Pokemon Stadium 2

"Overall, a game with slightly more cons than pros."

Ah, another Pokemon game! When you see the name, you probably asked ''how is it different from Pokemon stadium one?'' Actually, it is not all that different. The graphics are almost the same, most of the same features still exist, and the main purpose of the game is still to ''battle 'em all in 3-D''. However, I have not play Stadium One much, so I will not be comparing the two much. Anyway, on to the review!



Graphics: 8/10

Pokemon Stadium 2's graphics are not bad for a Nintendo 64 game. Colorful, sharp, and sometimes funny, the graphics of Stadium 2 are one of the game's best features. This a relief for people playing the Game Boy games, expecially Red and Blue, where your Pokemon look so pixelated you can barely tell who they are. In Stadium 2, it is always easy to tell what you and your opponents have out.


Gameplay: 2/10

The only thing that prevents the game from getting a one here is that not everything in the game is bad. Fans of the Game Boy Pokemon games like myself will love Prof. Oak's lab, where you can get extra Pokemon and Item storage space, receive and send mail, look at your Pokedex, and much more. The lab is also a great orginizational tool, and will help those with messy Pokemon Boxes. The Pokemon Academy is also great. You can learn just about anything on the Pokemon, Items, moves, and more of Pokemon, and take classes that illustrate useful battle strategies. The last two helpful features are your house, where you can rearrange and see your room in 3-D, and the minigames, such as the Pong-like Barrier Ball starring Mr. Mime. However, the most advertised special feature of Stadium 2, the 3-D battles, are where the game unfortunately falls short. Nintendo wanted to make the game more challenging than the GB games, where highly enough trained Pokemon could always triumph. So, they made two changes to the battle system. Firstly, they prevented you from knowing which Pokemon enemies will use next and switching accordingly, forcing you to waste a turn if you get a bad type match-up. Second, they prevented you from ever getting a level advantage, by making all your opponents in the Stadium and Gym Leader Castle as strong as your strongest Pokemon. This makes these modes, especially the later battles, next to impossible. On top of all this, there are some slightly more subtle ways of making the game harder that Nintendo used, such as giving the normally predictable Gym Leaders completely unfitting Pokemon (remember Lt. Surge's Surfing Raichu?) and giving these Pokemon powerful and annoying moves, leading to you oftentimes having at least two status ailments on your last Pokemon, comepletely helpless and unable to do anything. On the other hand, the computer's Pokemon seem to be unaffected by status changing attacks, and can nearly always pull through and score yet another KO. My advice is, if you can get frusterated at all, stay away from all but the Free Battles and use Stadium 2 to improve your GB gameplay.


Story: 1/10

Pokemon Stadium 2 is one of those games that has no story, but you do not really care, like Super Smash Bros. Melee. The best I can think of is that you have come to the mysterious White City and have been challenged to several Pokemon tournaments, which you are obliged to win, for some reason. Pretty bad, huh? Like I said, you probably won't care.


Sound: 4/10

Most of this music (the exception being the Gym Leader music) are quite repetitive. Fortunately, they are not very loud, so you will probably be able to ''tune it out''. The announcer, although he has been given more quotes, is still very annoying.


Replay: 6/10

This game does not have much replay value alone, since the Stadium and Gym Leader Castle modes are practically useless, but it can dramtically increase the replay value of the Pokemon games. Prof. Oak's lab rocks!


Buy or Rent

If you CANNOT get frusterated, have endless patience, and love having your opponent cheat a lot, but this game. If you like the Game Boy games and want to get more out of them, buy this game. If you are a casual Pokemon fan you wants to ''battle 'em all in 3-D'', rent this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/02, Updated 09/14/02