Pokemon Stadium

"Nintendo must have forgot that the N64 utilizes three dimensions. That is the only way that this game could be so one-dimensional"

OPENING STATEMENT
Pokemon Stadium came to fruition with much anticipation and fanfare. Everyone wanted to see their favorite Pokemon in full three-dimensions, as Pokemon Snap had not even recreated half of them. They wanted to see the attacks, the storyline, and everything else that made the Game Boy game great be represented on Nintendo's floundering console. Sadly, only one aspect of the Pokemon series has been recreated: the battling. Battle, battle, and battle some more, and you have basically established what Pokemon Stadium is.

GAMEPLAY--3
What can I say? The focus of an RPG is never really its battling. A game that recreates RPG battles, then, will obviously be very simplistic. And, much to my dismay, my logical thoughts did not disappoint. The depth of battling does not take very long at all, you see. There is only so much to comparing the types of Pokemon and selecting an attack. Because, that is all you really do. Comparing the types and strategizing loses nearly all of its luster when you are in what is essentially a tournament fighting game.

The mini-games, hardly offer depth. Most of them are more simplistic than the ones you would find in any Mario Party game, and most of them hold your interest for even less time. Thankfully there is one exception. The Sushi-go-Round mini-game, which stars Lickitung, is quite enjoyable. You compete with three other Pokemon, attempting to gain the most points from eating different things as possible. Think of it as ''Shop 'Til You Drop'' Pokemon-Style. Sadly, determining which food will garner you the most points may be the most deep aspect of this game.

GRAPHICS--8
Only the delusional would attempt to tell someone that Pokemon Stadium is not impressive looking. In 2001, with the Nintendo 64 showing its age, it may not look as good as a Zone of the Enders or a Power Stone 2, but, for its time with its competition, it remains one of the best. The Pokemon have all worked out whatever little kinks that they were stuck with in Pokemon Snap, and they all look great, not to mention much, much more realistic. (Or at least as realistic as a cartoon-styled character can look.) Seeing Squirtle battle Charmander almost made me weep. Okay, it did not, but it was a good phrase.

The attack animations are what really make Pokemon Stadium shine. The flames of the fire attacks rage, and they may force you to run to a mirror to check and see if your hair got singed. The water attacks can quench any thirst you have. Or, er, any quench for something to drink. The lightning attacks are perhaps the most impressive of all, as the bolts shine across the arena like looking into a storm on a sultry summer evening. The other attack types look great as well, and they finally show that Nintendo is attempting to exert a tiny bit of effort with this game.

The environments, though, are the weakest link with Pokemon Stadium. First of all, you battle in the same, rather drab, outdoor arena, in every single match in the game. Every tournament, every two-player battle, absolutely everything. This really bothered me, as I would have loved to see Nintendo do some different things with these arenas. They could have modeled a few after the gyms from the Pokemon cartoon or something, as anything different would have been nice. They did not ever even rearrange the landscaping of the trees!

MUSIC--3
SOUND--3
What sounded great on the Game Boy just becomes really, really repetitive on a console with much better sound capabilities. I mean, Nintendo only lifted the main few songs from the portable hit, and threw them in the battles, along with a couple original, but stylistically the same, tunes. I mean, I can only stand so much of the same music over and over again, especially when it is not something I enjoy listening to using CDs and the radio. So, I eventually mute the television set.

Luckily, muting the television set takes away absolutely nothing from the awful sound effects. There are not many menu noises, and the ones that you do have are insanely typical. The attack noises are really primitive and disappointing as well. Of course, the biggest problem is the voice acting. The announcer says the same things over and over again. Along with his limited vocabulary, he has one of the most annoying voices I have ever been forced to listen to. I feel sorry for whomever knows this man in real life. And, my pity extends this offer of free earplugs to them.

CONTROL--4
Well, in a game that has almost as much control as a text adventure, I am truly at a loss of what to rate. The entire game is just navigating the menus. Choose the Pokemon, then choose the attack, then navigate the menus to find your next opponent. Then, repeat some more. The only time that you are ever actually moving are in a couple of the mini-games, and when you are playing the actual Game Boy game through your Transfer Pak. This depressed me quite a bit, because one of the biggest draws of Pokemon was time spent wandering around, looking for Pokemon and items, and none of that is present in Pokemon Stadium.

FUN--3
I really did not find Pokemon Stadium fun at all. I bought it, played it a little bit with friends, and did some of the tournaments and such, but it nevver grabbed me and sucked me in like I expected it to. To be perfectly honest, I actually had the most fun playing the mini-games. At least they tried to do something remotely new. Those mini-games are well-crafted, and I am sure they will probably draw most everyone who plays Pokemon Stadium. When you have battled in the Game Boy games for more than a hundred hours, battling more just does nothing for you, unless you are one of those biased, Pokemon obsessed freaks, who will give any game with a Pikachu in it a perfect score.

CHALLENGE--LOW
The challenge in Pokemon Stadium is really nonexistent. What challenge is there when all you need to do is choose one of four attacks and choose one of three eligible Pokemon. A slight challenge comes from deciding which three Pokemon to use, but people who have played the Game Boy Pokemon games, or most everyone who will be playing Pokemon Stadium, should not (and will not) have any problem with this. Nintendo was so concerned with getting this game out as soon as possible to make some quick money, they simply forgot to program in artificial intelligence.

REPLAY VALUE--LOW TO MEDIUM
As I said before, Pokemon Stadium never really grabbed me. I played it for about two weeks after buying it, and then it really sat untouched, excluding the times when I babysat my cousins, both aged under seven. The game was perfect for people of that age level, so that is really how Pokemon Stadium gets played around here. When I got Pokemon Silver I played through Pokemon Stadium some more, to unlock the hidden Pokemon, so I could trade them into that game and get the special items, but then, after doing that, my cartridge once more sat alone. Pokemon Stadium just is not a game that you will play a lot.

PROS
*The first three-dimensional graphical representation of most of the Pokemon.
*Stunning attack animations.
*You are able to transfer in your own Pokemon for battling.

CONS
*Gameplay is more shallow than a tide pool.
*Audio will make you scream in agony.
*Challenge really does not exist.

CLOSING STATEMENT
Nintendo rarely makes a colossal blunder marketing their own first-party games. The release of Pokemon Stadium with so few frills is one of their biggest in their hundred plus year history. The game will entertain you for a while, but the thrill of seeing Pokemon in three-dimensions really is not thrilling enough to make Pokemon Stadium great.

OVERALL--4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/01, Updated 08/17/01