Pokémon Snap can be learned in a few minutes, but a few simple notions make your first outings far more fruitful. This page goes through, in order, what the French manual explains: starting the game, setting the options, mastering the controls, running a course, choosing your photos. It adds the advice we give to everyone who is just starting out. The menu names are those of the French version.
Starting the game
On your first game, select New Game, then simply choose Continue. Then enter your name: the game uses it to create your Pokémon photographer card. Without this card, Professor Oak won’t let you onto the island. The name you give appears in the Report, next to each of your photos.
In later sessions, choose Continue to get your photos back. Be careful: choosing New Game erases all the photos on the cartridge. To end a session, return to the lab and select Save, without turning off the console before then.
Plugging in the controller and setting the options
Only one Nintendo 64 controller is needed, plugged into port 1. When you turn on the console, leave the stick at rest: it remembers that position as its reference. If the stick responds badly during the game, put it back in the center and then press Start while holding L and R. In the options menu, four settings are offered.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Screen | Re-center the image if it isn’t centered on your TV; Start restores the default position |
| Sound | Adjust the music and sound effects; if you choose stereo mode, the manual invites you to check that the cable is properly connected to the TV |
| Z button setting | Hold: you keep Z pressed to aim, and release it to return to normal. Toggle: you press once to aim, a second time to go back |
| Stick setting | Normal setup (up to look up) or inverted (up to look down) |
The controls
The principle is the same from one end of the game to the other: you look, you aim, you shoot.
- Stick: look around. The manual recommends looking everywhere, not just straight ahead.
- Z button: held down, it brings out the camera, focuses and zooms in on the scene.
- A button: takes the photo when you are aiming. When not aiming, it throws an Apple.
- B button: throws a Pester Ball (once you have the item).
- C-Down button: plays the Poké Flute (once you have the item). Each press plays a different tune.
- C-Left, C-Right and C-Up buttons: quick look to the left, to the right, and back to the front. To look behind you, press C-Left or C-Right twice.
- R button: speed up, once you have the Dash Engine.
- Start: pause. You can then quit the course or restart it from the beginning.
Running a course
The manual describes eight steps, which we list here with our comments.
- Go to the courses. At the lab, choose Course.
- Select a course. At the start, only the Beach is available. The others appear as you progress: see the progression page.
- Start. Todd gets into the ZERO-ONE (called ZERO-UN in the French manual) and the trip begins. You can’t drive it: it follows invisible rails.
- Look for Pokémon. Use the stick to scan your surroundings.
- Focus. When a Pokémon appears, press Z. The ZERO-ONE won’t stop and wait for you, so be quick. The focus indicator appears when focus is achieved.
- Take the photo. When you think “it’s now,” press A. The viewfinder, in the center of the screen, turns red when the moment is right.
- Keep going. One roll of film allows 60 photos: press without counting. The word “NEW” appears when the camera picks up a Pokémon that your guide doesn’t contain yet; a “?” means the sensor can’t identify it.
- Reach the end point. The course is over: you move on to the photo viewing screen.
Choosing the photos to show
On the viewing screen, photos are displayed in groups of six. You can only show Oak a single photo per type of Pokémon: select the best one and mark it with his logo using the Oak Mark. Photos that have never been examined are shiny; go through them all, because if one slips past you, you could miss the best shot. With the Z button, you compare the new photo with those you have already shown. The Professor then scores the marked photos: to understand his criteria, read the page on scoring.
Oak’s advice and ours
- Slow the vehicle down. When you look behind you, the ZERO-ONE moves more slowly. It’s a tip from Oak in the manual, but you don’t take good photos by looking behind you all the time.
- Run the same course again. The manual says so: you don’t land a course’s best photos on your first visits. Remember to redo them when you have new items.
- Aim wide the first time. For your first Beach run, photograph everything you see. Six different species open the Tunnel.
- Save often. A lost session means lost photos.
To go further, the Beach walkthrough guides you from the very first step.
