When the original Pokémon Snap was released in 1999 it was largely an anomaly, a game that was a spinoff to a juggernaut of a franchise but which removed most of the appeal and the gameplay assets of the original titles. You weren’t catching and raising these Pokemon and you weren’t fighting others to “be the best,” instead you were taking photos of them; that’s it. The game was a spinoff that probably shouldn’t have worked, but it did and became a fan-favorite for a generation of Pokémon trainers. So when Nintendo finally, 22 years later, released New Pokémon Snap there was perhaps an assumption that lightning couldn’t strike twice, that the distance between the titles was a sign that the first game only worked because of when it was released and our collective nostalgia. What New Pokémon Snap proved though is that this is a corner of the franchise that is a perfect encapsulation of everything fans love about the entire series.
