Pieńko Park is one of the best Pokémon Snap games available, a delightful, polished and spooky riff on a neglected but beloved genre. So why hasn’t anyone heard about it? Bad moment. A delightfully creepy photography game released in October 2020, buried under the twin piles of shit from the pandemic and the previous election cycle. Four years later, we can perform the spooky miracle of the season and resurrect Penko Park from the dead.
Developed and published by Ghost Butter and available on Steam and Switch, Pieńko Park improves the original Pokémon Snap formula. Like the N64 classic, the game puts you on a tram – this one driven by an adorable little goblin. As the shuttle speeds through the mysterious forest, it’s up to you to look in all directions and take photos of curious creatures hidden among the strange plumage. When you run out of video or reach the end of the track, you paste the best photos into your photo album, and each addition rewards XP that unlocks tools to make future adventures more stimulating and productive.
Take photos. Organize your photos. Update. To repeat. It’s a lovely little loop.
Rail photography games have failed to gain popularity as a genre due to their inherent repetition; Pokémon Snap games repeatedly set the player on the same path, with each journey yielding diminishing returns. Pieńko ParkIn comparison, the developers are generous with the above-mentioned unlocks. And so almost every trip into the wilderness generates a recent feature to test in the next series, such as a mechanical accordion arm that grabs objects away from the tram, a pink dust ball that triggers mighty reactions from the local fauna, and a turn signal that allows the tram to be diverted to alternate routes .
After a few runs, I had seen everything the course had to offer and on cue, a recent course would appear. I repeated this loop several times, took a recent course, loop, course, and before I knew it, my vacation in this creepy, creepy county was over.
Brevity may have been the genre’s secret all along, which makes a certain sense: Railroad photography games have a lot in common with the arcade light-gun games of the past, a genre that thrived in the low bursts of pleasure associated with the arcade era and faded away as players moved on for longer, meatier and more interactive first-person shooter games on PC and consoles at home. The ability to enjoy all of Penko Park on a weekend makes it the perfect seasonal experience, the kind of game that – like a pumpkin spice latte – can be enjoyed every Halloween and then put away for next year where (with time and distance) you can enjoy its newness all over again.
