I fully understand issues people have, but to keep at it after so many months doesn't really have any benefit. What it does do is rile up the people that didn't get what they wanted, and it also comes off as a little whiny to those that liked the games. More than anything, it's somewhat draining for people that just want to read comments about the thoughts of other people on other games - perhaps exarcerbated by the current global situation.... regardless it kind of kills the mood for some people.
Final point - sorry if this doesn't fully demonstrate my feelings towards everything (I won't be going into detail about my personal life, but I have a learning disability called dyspraxia - and part of that means that I find it very difficult to convey feelings/ explain anything). Sorry if this message has come off as condescending in any way, it isn't my intention - but I have spent over an hour trying to put this all down in a way that (I feel) makes sense.

Please don't be offended if you respond and I don't message back - this was a more of a timesink than I initially expected, and I don't think I can convey it any better, even with more time.

Not a PKMN fan, but I've noticed the spin-offs tend to have better graphics and more creative ideas than the mainline games that release alongside them. They aren't all winners, but Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Snap, and Conquest are real standouts that draw me in more than the main Pokemon RPGs.

@EdwardElric No, not even close. But the title of the article above is - "Why Does The New Pokémon Snap Game On Nintendo Switch Look So Stunning?" - it isn't - "Why Does The New Pokémon Snap Game On Nintendo Switch Look Better Than Pokemon Sword & Shield?". Which is actually what the article is about.

If you are going to say a video game looks "Stunning", well unless you say what it looks stunning in comparison to, then it's open to interpretation.

@rjejr Oh, ok. Thanks for clarifying.

@EdwardElric You're welcome. Dig the avatar, we just finished Brotherhood. The anime, not the live action movie, little leery of that one.

I'm not really into Pokémon games anymore. The last one I tried was moon and I got bored after about 10 or something more hours into the story... But Pokémon Snap, I played that a lot as a child! Such a simple but engaging game. I really hope they can get the feeling of the N64 game with some modern twists. Also, I would really like game freak to renew the main series, people are pretty upset with what they did, not because of the quality but because there is no real innovation. And I would love to restart playing Pokémon games. Nowadays it shouldn't be a big problem to rethink a franchise, especially as it's one of the better selling game series in the world. They could use two triple A games budgets. But it's not only about the money, it's about courage.

@rjejr Don't watch the Netflix movie. It was terrible.

what does the Japenese fan base say about it, that's what I am most curious about

Well, have you seen their work on games like Code Vein, Jump Force and Tekken 7? It's all thanks to the use of Unreal Engine as their main rendering engine, which is probably the case here too. These guys are like EA and Ubisoft in terms of how many AAA games they can handle at the same time.

However, I also noticed that the trailer was running at 60fps. To be honest, that left me in some doubts on whatever it was actually running, but I hope it's actually early Switch footage modified to run at 60fps. Their technical work on SSBU was excellent, so I'm having faith they can achieve something marvelous with Pokémon.

And yeah, it's looking really good, like a CGI movie that I always wanted a mainline Pokémon to look like Maybe Game Freak could learn anything from other developers about rendering these landscapes.

@ComposedJam
They've been releasing a new/remake mainline game since 2016.

Fact.

Please reply if you want to, you have my permission.

@EdwardElric Thanks, I kinda got that impression from the trailer.

My son, going to college this summer, liked FMA:B so much he started writing an entire sequel. His brother and my wife are helping him, and from what I've heard it's coming along pretty good. Like 20 years in the future, starring everybody's kids, war w/ the north, some DBZ Olympics type tournament. It hits every cliche' but it's fun to hear it get fleshed out little by little. I'm sure it already exists in some online fan fiction somewhere but it's still nice to see the family bond over creating something. They tried doing Cowboy Bebop but really where do you go after Cowboy Bebop?

Maybe not the entirety of the game, but hell... At least for the Pokemon models. They have a helluva more life than those stiff plastic toys they call "Pokemon" in SWSH

Because it wasn't originally developed for the 3DS/Cellphones like sword and shield was and then ported over haphazardly and in a huge rush.

@ComposedJam
I expected a reaction to my last comment, but I wasn't expecting to upset you.

Hope you feel better soon

@ComposedJam
Upset enough that you felt you had to respond despite saying you were done

@kenyowa 😂😂 i know dude! I was been sarcastic. Sorry. Happy gaming and have a gaeat weekend yall!

I'd love to meet the person that switches from the mainline games to snap because of the gwafix. 😂

@Maelwolf You've probably been responded a few times but i mean, look at the trees on sword and shield dude.

because GameFreak isn't responsible . it's quite simple.

@rjejr Yeah, Cowboy Bebop's ending is so good it would be hard to make a sequel.

Isn't the Pokémon snap concept a bit dated in this day and age?

@fadedcolors I own the game, I am fine with the graphics. I can respect that you may have issues with the models, but others don’t.

$60 would be way too much for it, though. Even Captain Toad had a more suitable price for what it offers.

I personally wasn't too impressed with the graphics other than the water shader. The colours were just too saturated and harsh IMO. I'd have to see the finished product before judging it though.

@Maelwolf They're still from the 3DS games

@Isaix combo named for shorting of full name but then again i dout they are making it seen as if u check their twitter and main website there is no mention of the game