We know a lot of people have been waiting for Pokémon Snap, because they tell us. Frequently! It should come as a comfort to those people, then, that the game is scheduled for release on Japan's Virtual Console on December 4th, which makes a release in other territories soon after a near inevitability. We admit to a fondness for the nonviolent rail shooter ourselves, and it's aged rather well for an N64 game.

An N64 game on the VC is big enough news (they can only come out during a full moon on a warm night, and then only if nothing is there to spook them), but the release of Pokémon Snap also carries some news that is significant to the very nature of the Wii's classic game download service. You will be able to send your in-game photos to Wii Friends. We don't necessarily think Pokémon photo sharing is, itself, a killer app or anything, though we'll probably take advantage of the service if we can generate awkward enough poses. This is the first time that a Virtual Console game has had functionality added to it (instead of having functionality removed) and it means that Nintendo is not above going in and changing a game for a good reason. As long as that reason is Pokémon. Also surprisingly, the game will be the normal 1000 Wii Points.