5 years ago, this surprise Pokémon game foreshadowed Nintendo's Switch 2 philosophy

New Pokémon Snap pioneered Nintendo's era of finding fun in open-ended play New Pokémon Snap was a surprise when it launched in 2021. It was a different kind of cozy game, where vibes mattered more than tasks and you had limited control over your environment. And, despite folks requesting a Pokémon Snap sequel for years, it turned out rather less innovative than many expected from a Nintendo game at the time. Yet this conventional, predictable game had an important feature that went largely unremarked on at the time — and it became an essential part of Nintendo's first batch of Switch 2 games. New Pokémon Snap puts you in the role of a research assistant working for Professor Mirror. He wants to learn about the region's critters, so he sends you off in a little vehicle to take pictures of them doing Pokémon things, then judges the quality of your work when you return. Photo composition matters, but only sort of loosely. The framing of something is less important than whether you captured a unique moment or multiple Pokémon, or both. As you continue to play, you’ll get tools to encourage various behaviors and the option to drive through courses at different times of day. Other than