22 years after the original game was released for Nintendo 64, Pokemon Snap is finally getting a sequel, the not-so inventively named New Pokemon Snap. Honestly, I don't care about the name, I'm just excited to finally have the chance to traverse a new region doing nothing but taking photos of Pokemon in their natural habitat. Nintendo has revealed New Pokemon Snap will take place in the Lental region and feature over 200 Pokemon, so more than three times as many as the original game.
Stop Fighting And Start Start Snapping
The game doesn't feature every single Pokemon the ever-expanding franchise has to offer and that actually makes a lot of sense. It's not all about making less work for the developers. Almost 1,000 different species of Pokemon all living together on the same island doesn't make much sense. Pokemon are basically fictional animals, so they should be dotted all over the world, living in different climates and habitats.
Come to think of it, since Pokemon are animals, we probably shouldn't be capturing them, holding them captive, and forcing them to fight each other for our own personal gain. When the purpose of the mainline Pokemon games is laid out like that in black and white, it actually sounds pretty sadistic. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun and has given me some of my most memorable gaming moments of the past 25 years. However, maybe we should have been admiring Pokemon from afar and snapping photos of them from the beginning.
Wait, What About Evolution?
There are some clear and obvious problems with that hands-off approach. The biggest is that it would negate one of the biggest mechanics in all of Pokemon, evolution. Most Pokemon with evolved forms can only level up and evolve by battling against other Pokemon. That means if we weren't catching them and forcing them to fight, we might never see or even discover any of their evolved forms. No Charizard, no Togekiss, no Pokemon beyond the first evolutionary stage.
However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest this would not actually be the case. The Pokemon anime has shown Pokemon fighting each other in the wild, sometimes over food. While not explicitly revealed, it's assumed that the winner of these trainer-less battles would have gained experience and inched closer to evolving. Even stronger evidence that Pokemon really don't need us butting in has been in place ever since Red and Blue.
Then there are the Pokemon who need items to evolve. Since those items are almost always found in long grass or hidden in caves, chances are every now and again the right Pokemon will find the right item and evolve themselves. Evolved forms of Pokemon can be found everywhere in the wild, proving they don't need us to help level them up.
Let's start a new trend via New Pokemon Snap. A series of games that offers up a new Pokemon reality. One where we as trainers travel a world filled with new regions. Different Pokemon call each region home. The Lental region can kick things off, and perhaps be added to via DLC or maybe even additional games. Perhaps Pokemon Snap could even be a new way to introduce the next era of Pokemon as we eagerly await the arrival of Gen 9.