Let's Play New Pokemon Snap, Part 3: Durant-Man and the Beedrill - Quantumania

Apparently, I wasn't the smartest or most observant player in the last session, because I didn't even realize I took a 'branching' route that I can only access by using the scan to pick an alternate route to get to the small stretch of beach where Machamp is!

The regular beach route takes me towards a part that's filled with a bunch of Corsola and Pyukumuku on top of rocks and coral formations, and also a bunch of Alolan Raichus surfing around the beach mounds. There are also Finneon around in this pathway, something that I very nearly missed due to how well the fishies blend with the waves and the corals around them. 

Anyway, with this revelation on how the alternate pathways work, I also figure out another problem about why I couldn't activate the bizarre Ant-Man Poke-Pym Particle shrinking device on the Neo-One... I've been playing the night version of the National Park instead of the day version!

And in the day version, indeed, with enough scanning, I see a little hole in the tree trunk and veer into it, and... and I literally just shrink. 

I'm not sure what I expected, but this is a gloriously bizarre combination of your typical Ant-Man wackiness as everything is so big, and also reminds me of that old Pokemon anime episode "Island of the Giant Pokemon". Only instead of fully-evolved monsters, we've got large-to-us Wurmples, Comfeys, Pichus and Scorbunnies wandering around as our Neo-One tries its best to navigate through the detritus and the Shroomish that make the forest floor its home. At one point we even hitch a ride on an Emolga's back!

A giant Dodrio just lumbers into the scene, and this kicks off a fun little mini-story as the Dodrio continues to peck and chase around Pichu and Scorbunny, menacing and chasing them throughout the forest floor until the Pichu and Scorbunny clamber up one of the giant Torterras for protection. The Torterra and evil angry Dodrio roar and screech at each other until the Dodrio decides that it doesn't want to fuck around and runs off. It's very simple, but definitely very cute!

And... that's it, because the test version of the shrinking technology runs out, and the Neo-One reverts back to its original form. Still, a very fun and wacky little adventure! Everything in this game is just so charming. 

Phil and Rita are pretty excited about stuff, but Professor Mirror realizes what's going on after the typical generic photo-ranking session to chew the kids out... but a quick (literally one-line) rebuttal from Todd Snap and the kids and Mirror just kind of shrugs and handwaves it away that his assistants just hijacked a potentially dangerous piece of technology that shrinks down people into a size that an errant Dodrio or Torterra stomp could mean the end of his proteges. Man, Professor Mirror just kinda sucks. 

I went through the secret path at night, and instead of Shroomish, we've got a bunch of Foongus just hanging around and being cute, with a particular fun bit with a bunch of Foongus coming in carrying apples on their head, with the last one carrying another Foongus friend. All the Pokemon, including out Scorbunny and Torterrra buddy, are asleep. I don't actually have a whole ton to say here since a lot of the jungle levels kind of blur together to me, but it's still neat.

I also try out the Sweltering Sands part of Voruka Island, and it's... a desert! Filled with a bunch of Skorupi milling around, with some of them hiding under the sand. A giant sandstorm tornado picks up a poor Skorupi and tosses it around. Heliolisks wander around the sand dunes and Mandibuzzes fly in the sky... pretty drab, honestly, and having spent a good chunk of last year exploring deserts in Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild really didn't make me any excited to see even more sand. 

So it's nice that there's another oasis! Lumbering Hippowdons are the main attraction here, but unmoving Cacnea are seen in the distance. A little Torchic hangs out with the titanic Hippowdons, while a Lycanroc skulks almost out of camera-reach in the cliffs nearby.

The Sweltering Sands route then ends with a bunch of sandstorm-pattern Vivillons flying around, and there are antlion holes that, rather obviously, reveal that they contain Trapinch when you throw apples into them. All except one, which contains Pinsir... for... some... reason? It's a long way from the rainforests, Pinsir. 

I think the desert, while there's some nice novelty to it, is the weakest of all the maps. There are a lot of cool stuff like the tornado and the antpits, but the location is kind of bereft of anything interesting for a while, which is a stark difference from "there's always something" in the other areas. I know it's a desert, but still!

