Pokémon Snap Beauty

We are all familiar with the game Pokemon Snap.

It was a family fun game for the Good 'ol Nintendo 64. You played the role of a young man who went around taking pictures of pokemon. I loved this game, and it just so happens that it was on the the first games I bought for my nintendo 64. But something happened that will keep me from ever touching that System again.

A few days ago I bought a Nintendo 64 from my friend. It came with 6 games. Mario Kart 64, Pokemon Stadium, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time, Legend of Zelda Majoras mask, Smash Brothers, and Pokemon snap. He sold them to me telling me, that he just did not want to look at these games anymore. I thought nothing of it, and just marked it off in my mind, as he was just getting sick of the system taking up room on his Dresser.

I started playing Pokemon snap first, When that familiar N64 logo came up, I about creamed myself in pure Nostalgic bliss. Then the start up screen came on. I noticed that the last save was made only about a week ago. I figured my friend wanted to play one last round to say goodbye to the system. I opened the file to see how far he had gotten when I notcied some strange things about the game.

Prof. Oak was not standing in his normal lab I remember, the background was lined with blackened marks, and the windows were broken in. The outside was a dismal gray, looking almost overcast. His dialogue did not match the cheery attitude I remember.

"Good day to you young one, are you ready for your most important shoot?" His face contorted to a cruel looking smile.

I wanted to know what came next, so I pressed Go....God I wish I would have just turned the system off.

The overworld map looked wrong. The landscape was not a lush green and brown, but a muddy brown and red, almost like fire. My friend had beaten all of the tracks. So I could select any of them. I picked Beach. If only I would have just turned off the system.

The start up was the same animation. My character reading his camera and switching to first person view. The whole track was dark, and it seemed to be almost completley abandoned. The cheery music did not play. The only sound was that of my vehicle going down the track, and the wind blowing. I turned the first corner and what I saw is still fresh in my mind.

Bodies were strewn all across the screen. The Meowth that comes running from the grass was on the tracks. I figured the Cart would just stop like it normally does when something obstructs the path, but it just ran over him. The worst part was the sound. That squish of meat, the crack of his bones...the sound was not the crappy quality that I was used to either. This sounded real, like it had been recorded and broadcasted into my game. I looked back to see if the meowth was still there, Pidgeys where eating him!! They pecked out his eyes, and continued to devour his body. I don't know what drove me to take the picture but I did.

I wanted to just reach out and flick the power switch, but something compelled me to continue the game. I came to the part where the snorlax normally was, but insead of a comedic sleeping giant I found him mourning over a dead Pikachu in his arms. Once again some sick notion inside me forced me to take this picture.

I came to the part where normally a Meowth would be gusted by a pidgey, but the only thing I saw was two dead pidgeys. A meowth came out from the grass and began to feast on their remains. I found myself taking pictures of almost everything I saw by this point so I snapped the picture.

As I neared the end, I came to the bridge that crosses over the small river. Bodies floated down the river, some looking like they had been torn apart, some looking like they just died for no reason, no cuts, bruises, or anything wrong with them. I snapped a picture of this as well. I came to the warp gate that takes you back to Prof. Oak's lab, I skipped doing Oak's pick because I just could not bear to see the images I had captured, but when the game cut to oak saying

"Welcome back" he opened my entire library of photos and began to comment on a few. The one of the dead meowth being eaten made him smile a sick sadistic smile. "Nature taking it's course. Lets check the size...260 - It's so-so. Technique...Great you realy captured the beauty of it's demise." He brought up the one of the Snorlax.

"Great! you have done well capturing his pain and suffering. True work of art. Lets check the size...."

After him commenting on all of my photos his face turned to his -now sick looking- smile.

"Ever since mew became angry the world is just full of beauty don't you agree?"

I was given the option of Yes or no, but when I clicked no he would just say "Are you sure?"

After I finnaly said yes, he told me I had one last thing to do. He said I must capture an image of Mew in all his glory.

I went to the start screen and picked Rainbow cloud. When the start up screen started I was greeted with the loving, friendly clouds I had prayed I would see, but the only problem was the contilations were not their normal pokemon forms. They resembled Lightning bolts, Tidal waves, falling meteors, and forest fires. After about 10 minutes of just moving through the map I finnally encountered Mew...Or atleast what I can only assume was once Mew

The creature was much larger than the cute, cuddly Mew, I had seen before. This thing was huge, with sharp teeth, and horrible looking eyes. Eyes that seemed to suck the joy out anything they cast their gaze upon. I brought up my camera to Snap the creature when my game started Glitching out. Text kept appearing over the screen, while the creature seemed to warp around the screen.

"You have seen what true beauty is, now you must become part of the beauty. Become part of the beauty, become part of the beauty, become part of the beauty..." It repeated this for about 2 minutes until the creature stopped warping, and flew towards the screen. He pointed at me and mouthed the word "Beauty" and my game crashed.

I threw the cartridge out, and have not since touched the N64...I can only wonder what the other games may hold...

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