As it did to many in my generation, Pokémon Snap left an indelible imprint on my childhood psyche. Even at a young, tender age, I admired the rarity of a game that celebrated the simple act of observing creatures in their natural habitat instead of attacking them on sight. I’m all for fighting fake creatures, of course—I wouldn’t have spent a decade scrapping lizards for their parts in Monster Hunter otherwise. But sometimes it’s just nice to look.
Pokémon Snap did have a problem, however: Professor Oak thought it was fine to pay with exposure. No matter how many valuable shots of Pikachu I sent him, it didn’t put any cash in my pocket that I might have spent on cool hats or shirts. Thankfully, there’s finally a game willing to properly reward my talents in wildlight photography: Flock Around, a multiplayer photography game that brings friendslop a Peak-like experience to birdwatching.
After firing up the Flock Around demo on Steam and customizing my genre-standard colorful beanshaped avatar, I soon learned something about birds: They’re harder to photograph than Pokémon. Pokémon are hams. They’re preternaturally, lucratively photogenic, happy to gesticulate and partake in ritual combat for any casual observer. They’re also bigger than birds, even when they are birds, which helps.
Still, after a minute or two of enduring the mocking melodies of my avian tormentors as they flitted out of sight, I managed to start snagging a few photos. My work, I’ll admit, isn’t exactly National Geographic quality. I was just content to get a Junco center frame. And really, who are we to force nature’s beauty to conform to our arbitrary notions of shot composition and general presentability?
Luckily the Develop-o-Tron stations scattered around the demo’s bird sanctuary don’t have very high standards. They happily ate my middling bird shots, digested their qualities and characteristics, and awarded me with thousands of dollars for my efforts. That might sound like an excessive payday for subpar bird pics, but based on the $1500 price tag on the in-game hat I bought with my earnings, something tells me the economic situation in Flock Around is all sorts of busted.
That said, I think a look like this is worth every penny:
The Juncos hate to see me coming. Flock Around doesn’t have a full release date yet, but you can play the demo on Steam now.
