New Pokémon Snap is a good game that should've been great. In many respects, this long-awaited sequel to the Nintendo 64 original is a dream for fans. Pokémon have seldom felt more alive, and natural environments on Nintendo Switch have seldom felt more vibrant. This is an experience that understands its community's wishes. But, it's also an experience that's padded to kingdom come because it acutely understands its community's stringent expectations.

The game does not have the confidence to be four hours long, which it should've been. Instead, the game is about double that, which has a clear and inverse effect on quality. Progression is stilted and the adventure is mediated by arbitrary, grindy level-up systems and mechanics. The arcade inspiration is gone. For a game hyper-focused on organic depictions of Pokémon, the structure around that feels decidedly inorganic. However, Bandai Namco was consciously afraid of the backlash that would've resulted from a short adventure.

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After all, the gaming discourse has intrinsically linked gameplay hours to value. This has become the focal point of conversation around each new release. From The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening to Resident Evil Village, many AAA titles have their worth questioned on the basis of relatively short runtimes. And, the aforementioned titles are in the 10-12 hour range. In an era were sprawling open-worlds and endless service games dominate, the perception of value has been skewed. The ability to release a short game at full-price has been erased by a desire to squeeze gameplay hours out of a title.

A Pigeot grabs a Magikarp from water in New Pokemon Snap

Of course, there's nothing wrong with making these sorts of subjective value judgements on a personal level. How one player chooses to spend their money and the barometers they use to determine that aren't anyone else's concern. But, this conflation of cost and playtime has become mainstream. Even in an era where games are both bigger and cheaper on the whole, games criticism and community sentiment continue to demand more. There's nothing wrong with wanting a dollar to go further. But there is a problem when that desire negatively impacts game design.

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So many of the problems in heaving AAA projects stem from the pressure for more. Assassin's Creed continued to bloat before Valhalla cut the fat. That increase in scope was accompanied by watered down open-worlds and exp-boosting microtransactions. The former was a response to players wanting more, and the latter was a necessary recourse for Ubisoft to earn some added revenue as their games got larger. These problems are cyclical. Bigger games beget padded content and stressful development cycles which then beget questionable monetization strategies and botched releases.

Paradoxically, games need to be shorter for the good of the player. The death march toward scope above everything invites a race to the bottom. Game design is worsening because studios are saddled with the ratcheting up of game length. It doesn't serve developers, and it certainly doesn't serve players. On a surface level, it may look like a dollar is going further, but ultimately, that dollar is just going toward diluted content. We need to stop demanding that developers put more fat on the bone just for the sake of eking another few hours out of a game.

A picture taken of a Squirtle riding a Lapras in New Pokemon Snap

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New Pokémon Snap is a disappointing example of this trend. The title ignores the 90s arcade design philosophy it was built upon. The N64 original can be beaten in two hours, but that playtime can be multiplied exponentially. The pursuit of better score, new Pokémon interactions, and mechanical mastery formed the groundwork for an experience that was not defined by its length, but its replayability. Like Star Fox 64, Sin & Punishment, or any other rail-shooter of the era, the original Pokémon Snap held endless value due to unmediated, gameplay-focused design.

Unfortunately, that design was sacrificed to be palatable for a modern marketplace. From its flimsy narrative to its transparent padding, New Pokémon Snap is an admittance that AAA studios no longer see the merit in 90s philosophies. The market has spoken, and the market has said that games must take more time to complete. The trappings of arcade-focused, elegant design can be seen edgewise in New Pokémon Snap. But they're buried under design choices that are symptomatic of larger issues in AAA development.

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