I also eventually unlocked the second part of the Maricopia Reef, which is even more beautiful! We basically go through a bunch more of the beautiful reef area, with more vivid Wingull and Finneons, and then a location where a bunch of Sharpedos are splashing in and out of the water! Randomly there's a gigantic whirlpool that I keep chucking apples into, and Magikarps keep hopping up and up. I have a feeling that there's something to do here, but I'm not sure if I need another item or if I just need to level up the stage. 

Then in-between groups of Mantines bursting out of the water majestically, the money shot -- a ginormous Wailord breaching the water surface and just looking majestic with that derpy face... yeah. I can't stress just how much I love the ocean areas, and this is just making the whole experience feel so glorious!

And from the Wailord part of the reefs, the path branches into two, which I went to both. The one on the right takes us right over a wonderfully rendered Blue Hole -- an underwater crater -- and there are a bunch of Pelippers with Pyukumuku in their mouth. I can rescue the Pyukumukus by chucking the apples onto the greedy pelicans to make them spit out the sea cucumbers... but Professor Mirror, for whatever reason, thinks that the Pelippers are giving the Pyukumuku 'a ride'. A ride to Pelipper's stomach, maybe!

The other route goes through a mass of corals with a lot of Corsola and a bunch of Mareanies, including a rather distressing sequence where a poor Corsola is being chased by a Mareanie and keeps running into more and more Mareanies before the chase goes offscreen. Oh no! Mareanie explicitly eats Corsola, so that Corsola's totally dead, isn't it?

The Professor thinks this is a 'game of tag'. I... I'm getting a feeling that the professor has a very skewed view of the carnivores of the Pokemon world. 

I upgrade the reef to level 2, and I unlock some more predator/prey interactions. A Wingull flies in and scoops up a Finneon, and now a little group of Squirtles spawn. One of them gets chased around by a Sharpedo... which gets me high scores, but the professor marks them as a 'game of tag'. 

I rather find it hilarious that Pokemon, a franchise infamous for pretending that a lot of the implied deaths from predatory activities, and only acknowledges them in dex entries that is hard for little kids to read... now show the brutality on-screen, and tries to pretend it's not the law of the jungle in the notes that Professor Mirror writes and is likely to be skipped by the same little kids. 

Ahem, anyway! The Professor notes that he's discovered a brand-new teleport point, and it's... under the ocean? In the first genuinely chuckle-worthy joke in the game, the Professor gets Phil to flip out and panic because the Neo-One can't go underwater... only for Mirror to reveal that he's already modified the machine all along. 

This is the level I want to play, and under the sea is where we'll be headed soon!

Random Notes:

• I actually did spam some of the Natural Park, Jungle and Beach levels a bit, but I really don't have a whole ton extra to say that I haven't said before. I'll use these 'random notes' column to document anything particularly interesting that I see in these repeated runs, I suppose.
• I unlocked a secret path of the daytime jungle thanks to the Illumina Orbs, but it's just a little swamp with a bunch of Beautifly, Yanmegas and Quagsires. 
• There is a cute bit in the side-path of the jungle where a Liepard stalks around, while a Bounsweet peeks out of a tree and then tumbles down and rolls away after the cat has passed.
• Cacnea also does a lot of rolling and tumbling, poor little cactus friends. 
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• I do really like the fact that each region has its own unique Vivillon pattern. It's such a nice use of an otherwise rather forgotten gimmick. Remember when the Vivillons would have different patterns based on the part of the world you are playing your 3DS from? 
• There's a moment right before the sleeping fat Exeggutor where I can play the bad Poke-Flute and summon two Bellossoms out of the bush that proceed to dance. That's cute. 
• At one point in the shrunken-down mission, we have to drive into a log while a Dodrio head menaces us by poking its beak down from the top. On the other end? A Bidoof's ass, and that Bidoof is apparently just stuck on the log. Man, poor Bidoof. 
• There's also what appears to be a Snorlax, and a bird's nest in the shrunken-down area, and I'm assuming I'll be able to slowly interact with these as I level up the shrunken-down Ant-Man area.
• In the reef area is another Machamp flexing randomly in a small island right after the Wailord location.  
• In level two, two Wailords show up, one slightly in the background. Or maybe I missed the second Wailord. Either way, it's cool.
• Squirtle appearing in the ocean areas shouldn't bother me, but it kinda does, but I guess Squirtles are based on turtles and tortoises in general instead of just terrapins. 
• Torchic spits out some fire to roast the apple before pecking on it! That's freaking adorable.