Pokemon Snap- Game Over
(By Interspark)
I walked into the old electronics shop in town, I went there every time I went into town in the hope of them having any N64 games handed in (I?m something of a collector). I walked up to the counter, there was a man already there so I waited behind him. He looked terrible, like he hadn?t slept or bathed in weeks, he was pretty desperate to offload something to the cashier but he wouldn?t take it. Eventually, sobbing slightly, the man walked off. Slightly confused, I walked up to the counter without taking my eyes off the man leaving the shop, noticing my confusion, the cashier said,
?I dunno what the big deal is, he wanted to give us a copy of Pokemon Snap, but I wouldn?t take it because the cartridge is in too poor condition, if he hates it so much I don?t see why he can?t just throw it away!?
Hardly believing my luck, I bounded after the man who had just left the shop,
?Sorry? I say ?but the cashier in there tells me you?re trying to get rid of a copy of Pokemon Snap??
From the look on the man?s face you?d have thought he?d just won the lottery! He thrust a beat up cartridge into my hands and, without waiting a second, he ran down the road laughing manically. Chuckling slightly at the man?s erratic behaviour, I looked at the cartridge. I could see why it wasn?t sales material, it was scratched, cracked and had the sticker torn off, but as long as it worked I was happy.
Later that day I went home and put the cartridge into my N64. Nostalgia flooded back to me as the canny intro music played. I erased the existing file and started a new game and, shortly later, was in the ZERO-ONE and on the Beach Zone. It went swimmingly, I even got a snap of the elusive Lapras and, before long, unlocked the Tunnel Zone.
That was when I started noticing that something was wrong?
I played this game all the time when I was young and I could have sworn that the Pokemon on the Tunnel Zone were as lively and active as the ones at the beach. Figuring I couldn?t trust ten year old memories, I took pictures of the immobile groups of Kakuna, the shuffling Pikachu, the Magnemite, which I distinctly remembered trying to scramble your camera with their supersonic attack, but now simply floated in the air and allowed me to snap away. When I got back to the lab I almost jumped out of my skin! Not a pixel had changed in the photos I had taken, but what I was seeing was definitely not what I had seen in the tunnel. The Pokemon were glaring. Pikachu looked ready to bite my head off! The Kakuna?s triangular eyes were filled with hate and the Electabuzz I had seen looked like it was about to leap out of the screen and throttle me! Professor Oak was understandably very unhappy with the photos and gave me very few points. Reluctantly, I went back to the tunnel. This time I could see it, every Pokemon I saw loathed me, they wanted me dead, the Kakuna hung down on their threads and stared, a shot that would bag me tons of points but I couldn?t bring myself to lift up the camera. I spent most of the rest of the level with my eyes shut tight with fear. Later, I opened my eyes a crack to see that the ZERO-ONE had stopped, an Electrode had rolled in front of me, its eyes twisted into an evil grin. It began shining, this was when I overcame my fear, a shot of an Electrode exploding was worth thousands of points, I held down the Z button to focus the camera?
The view switched to third person and the Electrode exploded, taking the ZERO-ONE with it, Todd Snapp collapsed to the ground, mangled and burnt and the screen faded to black. The words GAME OVER in bold red letters appeared.
That was the last thing I remembered before I awoke, on my floor, in my clothes, drenched with cold sweat. Noticing the scratched cartridge in my N64, I began to try and establish how much of it had been a dream, to only thing I was sure of was that the death at the end couldn?t have been real, Pokemon Snap was a kids game, you couldn?t die in it! Especially not in the way I had seen. I decided that I must have fallen asleep playing the game. I changed my clothes, had something to eat and then sat down to continue playing.
My save file was still there, so were the terrifying photos from before, the only thing that had changed was the route selection screen, the River Zone had been unlocked. Hoping the ?glitch? (?) was contained to the tunnel route, I selected the option and set off.
The river route was different, the Pokemon weren?t glaring, they were smiling, the same horrible, evil smile the Electrode in the Tunnel had on before it killed me. Terrified, I realised what was about to happen. I collapsed out of my chair and stumbled to the corner of the room, unable to turn away. The view switched to third person again and I watched as the ZERO-ONE was shattered between powerful jaws of a HUGE Cloyster. As Todd fell into the water dozens of Magikarp and Goldeen swarmed around and the river turned red with blood, ?GAME OVER?
Again I awoke on my floor, soaked in sweat. Unable to stop myself, I played again, and the same thing happened over and over,
Roasted by a Charizard ?GAME OVER?
Torn to shreds by a Gyarados ?GAME OVER?
Beaten to a pulp by a Kangaskhan ?GAME OVER?
More than a week later I could hardly think. The game was my whole world now, I couldn?t think of anything else, I couldn?t even think of my own name. I selected a new route, this route was something new. The ZERO-ONE trundled along the bottom of a deep crevice, I couldn?t see the sky at all. On both sides of me were all the Pokemon from the game, grinning expectantly, as if they were waiting for something entertaining. The ZERO-ONE stopped at the end of the crevice, there was a platform made of stone in front of me, almost like a stage. From out of the darkness swept a shadow that landed gracefully on the stage, it was Missingno but to my pulverised brain it was something completely new. Its face was made of two piercing red eyes and a small, red mouth. It opened its mouth revealing rows of sharp gleaming teeth, it ran its devil-like tongue along them and spoke with a grin,
?game over??
It swept into the air, gleaming with its signature Sky Attack, and shot towards me like a rocket, with its teeth bared.
I can only imagine what would have become of me if what happened next hadn?t happened? The telephone rang, in an instant my head snapped together, I realised where I was, who I was, I noticed the room around me, I noticed how hungry I was. Then I saw Missingno on the screen, still shooting towards me, I screamed and tore the N64 from the TV and threw it across the room where it shattered. I collapsed to the floor panting and wheezing. I answered the phone. It was my boss, wondering where the hell I?d been the previous week. Without knowing it, I think he may have saved my life, and I wondered how close the previous owner had come to whatever fate lay in Missingno?s teeth?