Pokémon Stadium - All N64 Games

[Jonnas]

I remember playing A Bug's Life on the PS1 Yeah, it's awfully clunky I only played the first couple of levels, anyway.

With older licensed games, their limited budget means the result will always be somewhat generic, and their limited knowledge of the source material means they will always take some creative liberties here and there. Sometimes it worked, and mostly, it didn't!

Edited 12 hours ago by Jonnas

[Cube]

Pokémon Stadium

• JP release: 30th April 1999
• NA release: 6th March 2000
• PAL release: 23rd March 2000 (AU), 7th April 2000 (EU)
• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• N64 Magazine Score: 90%

One of my strangest gaming choices as a kid was picking Pokémon Stadium. I enjoyed the show, but I wasn’t a fan of the Game Boy games. The problem with Stadium is that it’s mainly a companion piece for Red, Blue and Yellow, so your experience is hampered by not having them. For this playthrough, I did try using a save file I found online, but it didn’t have that many high level Pokémon (although it did have a surfing Raichu).

One thing I did enjoy was the minigames. There are only nine (with a few duds), but you can have a lot of fun with friends. The Lickitung one especially is great, where you have to eat the most sushi. For the tournaments, you can borrow rental Pokémon from the game – choosing any of the first 149 Pokémon (Mewtwo and Mew can be unlocked, too). However, these aren’t as powerful as the ones trained by yourself, and you can’t modify their abilities.

The battles themselves feature 3D models of all the Pokémon, and they’re all wonderfully animated, along with their moves (although the Pokémon don’t directly hit each other). It was a great way to see the Pokémon you trained on your TV, especially so if you and a friend both have the Game Boy games, as it provides an easy way to select your team. Stadium also allowes you to play the Game Boy games directly on your TV, too. I do find it odd that Nintendo never released a “Game Boy Player” to work with the Transfer Pak.

As a companion piece to Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, Stadium is a wonderful bit of software. Without the Game Boy game, however, and the game is much more difficult due to the rental Pokémon not being as good.

Quote

But it’s not just seeing the Pokémon brought vividly to life that makes Pokémon Stadium such a joy – it’s watching them take part in the gut-tightening battles that unfold on screen. On the Game Boy, the various fighting moves looked as cute and harmless as the monsters themselves – in glorious 3D, they’re truly frightening. Giant balls of electricity sparkle, hissing beams of pure ice are thrown around the arena, fire roars across the screen, and eerie light shows play behind Pokémon as they execute hypnotic attacks.

- Mark Green, N64 Magazine #41

Remake or remaster?

With the Pokémon games now being on Switch, the features of this should be part of the main games.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no way to buy a new copy of Pokémon Stadium, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. It should also be noted that it has no Game Boy compatibility, so you’re stuck with the rental Pokémon.

[Glen-i]

30 minutes ago, Cube said:

With the Pokémon games now being on Switch, the features of this should be part of the main games.

That's a weird thing to say. Because a lot of said features were implemented in some way in the mainline games. Obviously, seeing battles in 3D is a given these days, but the other stuff was there at some point.

The Stadium and Gym Leader Castle modes were merged together in Generation 5 in the form of the PWT (Pokémon World Tournament). A knockout tourney that restricted you to 3 level 50 Pokémon as you face off against every Gym Leader and Champion to date. Hell, the idea of fights against AI with excellent teams dates as far back as the Game Boy Colour with Crystal's Battle Tower.

Even minigames that feature your Pokémon were in the DS remakes of Gold and Silver in the Pokéathelon. A series of touch screen action-based games you could play with friends.

That said, the irony here is that all those neat things the mainline series got from Stadium have been slowly phased out over time. Even the main Stadium mode replacement (Battle Tower) didn't show up in the latest games. And that bums me out.

Edited 6 hours ago by Glen-i

[Cube]

48 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

That's a weird thing to say. Because a lot of said features were implemented in some way in the mainline games. Obviously, seeing battles in 3D is a given these days, but the other stuff was there at some point.

The "should" was more because I don't know that much about the features of the mainline games.

[EEVILMURRAY]

19 hours ago, Cube said:

 The browns and greys make it looks more like Antz.

It wishes.

[Dcubed]

Quote

I dofind it odd that Nintendo never released a “Game Boy Player” to work with the Transfer Pak.

Reason why is because the data transfer rate is ridiculously slow (you’re talking about 15.6KB per second).  The Stadium games only use the Transfer Pak for accessing and copying save data from the cartridges; the actual Game Boy ROM data resides on the Pokémon Stadium cartridge itself.  So those lengthy loading times you see are just for accessing save data alone; just imagine how slow it’d be at loading the actual ROM!

That being said? You’ve given me a nice segue to talk about a neat little piece of development hardware that was available to devs and media outlets at around this time in 1999, that just so happens to provide the functionality you’re looking for…
 

Presenting.. the Wideboy 64!

Ultra Gameboy!

This little doohickey was basically the N64 equivalent of the Super Gameboy and was made by Intelligent Systems for use by game developers/publishers and by media outlets for video, screenshot and demo purposes.  If you ever saw a trailer for a GBC game, or a screenshot in a mag? Chances are that it came from one of these devices.

A revised version was later released called the Wideboy AGB which, surprise surprise, was the GBA equivalent of the original Wideboy 64.  It too ran on the N64 and worked in much the same way (and since it was a GBA, could also play GB/GBC games).

Up until all the way to 2003? These pieces of rare development hardware were the only way you could play GBC or GBA games on your telly.

Edited 2 hours ago by Dcubed

[BowserBasher]

4 hours ago, Cube said:

One thing I did enjoy was the minigames. There are only nine (with a few duds), but you can have a lot of fun with friends.

As @Glen-i, @Dcubed, @S.C.G and I have done on a few occasions when we play N64 NSO games online. They can be fun in short bursts but we never usually do more than one set. Greatest moment so far was all four of us drawing on the Ekans ring toss game. 

[Ashley]

45 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

These pieces of rare development hardware were the only way you could play GBC or GBA games on your telly.

Incorrect. TVs at the time were hefty enough you could play the portable consoles while sat on them.