Something just clicked.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend unexpectedly arrived at my house and gave me a Nintendo 64. This was fantastic for two reasons:

1) I now had a Nintendo 64; and

2) I could now play my favourite first-person shooter of all time for the first time in a decade!

Drooling with anticipation, I blew into the base of the cartridge, plugged it into the console, flicked the power switch on and sat back as the N64 symbol flickered into view. My fears that the game would no longer be enjoyable or relevant faded as I started a new game and began shooting left, right and centre, a euphoric grin gradually stretching across my face.

After about an hour of blissful nostalgic revelry, something suddenly dawned on me: not only was the game still enjoyable and relevant, but in today's social context, it was probably far more relevant than at the time of its release. As I continued to play, I had another realisation - I was playing what was, to my knowledge, the very first (and possibly only) hipster first-person shooter on a console.

No, I'm not talking about Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. I'm talking about Pokemon Snap.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Snap is an on-rails first-person shooter released in 1998 that takes place on an island inhabited entirely by Pokemon, aptly named Pokemon Island. You, Todd Snap, dirty hispter Pokemon photographer, must bravely venture forth in an amphibious buggy named the Zero-One to take quality pictures of Pokemon to supplement Professor Oak's scientific research. The game plays very similarly to other rail shooters, but with a few key differences: instead of a gun and grenades, you have a camera and apples, and the idea is to shoot Pokemon in nice poses instead of shooting zombies in the face.

"But taking pictures of Pokemon is lame!" I imagine you mumbling to yourself as you read this. "I need to shoot people from foreign countries in the face to have fun! Waahh!" Well, that may the case, but this game wasn't made for people like you. It was made for a subculture that was only just beginning to emerge at the time of its release.

Pokemon Snap was made for hipsters.

Just think about it for a minute. Hipsters are always walking around with expensive Nikons dangling from their necks in case a great photo opportunity arises. In Pokemon Snap, they can finally play as a protagonist that they can relate to. Furthermore, hipsters LOVE retro fads, especially if they can be appreciated ironically. Combined with the picture-taking mechanic, the retro-irony-value of Pokemon Snap makes it the perfect game for the picky hipster. Somehow, Nintendo must have predicted the coming of the modern hipster several years in advance.

For some strange reason however, there was never a sequel to Snap. As I mentioned above, I think it may be the only hipster first-person shooter on a home console. What game developers don’t seem to realise is that there’s an entire demographic desperate for more alternative video games, but the industry keeps churning out triple-A blockbusters that’re simply too mainstream for them to even attempt to like ironically.

So remember: For every two people out there enjoying Call of Duty, there’s one sitting at home crying in a corner wishing someone would make a cigarette-rolling sim or a Rock Band peripheral in the shape of a acoustic guitar with a broken G string. If you happen to fall into the latter category, give Pokemon Snap a go. You won't be disappointed.