How Long is New Pokémon Snap?

New Pokémon Snap looks to break a bit of a dry streak for major new Nintendo Switch releases this year as well as give some of us the chance to prove that our inability to stop talking about Pokémon Snap for the last 20+ years was indeed worth it.

Actually, the fact that New Pokémon Snap resembles the original in so many ways stands as a testament to the quality of its predecessor and how its simple (but lovable) concepts have aged so well over the years. We may no longer be asking out parents to take us to Blockbuster to print out Pokémon photos, but New Pokémon Snap should otherwise prove to be a worthwhile trip down memory lane.

Of course, New Pokémon Snap‘s similarities to the original title do raise some questions about the game’s length. After all, Pokémon Snap may have been one of the best Pokemon spin-offs ever, but it wasn’t exactly a bountiful experience. You could beat the game in a handful of hours, and its replay value was largely based on your desire to keep snapping photos of Pokemon.

The good news is that New Pokémon Snap appears to be much longer than its predecessor. However, the exact amount of time you’re going to get out of the game really depends on a few factors.

Based on the early reports shared by New Pokémon Snap‘s first reviews, it seems that many players are able to “beat” the game in about 10-15 hours. What does that mean, though? Well, a few players note that number is based on the time it took them to play through all the game’s levels and see all the “Research Levels.”

In case you didn’t know, a “Research Level” is kind of like a New Game+ for each of New Pokémon Snap‘s courses. As you replay a level over and over and submit better photos, the behavior of the Pokémon in each area will start to change. Those changes may unlock new photo opportunities or even entirely new paths through an area.

Unlocking every Research Level to open all available photo opportunities (as well as unlocking all of the available tools and playing through each level’s day and night settings) seems to be part of what most people are considering “beating” the game. In other words, it sounds like you could see at least one version of all of Pokémon Snap‘s levels in a much shorter amount of time than 15 hours.

However, if your goal is to take pictures of all 200 Pokémon in the game, that’s going to take you quite a bit longer than 10-15 hours. While I haven’t heard reports from multiple people who have actually managed to take a picture of every Pokémon in New Pokémon Snap, early estimates based on gameplay descriptions and what would be required to take at least one picture of every creature in the game suggest that it’s going to take you closer to 30 hours to complete that goal.

Of course, you could just play the game forever if you’re really into taking better and better pictures and sharing them on social media via the game’s new tools.