Nintendo has announced that Pokémon Snap, the 1999 Nintendo 64 game that lets players take pictures of various Pokémon in the wild, will be relaunched for the Wii U. The game is slated to hit the Wii eShop in Japan on Monday, April 4.
According to reports, the Wii U version of the first-person Pokémon spinoff will be a direct port of the Nintendo 64 game. This means that it would likely use the console's regular control scheme rather than utilizing the Wii U's gamepad as a camera.
The main goal in the game is to have players take photographs of wild Pokémon and to send them to Professor Oak for evaluation. This is different from other game titles in the series where players are supposed to catch Pokémon using Poké balls.
Professor Oak will judge entries based on the size of the subject, its pose and how it was kept in the frame for the shot. He will also give extra points to players if they are able to capture a photograph of a Pokémon striking a pose, such as a Pikachu trying to surf, and the number of the same kind of Pokémon included in the shot.
Players are able to travel to various destinations, much like a safari, in order to observe Pokémon in their natural habitat, including beaches, rivers, valleys, tunnels, caves and even a special course known as the "Rainbow Cloud." They can to take up to 60 photographs for each visit they make to a course.
To advance in the game, players need to score well in the Pokémon Report and they have to take pictures of as many kinds of Pokémon as they can.
Pokémon Snap proved to be a huge critical and commercial success for the Nintendo 64, which is likely why Nintendo wants to introduce the game to a younger generation of players through the Wii U.
However, there is still no word yet from the game developer if the Wii U version of the Pokémon game will also be made available to other regions as well.
