New Pokemon Snap Announced for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have officially announced New Pokemon Snap, a brand-new experience in the vein of the Nintendo 64’s Pokemon Snap, for the Nintendo Switch. According to the announcement, which includes a brief trailer, the game will as expected take trainers on an adventure to multiple islands to take pictures of various Pokemon. The game also brings back elements of the original game, including riding in a special vehicle and feeding Pokemon different items. Players will use the photos to create a special “Photodex,” and the game notably showed several Pokemon interacting with each other in the wild.

Pokemon Snap was first released on the Nintendo 64 in 1999 and served as one of the first real glimpses into the Pokemon world. The game allowed players to interact with Pokemon using Poke Balls, apples, and other items, and see how Pokemon reacted in the wild. Players could print off stickers using the photos they took in Pokemon Snap at special kiosks at Blockbuster locations.

Fans have begged for a new Pokemon Snap game in years, but the announcement still comes as a bit of a surprise. With the release of Pokemon Go, which places Pokemon in real-world settings using augmented reality technology, and features found in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, it seemed unlikely that we’d ever get a full remake or new installment of the game.

New Pokemon Snap does not currently have an announced release date, but it is known that it is being developed by Bandai Namco Studios and will release for the Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Pokemon franchise right here.