New Pokémon Snap Review – Photographic Memory

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Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Bandai Namco

Reviewed on: Switch

More than two decades removed from Pokémon Snap’s debut on Nintendo 64, this unique gaming experience is finally back. New Pokémon Snap effectively carries on the spirit of the original game, tasking you to get the best possible photographs of Pokémon as you travel through environments on a rail line. And while it delivers all the excitement of nabbing the perfect snapshot, like any photography adventure, it's not without a few undeveloped negatives.

New Pokémon Snap has players assisting Professor Mirror in his research of the Lental region, a diverse area of the world featuring foggy forests, bustling beaches, and more. However, instead of helping the professor by catching and battling the monsters, you use your photography skills to capture them in a different sense of the word.

As you phase into any given level, you’re immediately surrounded by critters to frame up in the lens. With intuitive controls to photograph and interact with Pokémon at your disposal, speed is of the essence, as the Pokémon probably won’t stay in place for long. Whether it’s a Pikachu dashing along the shoreline or a Liepard lounging in the trees, you rarely have a shortage of potential subjects to observe and shoot. Seeing these Pokémon all around you from the first-person perspective is a wondrous experience, giving you an up-close-and-personal way to interact with the series’ beloved creatures.

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New Pokémon Snap does a terrific job of balancing the Pokémon in the environment; I rarely felt bored or overwhelmed by the number of creatures I came across. Since you’re traveling through their habitats, not all of the Pokémon are interested in interacting with you. Thankfully, you have various tools at your disposal to draw their attention. Fluffruit nudges and lures Pokémon to a specific spot, a melody player encourages them to dance, your scanner reveals information about your surroundings, and Illumina orbs cause creatures and plants to glow. I loved trying to figure out which tool would evoke the reaction I want from the Pokémon I’m trying to shoot; one creature might have zero interest in dancing or eating, but an Illumina orb might give them a burst of energy, causing them to perform a signature move.

Even the most swivel-headed photographers are sure to miss plenty their first time through an environment. In my initial journey into a sea level, my jaw dropped at some of the interactions taking place between Pokémon, like when a Wingull swooped down and snagged a Finneon out of the water, and I missed my chance to document them. Thankfully, when you replay the levels (and you will plenty of times), you know what to expect the next time you make the trip. In that same session, I couldn’t figure out how to get the best response out of the darting Sharpedo, but I had plenty of other chances thanks to repeat playthroughs.

Traveling through the environments numerous times can begin toeing the line of tedium, but New Pokémon Snap doles out new opportunities, whether that’s variants of the same level, a new time of day, additional tools, or previously unseen areas. Traveling to the same stage during the night may as well be called a completely new stage due to just how distinct the opportunities are. A lot of species are nocturnal, and New Pokémon Snap capitalizes upon that through the different versions of the levels.

Even beyond day and night, New Pokémon Snap typically keeps the experience fresh within those same stages. Just as I was growing tired of shooting the same Pokémon on the seafloor, I was given a new tool that allowed me to solve a puzzle and open an entirely new route through the stage. Then, the new Pokémon I discovered on that alternate path gave me enough points to level up that area, creating additional opportunities and introducing even more Pokémon to observe. Unfortunately, if you’re struggling to figure out how to get the best portrait of a particular monster, riding through the entire stage to get to that point only to fail once again can be frustrating.

Once you complete a run, you go through all the pictures you took and select one of each Pokémon to show to Professor Mirror. After you choose the shots you think will further your research (you can also have the game auto-select if you’re in a hurry), it’s time to see what the professor thinks of your work. Your photos are graded based on pose, size, direction, composition, and other factors, then assigned a score that goes towards ranking up the level in which you took them.

Documenting the region’s diverse collection of monsters and filling your Photodex with more than 200 species is rewarding. Sadly, the grading system sometimes misses the mark, rewarding higher points to clearly inferior photos; my close-up shot of Wailord’s tail splashing was given more points than a straight-on portrait of its entire body simply because it was doing a unique pose. Similarly, my clear snap of Pikachu was given a lower score than one where it was partially obscured by a tree. Seeing how my new snaps stacked up against my previous best is one of the most satisfying elements of the game, so it’s disappointing when the grading system misfires.

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As you build up your Photodex and help Professor Mirror with specific research requests, you unlock various rewards. I often disregarded the inconsequential Research Titles and Profile Icons, but I was always excited to unlock new filters to apply to shots that I saved to my photo albums.

