See The Best Pokemon Game Return To The Nintendo Switch

One of the best Pokemon games ever made is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pass, and fans can once again relive its glory.

By Jason Collins | Published

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While the fans of the original 1999’s Pokemon Snap, a first-person photography game, got to enjoy 2021’s New Pokemon Snap on Switch, Nintendo has decided to make the original N64 game available on the console as well via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. The game itself is part of the original batch of games revealed during the Nintendo Switch Online N64 games announcement, alongside other classics, such as Zelda and Banjo Kazooie. You can check out the trailer below:

Nintendo announced that the original Pokemon Snap would release for their Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack on June 24, and gamers will be able to play the game with both the Switch’s N64 Controller and the console’s standard Joy-Con. The announcement trailer showcases the game played on Nintendo’s handheld, whose price recently dropped. Much like all other N64 titles that have found their way to Switch, the game runs in a 4:3 aspect ratio and allows users to create save states at any point within the game.

Of course, this isn’t an entirely faithful port of Pokemon Snap since it allows gamers who haven’t bought Switch’s N64 controller to play via the console’s Joy-Con, but with customizable button bindings. This should allow smoother gameplay between two versions of the game. Also, the older version of the game had fewer Pokemon compared to the New Pokemon Snap, which is fair, considering that there was only one generation of Pokemon back in 1999 when the original game was released.

The original Pokemon Snap was a spin-off of the main series of Pokemon titles, where gamers assumed a role of a budding photographer called Todd, whose assignment was to go into Pokemon-filled areas and take photos and interact with Pokemon. This was done via on-rail paths similar to sightseeing tours, and the game also had puzzles the players had to solve to get a rare Pokemon to appear.

Professor Oak, a vital character in the Pokemon Snap game, judges the photographs based on several factors, such as how close the Pokemon is, and if they’re in the center of the frame, so getting the perfect photo aim was quite important. Of course, better photos would earn more points which unlocked additional levels and to be quite honest, the game has aged remarkably well, and even without its re-release for Switch, it’s still a relevant gaming piece to this day.

This means that the Switch re-release of the original Pokemon Snap is something the gamers will welcome with open arms, considering just how beloved the original game was. Its addition to the Switch Online Expansion Pack wraps us every game that was originally announced, and with any luck, Nintendo will come up with more N64 icons that are worth transitioning to their most recent gaming hardware. Besides Pokemon Snap, witnessing Goldeneye N64 would be nice, but the list of legendary N64 titles is as vast as the console’s legend itself, so adding all those games would perhaps subtract a lot from the original Nintendo Switch releases.