There has never been a better time to be a Pokémon Snap fan than during the Switch era. From the excellent New Pokémon Snap delivering a sequel over 20 years in the making to the long-awaited rerelease of the original Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, it seems like the spin-off series is finally getting the love it deserves. And yet, if all that Pokémon Snap love wasn’t enough, the team at Ghostbutter Games has released their own excellent spiritual successor in the form of Penko Park.
What makes Penko Park immediately stand out is its visual style. In many ways, the game looks like Pokémon Snap meets the aftermath of Jurassic Park. The various creatures have overrun the once tourist-focused island, adding an element of uneasiness to the world. Some critters may look cute, but the vast majority have a creepy, Tim Burton-esque look to them. Combined with a whole group of creatures that can only be discovered by entering each stage’s spirit world, Penko Park undoubtedly has a sense of eeriness that gives the game its own identity.
Penko Park draws heavily from the original Pokémon Snap in its gameplay. Piloting an automatically-driven vehicle with your Penko tour guide, your goal is to explore an abandoned wildlife park, photographing and documenting the various creatures within. Most creatures have multiple emotions and reactions you need to photograph, which can be achieved by using various tools and gadgets you will slowly unlock. Some will be familiar, such as a ball you can throw at creatures to startle them, while others are brand new, like a grabbing claw. As you add more photographs to your compendium, you’ll gain experience, leading to new upgrades and areas to explore.
Thankfully, Penko Park’s gameplay loop is just as enjoyable as the one established in Pokémon Snap. Taking photos of new creatures, discovering each stage’s unique secrets, and upgrading your gear to unlock more interactions is as fun as ever. Despite this, Penko Park does feel lacking in overall content. Each stage is packed to the brim with plenty of creatures, interactions, and secrets to discover, but the total number of stages is disappointingly low. There are only four main stages, which means you are unfortunately going to be revisiting this small number of locales repeatedly. Along with the game's short three to four-hour length, the fourth revisit to a stage can feel more like padding than a meaningful experience.
Despite its repetitiveness and short length, Penko Park is still a wonderfully charming successor to Pokémon Snap. From the delightfully creepy atmosphere to some fresh new upgrade ideas, Penko Park is successful in both honoring its roots and creating its own identity. Fans of Pokémon Snap would be remiss to overlook this game and will surely have a great time discovering everything that Penko Park has to offer.
Comments 11
I never liked the "spiritual successor" games. Never good enough for to be called a sequel or way too different to be a successor. More like a weak marketing slogan.
Woo that is creepy. No thank you.
@AstraeaV
I don't mind it when it's the same company as the original, but a sequel doesn't make sense.
Although a somewhat flawed example,it's like rare perfecting their fps design after goldeneye, but moving on to a different agent.
(It's off the top of my head, so it clearly isn't a perfect example, as I wouldn't really call perfect dark a spiritual successor, but something like that situation works for me with spiritual successors).
@AstraeaV It's not a case of being good enough to be a sequel or successor. The implied notion of your statement that this isn't considered a successor or sequel to Pokémon Snap because it's not the same quality is entirely nonsensical.
It can only be a sequel if it's part of the same series and designed to be the next entry in said series such as Tears of the Kingdom being the direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, which this isn't. It's nothing to do with Pokémon.
It can only be a successor if it's designed to be the next replacement for the previous entry. Overwatch 2 would be an example of this as it's a new entry replacing Overwatch. Which again it isn't and it isn't trying to be.
An example of something that is both sequel and successor would be Splatoon 3, as it continues the story mode of 1 and 2, but is designed to replace 2 in terms of it's core online play.
'Spiritual successor' is just the terms for what this is. A new IP directly inspired by and taking queues from another IP. It's not designed to be the next in the series or to replace previous entries (they don't have the rights to do such a thing even if they wanted too), it's a new thing someone else has made based on a previously existing thing. It's got absolutely nothing to do with quality.
@AstraeaV Also, a series that received a new entry last year doesn't need a spiritual successor.
@Ogbert Agreed. Hence the "spiritual" and not "literal" successor.
@C-Olimar They're not trying to fill a "need" for anything, it's a game they wanted to make that is inspired directly by Pokémon Snap. Also this would have been in development before that sequel was announced, games take years to make.
Also, it's NintendoLife describing the game as this, not the developers.
Is it as good as Afrika though, Another Pokemon Snap-like game where you document real animal instead of weird creatures.
Can a game from a team not involved truly make a spiritual successor? Especially if said game already had a recent actual successor.
I think it would help if there were creatures I'd actually like to take photos of... "Alba: A Wildlife Adventure" and "Beasts of Maravilla Island" did that a lot better for me.
@McGloomy each to their own but I think these creepy lil’ guys are awesome!
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