While you can only submit your raw shots to Professor Mirror for Photodex consideration, New Pokémon Snap gives you the opportunity to “Re-Snap” anything in your camera. Using this nifty tool, you can reframe and readjust any picture you took, letting you correct any mistakes you made during hasty shoots. During one expedition, a Vivillon got just a little too close to me for it to be a great shot. However, using Re-Snap and the editing tools in the professor’s lab, I could adjust the zoom, tweak the framing, and apply filters and even stickers to complete the look. These edited images may be useless to Professor Mirror’s research, but they’re fun to create and share.

New Pokémon Snap delivers an experience similar to that of the original while expanding on the formula in ways that prolong the appeal of the expedition. In the two decades since the first game’s release, the Pokémon world has changed in innumerable ways, but the simple appeal of immersing yourself in this universe and taking pictures has remained unchanged.

Score: 8.5

Summary: New Pokémon Snap delivers all the thrills of the original game, but that throwback spirit isn't the only part of the experience that will give you a feeling of déjà vu.

Concept: Travel through on-rails levels photographing Pokémon in their natural habitats

Graphics: Impressive and vibrant visuals are only occasionally brought down by performance hiccups

Sound: Audio cues fill the environment, rewarding those who listen to their surroundings with the best photo opportunities

Playability: Simple and intuitive controls allow anyone to pick up and play

Entertainment: The thrill of nabbing the perfect shot never dulls, but the repetition of traveling through the same environments sometimes grows weary

Replay: Moderately High

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MLB The Show 21 Review – A Familiar Crack Of The Bat

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One

When a long-running sports series migrates to a new console generation, the fan base expects change. Developers usually answer that call with improved visuals, inventive gameplay ideas, and enhanced feature sets that couldn’t be achieved on older hardware. MLB The Show 21 doesn’t make a strong case to upgrade in any of these areas. You have to squint to see the graphical differences, the gameplay is identical, and the only content exclusive to new-gen are post-game commentary videos and a stadium creator.

The biggest improvements are reduced loading (shaving off about 10 seconds at any given time), smoother framerates, and a higher resolution – basically what we see from most cross-generation games. Rather than stepping to the plate as a flashy rookie who will redefine the sport, MLB The Show 21 is more akin to the savvy veteran who has been playing the game for 15 years.

Sony San Diego has achieved great success through yearly iteration, periodically dazzling with a new idea that catches fire. This year’s game focuses intently on improving the core on-the-field play, making it tighter, smoother, and more realistic. While not delivering a new idea will turn heads, a bevvy of gameplay tweaks and additions go a long way to make MLB The Show 21 the best baseball game to date. Yes, it’s long been the only notable baseball game in town, but it shouldn’t be shortchanged for that; the foundation has been fantastic and ranks as one of the best in all of video game sports.

This year, fielding benefits the most from iteration. With hundreds of new animations in place, fielders take more realistic routes to balls, and rather than make awkward turns to adjust to ball trajectories, they can now strafe to course correct. Infielders' swiftness is also highlighted more with cool little wrist flick throws if their momentum is carrying them away from a play. I saw far fewer fielding animation glitches or inaccuracies than I have in years past, and most of the flashy plays looked outstanding. I love the little flourishes that Sony includes, even after a play ends. It’s an incredibly fluid-looking game, and it’s amazing how quickly it can queue up a specific animation for a situation, like a rocket groundball eating a player alive.

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If you thought all the existing pitching mechanics were too easy to use to paint the corners and make batters’ knees buckle, a new Pinpoint Pitching system delivers a higher level of difficulty, as it pushes you to execute the timing and motion for specific pitches through different analog stick movements. A fastball requires little more than a flick down and up, but to execute a curveball or slider, you’ll need to make smooth circular motions. Any deviation from the required movement and speed leads to a loss in accuracy. While I love seeing the percentage as to how accurate I was with any given pitch, I found this pitching mechanic to be tiring over a nine-inning haul, and not as much fun as the old meter system, which is still in the game and better than ever thanks to rebalancing.

Road the Show is also a beneficiary of subtle, yet noteworthy change. Your rookie can now be a two-way player like Shohei Ohtani, giving the chance to both pitch and play the position of your choice. This player option gives you the best of both worlds; batting and fielding for four consecutive days and then toeing the rubber on the fifth. It's a fun (and rare) entry point into the world of baseball.

Road to the Show's development for all player disciplines is handled well, but too much emphasis is placed on stat bumps coming from collectible gear, like sunglasses, cleats, bats, and more. Player development ends up looking similar to a game like Destiny where you are constantly changing up loadouts for stat boosts. If you are a two-way player, you’ll want different loadouts for pitch and batting, which can be a nuisance having to retreat to the clubhouse to change it up.

