Penko Park Review

Hoooooooold that pose for me ~♡

Have you played Pokemon Snap and just want more? Or maybe you just don’t have a Switch and want a Pokemon Snap-esque game? Well, Penko Park has your back. Penko Park actually came out before New Pokemon Snap, and fun fact on my birthday too (!), but I had no idea it released until I finally played Wunderdoktor, looked into the developer’s other games, and saw this one. And it was finally time to play it.

Welcome to Penko Park and I hope you don’t have anywhere you have to go for the next couple hours. This takes place at a mysterious and abandoned wildlife park named Penko Park. For most of the game, you’ll be riding on a cute little kart, making this an on rails photography game, and guided by the cute Penki. As you’re riding along, you have a camera which you can use to take pictures of any of the creatures you see. As long as the creature is properly in frame, the camera will recognize it and once you take a picture, you’ll automatically get rated and see the name of the creature. You’ll also see how many different poses you can get the creature to do and which ones you already did or ones that you need to get a better score on, which is so helpful if you’re aiming to do everything. Based on what the games tells you, and from playing, your score is based on how in frame the creature is in, and you’ll naturally get a lower score if there are flora in the way or if they’re too far away. Anyway, you’ll continue down the path being able to take pictures of any creatures that you happen to pass before you arrive at the end.

And that’s the core of Penko Park. You’ll be riding along, enjoying the scenery, and taking pictures of the many creatures that live here as well as different poses that they do.

At the end of each area, you’ll be able to select which picture you want to put in your little photo book, though it will default to the higher scored photos. The photo book also gives you a quick line bit telling you a fact about the creature or maybe what someone said about them. You also get to see all of the creatures in the area on the first page, which acts as a way for you to enter it as well, and which ones you fully completed.

You’ll start with only one location starting out, as well as just the camera and the normal kart, but you’ll be unlocking more as you take more pictures. You see, with every picture you attach to your photo book you gain experience. This will eventually unlock a stamp which you’ll use to get further along the (sort of) level up path to unlock areas and things. You get to unlock four other areas (though the last one is more story-related than anything) making it a total of five areas you get to ride through and upgrades for you kart, like giving you an option to give it a boost or stop, and your camera so you can zoom in more. Though, more importantly, you can unlock more tools which will help you in taking photos and generally to get everything. There’s a grappling hand so you can grab artifacts or cute hats for Penki to wear, pull levers, destroy fragile fauna/rocks, and to hit info signs if you want to know more information about the area. You can unlock the ability to have a turn signal which lets you go down paths you unlocked by the means of your other tools and an upgrade which can perhaps let you see into the spirit realm. There’s also Penko Balls which seem to kinda be a treat, which can get creatures to change their pose, though some won’t like it (and I may have accidently pushed a creature off a cliff while they were sleeping, don’t tell anyone). And lastly, a Penko Wand which lets you play a song that you can find on signs in each area and this will let you get a pose from creatures (which are marked by the sign somewhere around them) and the rocks with those symbols on them actually correlate with the Penko Wand songs and playing the corresponding song will cause it to lower revealing something.

With every upgrade and tool at your disposal, getting pictures for every creature and all the poses, as well as all artifacts and hats if you want to go even further, is difficult. Getting the basic picture is easy, but some creatures are hidden pretty well (and the way to unlock an alternate path can be hidden well too) and it can be difficult to figure out what you need to do to get that pose you’re missing or maybe figure out where else they appear as that pose might only be able to happen in the right environment. Not to mention that the artifacts and hat boxes hide pretty well behind other flora or objects and can easily blend in (especially the artifacts).

The only thing I would say I wanted was the ability to save your photos as screenshots.

Verdict

Penko Park was quite fun, though I don’t think I’ll be able to find everything. While the game does feel boring starting out, it did quickly grow on me as I got to see the park and the unique creatures that inhabit it. What I planned to be maybe an hour turned into several as I couldn’t stop until I unlocked every location, tool, and upgrade as I wanted to see the other areas of the park and what other creatures (and designs) the game had in store. I’d definitely recommend picking up Penko Park if you’re interested in photography games, and especially if you want a Pokemon Snap-esque one.