Games

The Rise and Fall of Bidoof, Pokémon Snap’s Unlikely Hero

Bidoof are everywhere in the game, not that anyone is complaining about that.
A bid
Image Source: New Pokemon Snap

New Pokémon Snap is a game all about falling in love with Bidoof, which permeates the early levels of the game, some of its marketing material, various reviews, and social media in the early days of the game’s release.

If you aren't familiar with the Pokémon Bidoof, they are simply a cute little beaver-like creature introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. They like to swim, chomp on sticks, and take naps. They also have a very cute butt.

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Two Bidoof butts.

In the first stage of the recently released New Pokémon Snap, you're going to see Bidoofs everywhere. The game has you running along a preset track and snapping pictures of different pocket monsters along the way. In the first level, set in a nature reserve, you ride alongside a lake where Bidoofs are eagerly creating a dam. In the nighttime version of the level, you can see them sleeping in their new homes. The more you take pictures in a particular level, the more you level up, and more Pokémon show up in that stage. As you level up in that first stage, you'll mostly see more and more Bidoof, running wild and free and making mischief.

The sheer number of Bidoof has become something of a meme in the game and off the platform. As a Pokémon, Bidoof is already kind of a cult classic. Part of it is its adorable name (Bidoof!) and its design, which truly melts your heart. How can you resist those buck teeth? Another part of it is how Bidoof has become an unlikely figure in internet culture. Because Bidoof isn't actually very useful in terms of its stats, Pokémon fans have turned the adorable beaver creature into an unstoppable, godlike being in their own memes. Bidoof is also the namesake of Bidoof's Law, which states there's nothing funnier than seeing someone decry the decline of western culture while they are also "openly and shamelessly" addicted to anime porn. 

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I love Bidoof, and it appears many other people feel the same. In New Pokémon Snap, there's now a feature where you can upload images to the internet, where other players can give the pictures they like a "Sweet! Medal," which functions basically like an upvote on Reddit. The more Sweet! Medals a picture has, the more popular it is. When I first checked to see what other players' pictures were popular on May 3, this picture of Bidoof was one of the most popular pictures on the platform, with over 420,000 Sweet! Medals.

A bidoof wearing a crown, with over 420,000 Sweet! Medals.

A week later, according to Polygon's Patricia Hernandez, this picture of Bidoof was the platform's most popular:

There are signs that, despite the crown in the photo you see above, Bidoof is losing cache, at least at the top of the leaderboard. When the leaderboard refreshed this week, Bidoof fell out of the top spot, and an unlikely photo of Pidgeotto and Magikarp took its place.  I have no doubt that this isn't the last we'll see of Bidoof, though. The Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes are on their way, priming players to fall for Bidoof yet another time.