Road to the Show’s overall gameplay and progression paths are mostly unchanged, but the post-game presentation and the semblance of a career-based narrative are improved thanks to videos and commentary by former big league players, MLB Network analysts, and other guests. Some of the Road to the Show changes hurt the experience, however. You can no longer truly pick a defined archetype, and given how player progression works, you can’t import your MLB The Show 20 player. That said, I do love how you can bring your new rookie into Diamond Dynasty to see how he fares in the competitive space.

It’ll take tons of playing and awesome loadouts to get him into the range of the 90-plus legends, but seeing your rookie in the lineup between the likes of Roberto Clemente and Ken Griffey Jr is pretty darn cool. The selection of legends offered right out of the gate is fantastic, as are the programs tied to some of them like Jackie Robinson and Eric Davis. Unlocking them takes some effort, as does earning currency to buy packs of cards (which is a bit more generous this year). Notable rewards are tied to the new Daily Moments, and legacy modes like Conquest and Programs have been reworked to reduce the grind and offer better rewards. Diamond Dynasty is once again flush with awesome avenues of play for both single-player and competitive reasons. Even with Road to the Show improving, Diamond Dynasty remains the main attraction, and makes assembling a roster a blast.

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Franchise mode received significant back-end tweaks that help with player development and evaluation. Revamped depth charts give you a clean look at the organization and who you may want to give a chance. In March to October, prospects now play a role in this single-season format, thanks to fast-track moments that give you the opportunity to boost a rookie to MLB potential. I'm still early in my March season, and haven't seen one of these moments, but I hope it adds a spark of youthfulness to my team late in the year.

If you make your own team in Diamond Dynasty or want a new home for your Franchise team, you now have the chance to create a stadium that fits your needs and style if you are playing on new-gen systems. The stadium creator is fairly complex and not as intuitive as I had hoped, but does allow for a high range of baseball cathedrals to be made. Using the loaded suite of options, I created a classic stadium like Fenway Park with giant blue walls in right and left field, and also a fantasy park with living dinosaurs roaming a prairie beyond the outfield walls. Sony needs to do a better job of highlighting the best user-created stadiums, and also removing the offensive stadiums uploaded by users, but I did manage to find a lot of great creations to explore and draw inspiration from.

For Xbox players who are jumping into The Show for the first time, Sony offers a nice onboarding system with quick and detailed tutorials for all avenues of play. This includes offering up a clear difficulty path right out of the gate for Casual (pick up and play), Simulation (based on player and team ratings), and Competitive (focused on stick skills).

As for what system the game plays the best on, the PS5 DualSense controller delivers better haptic feedback for specific in-game actions as well as 3D audio, but these are the only noticeable difference I saw between the Xbox and PlayStation versions. All paths into this year’s game are equally as good. Crossplay seems to be working great at launch, sans some connection/server errors during launch week.

MLB The Show 21 lacks flash and new experiential paths this season, but continues to improve on the field and beneath the hood, giving an entirely new audience of players a hell of a game to begin their baseball careers with.

Score: 8.5

Summary: Sony's long-running baseball series impress on the diamond yet again, but doesn't deliver many new experiences.

Concept: The best baseball game continues to improve, but doesn’t swing for the fences in its new-gen debut

Graphics: Fielding fluidity is much better this year, showcasing better routes to balls and cleaner transitionary animations. From the play on the diamond to the surrounding stadium, the entire game looks stunning and delivers a high level of realism

Sound: The commentary team follows the flow of play nicely, and the short post-game podcasts help flesh out your rookie’s career in Road to the Show

Playability: The new pitching mechanic adds challenge, but isn’t as much fun to use as the legacy options. Road to the Show and Diamond Dynasty are subtly improved and offer great experiences that go hand-in-hand

Entertainment: Even without many new features, The Show impresses with its play and wealth of content. There’s something for everyone

Replay: High

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Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139 Review – New Blood, Old Veins

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Toylogic

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Nier Replicant’s bleak world is over a decade old (the original Nier released in 2010), and yet its morbid commentary on human frailty still resonates. This bittersweet narrative is supported by enhanced character models, satisfying hack-and-slash mechanics, and a haunting soundtrack that spins a riveting tale of its own. At the same time, outdated features that made the original game tedious to play remain present, and that’s because Nier Replicant is neither remake nor remaster of that 2010 title. Creative director Yoko Taro prefers the term “version upgrade,” and this moniker fits perfectly – for better and for worse.

