The Small Detail You Missed In New Pokemon Snap's Release Trailer
New Pokémon Snap is the game Pokémon fans have wanted ever since the first Pokémon Snap captured the hearts of Nintendo 64 owners around the globe. The original is a classic, hailed for its laid-back atmosphere that challenged gamers to become the very best shutterbug like no one ever was, and the upcoming sequel should do the same. Recently, Nintendo started off Pokémon's 25th Anniversary with a video full of various (and sometimes expensive) Pokémon merch, as well as the promise of a collaboration with Katy Perry. Nintendo used the celebration to springboard into a new trailer for New Pokémon Snap. But this time, the video hid a secret detail.
The new trailer is a quick snapshot of what players can expect from New Pokémon Snap: a new customizable protagonist, a new professor who guides you on your journey, and plenty of Pokémon from across the generations to find and photograph. And for the most part, all the Pokémon are "accurately" depicted, from their sizes to how they interact with one another and how they munch on snacks. Except for that Meganium. In case you didn't notice, he is way too big.
According to the Pokédex, Meganium should only be 5'11", but the Meganium in the trailer is much larger. The flower-collared sauropod looks like he is in the neighborhood of 20 feet or more. Now, to be fair, Pokémon in general has a weird relationship with scale thanks to video game limitations and logic. For example, Joltik is supposed to be a puny four-inch mite, yet the games give Joltik a size boost for the sake of rendering. Meanwhile, Wailord is a nearly 50-foot helium-filled whale. In most games, it is much smaller, but the original New Pokémon Snap trailers shows a breaching Wailord at full size, which implies the title will stick to canon measurements like orange on Raichu. So what's with the not-so-dynamax Meganium?
One potential answer hides in the official New Pokémon Snap page. The site mentions a "mysterious Illumina phenomenon" that causes Pokémon to glow, another feature of the oversized Meganium. Perhaps Illumina, whatever it is, makes Pokémon grow extra large, which means we could see many, many more oversized Pokémon throughout New Pokémon Snap. But, we won't know for sure until the game releases on April 30. That's kind of the point of a mystery, after all.