You remember Pokemon Snap? It is hard to describe this goofy game as anything but a silly Nintendo 64 product released to cash in on the Game Boy Pokemon phenomenon, and that it allowed you to take pictures of the game's adorable monsters. It sold more copies than it should have at the $70 price point, and it left a lot of enthusiastic fans feeling a little lost and confused back in the day.
"So what? I only get to take pictures?"
On a happier note, I think that time has been kinder to Pokemon Snap. No longer costing an arm and a leg to pick up a copy, it now exists as a fun little experimental game that can kill a few minutes of boredom and give you the joy of exploring the Pokemon world in the first person. Thanks to the Oculus Rift, though, the game is about to take on a third purpose and an entirely new perspective, literally.
Oculus Rift YouTuber Chadtronic has programmed his virtual headset to jump into the world of Pokemon Snap. Outside of this game, no other official first-person Pokemon games exist, meaning that this is your only chance to jump in and experience the Pokemon universe in such a way. As the video shows, rotating your head controls what otherwise would be done on an analog stick.
Using a controller plugin for the emulator you can map analog control movements via the mouse, therefore enabling a semi-functional head tracking on rail experience for the game. Pretty fun!
I'm not entirely sold on VR or the Oculus Rift being a viable video game platform in the near future, but from what I can tell, it is a great novelty for re-experiencing some of your classic first-person favorites. I would love to see the world of these classic and blocky Nintendo 64 and PlayStation era games.
