As the DSi hits European shores today Nintendo once again introduce a camera into their hardware. Before we get snap happy however join us as we explore the history of the camera within Nintendo games and consoles. For the sake of subheadings (everyone loves them after all) I have chosen to split this into three sections; camera as hardware, camera as function and camera as bonus.

The DSi may feature a 0.3 megapixel camera (I say may because anyone who can remember when it was released in Japan will know there was a big hubbub about it…but it defiantly is 0.3) but it is not the first Nintendo handheld to allow you to snap a picture of your ugly mug.

Nintendo released the Game Boy Camera in 1998 (yes, eleven years ago. Don’t we all feel old?) alongside the Game Boy Printer. This match made in simple photography heaven allowed you to use your Game Boy to snap pictures, manipulate them in simple ways (adding ‘stamps’, text and doodles akin to photo editing software on many contemporary mobile phones) and then print them off onto adhesive paper to share with all your friends.

Unfortunately the Game Boy Camera never had many uses outside of this (although people have used it to make films and it was even used for a Neil Young album cover), even though it had grander plans to be used within games not much came from it.

The DSi’s camera however offers similar functions, you can take and manipulate photos using it and even sync them to the Wii’s Photo Channel. Once again it has been promised that the DSi’s camera will be incorporated into games, but due to the console still being in its infancy little has been done so far.

Oh how technology ages.

There have been few games in which the camera has acted as your main ‘weapon’ as it were. Two that spring to mind (and before anyone tries to correct me, I’m not suggesting they are the only two and I am obviously focusing on games released on Nintendo consoles) are Beyond Good and Evil and Pokémon Snap which show two very different approaches.

Beyond Good and Evil is one of the last generation’s most celebrated but commercially unsuccessful games. You play as Jade who find herself in the middle of a conspiracy. To gain money you take pictures of all the animals for the sake of governmental record keeping. However, a camera is a handy tool when investigating a conspiracy and it isn’t long before you’re snapping photos of secret meetings and dodgy dealings like a 1940’s noir Private Investigator. Her staff and fighting skills are admittedly also useful, but as they say; the camera never lies.

Pokémon Snap is quite a bit lighter in tone than Beyond Good and Evil. For me it still holds a soft spot in my heart (and to publicly declare my geekiness; when I heard on the in store radio while working at Game it was to be released on the VC I actually said “Woo!” or words to that effect). Taking on the role of Todd Snap, a Pokémon photographer, Professor Oak sends you to take pictures on Pokémon Island. As an on-the-rails shooter, although not in the traditional sense, you can bait Pokémon out with apples or attack them with stink bombs to try and get the perfect snap of the 63 species available in the game. It’s always struck me as odd that the game never received a sequel. It received fairly positive reviews, with most of the criticisms being about the game’s length and amount of Pokémon. However with more advanced consoles and a whole host of new Pokémon it seems perfect for a revival, so what’s holding it up Nintendo?

To date there is only one game for the Wii in which the camera is the main focus (more on games which use them additionally later), Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Like its predecessors this game is a Japanese horror game in which you use the ‘Camera Obscura’ to fight off hostile spirits. However the camera genre (let’s pretend such a thing exists) seems perfect for the Wii’s controller and yet it has barely been touched. Interestingly the recent Xbox 360 port Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop removed the photography mode that played a large part of the original game. Although I am aware a straightforward photo taking simulation game would be rather bland games like Pokémon Snap and the Fatal Frame franchise show that potential exists.

Photograph your way to liberation.

This is where you find most games belong; the games with a photographic mode added on to the main game. From the perverse (Rumble Roses) to the fun (Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Animal Crossing: City Folk) this extra mode adds a little bit of life into a title, particularly when teamed up with something like the Wii Message Board.

While I shall spare both my time and yours, mostly mine, from compiling a list of all games that feature a camera or photographic mode as a bonus I have decided to look at how it has been incorporated into a few example games. The aforementioned Pokémon Snap has been re-released on the Virtual Console and players can now share their photos on the Wii Message Board, a logical but beneficial feature which shows that new life can be injected into an old game through the Virtual Console.

In addition to these two Wii games have successfully implemented the camera function, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Both of these games allow you to take snapshots (screenshots essentially) within the game and share them with your friends. While the more twee Animal Crossing: City Folks allows you to effectively showcase design patterns and decorating skills Super Smash Brothers Brawl allows for more comic mid-action snapshots, although these again tend to lead to the more comically perverse (or maybe I’m speaking to the wrong people…). This mode adds an extra level of personal connection to the game; arguably you can express yourself and your interpretation of the game through the photos you take and choose to share.

While this may be the most ‘tacked-on’ version of the uses of cameras that has been explored it is also the most prevalent, a fact that will likely continue. However, saying it is ‘tacked-on’ is in no way derogatory if done correctly, as has been discussed. Through opening up another means of expression and the possibility to share this with friends games such as these allow for players to further immerse themselves within the gaming world.

Corny poses at the ready!

Conclusively, the use of cameras in videogames is still minimal but offers some great possibilities. While nothing will replace the real experience, and replicating it in a game would be at best pointless, at worst boring, it can still offer an enjoyable and unique experience. There’s nothing quite as rewarding as taking a great shot you can boast about, and no bigger pain than when it all goes wrong in the dark room (yes digital cameras and printers have replaced it but ask anyone who has used a dark room and they’ll tell you it’s a wonderful place). Thus through the incorporation of photography into gaming, through any of the means explored, it is possible to add this level of enjoyment. Or, at the very least, the more cameras out there the more traffic MySpace gets.