This Pokémon spinoff is quietly one of Nintendo’s most important games of the decade

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.