Fans will immediately notice Nier: Automata’s influence; Replicant’s combat is simple and flashy. A new lock-on camera makes parries and evasive maneuvers much easier to perform, but light and heavy attacks remain your bread and butter. Chaining combos with an array of different weapons or executing incapacitated foes emerge as the fastest ways to win engagements. Fancy animations, like midair twirls and slow-motion ground slams, made the melee action feel exciting enough for me to actively seek out clusters of adversaries of my own volition.

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A repertoire of dazzling magic truly brings these barren battlefields to life. You can equip two abilities at any given time, so experimentation is key. I usually paired Dark Whirlwind – which conjures spinning, crimson blades to deal AoE damage – with Dark Blast’s rapid-fire bullets so I could always stay on the offensive. You can also give commands to your companions, but other than outright ordering them to disengage from time to time, I never noticed any changes in their behavior.

You need these mystical powers to survive because the world is dying. Small settlements dot the countryside where umbral monsters called “shades” rove in packs. What’s more, a mysterious disease is slowly eating away last vestiges of civilization. The withering state of humanity is far more personal for you than anyone else: Yonah, your little sister, is slowly succumbing to a plague called the Black Scrawl. Strange runes continue to spread across her flesh as you venture into the wilds to find a cure. But you’re never alone. A floating tome named Grimoire Weiss, a kind-hearted boy named Emil, and a foul-mouthed, scantily clad warrior named Kainé accompany you throughout the far reaches of the continent. Together, you brave stormy deserts, dash along the beaches of seaside towns, and scour spooky mansions to save Yonah. Hard-hitting story beats like generational trauma and the cycle of hatred offered thrilling surprises that left me in emotional shambles on multiple occasions.

I also loved Nier Replicant’s quirky cast, and this extends beyond the main crew. Conversations that you strike up with characters are filled to the brim with profound, albeit campy, sentiments. Side missions give narrative flavor to an otherwise bland game world, but I wish these tasks had more variance as most amount to forgettable fetch quests. Additionally, in contrast to your gorgeously realized party members, all the NPCs are poorly textured. Because of this, the emotional stakes and resolutions of side missions fall flat. It’s hard to relate to a character when their facial features are practically indiscernible.

Shades are the most common enemy you encounter during your travels. They strike in mobs, but don’t be fooled by their numbers; they’re pushovers, save for the high-tier damage sponges that spawn in the late game. Shade attacks are considerably easy to anticipate and counter, making their constant ambushes more annoying than anything else. Boss fights, however, are fun sequences that push your mechanical skills to the limit, forcing you to quickly react to a flurry of magical and physical attacks, often, at the same time. Atmospheric choruses coupled with the visual smorgasbord of blood and sword-sparks makes each of these tense confrontations memorable.

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It’s too bad that strengthening your equipment to comfortably clear these battles is less enjoyable. Combat mods, called Words, drop from slain shades and can be slotted into weapons or magic abilities for permanent buffs. You can also collect raw materials scattered throughout each location and exchange them for upgrades. Both options (especially the latter) require hours of monotonous grinding, backtracking, and luck. At one point, I spent close to five hours in one location trying to collect enough “Eagle Eggs” to level up my favorite one-handed sword and spear. Harsh random number generators are common in RPGs, but Nier Replicant’s implementation makes for a frustrating exploration loop.

Despite some dated shortcomings, this “version upgrade” is more than the sum of its parts. Novel design choices like camera and genre shifts are as impressive today as they were more than 10 years ago. Main characters are dynamic with their own interesting backstories, and the plot is as deliciously devastating as you’d expect. Nier Replicant might not convert players that were turned off by the original or Automata, but there are more than enough quality-of-life updates and story-centric nuances to keep longtime fans and new initiates coming back for subsequent playthroughs.

Score: 8.25

Summary: Nier Replicant's colorful characters, sprawling story, and updated gameplay mechanics help make up for its old-fashioned quest design and empty world.

Concept: Fight alongside a band of oddball heroes to save your sister (and maybe even the world for good measure) from a relentless plague

Graphics: The protagonist and his friends look stellar in cutscenes, but in-game environments and NPCs are disappointingly drab

Sound: Vocalist Emi Evans’ masterful usage of “chaos language” – a blend of two or more languages (in this case, Japanese, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Scottish Gaelic) – creates strikingly unique melodies unlike anything you’ve ever heard

Playability: Combat is supremely satisfying because the controls are so easy to pick up, and the auto-sprint is a nice touch

Entertainment: You’ll spend most of your time going from Point A to Point B collecting materials for forgettable NPCs, but the main questline will keep you on the edge of your seat

Replay: Moderate

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