Pokemon Stadium

"Seeing your Pokemon team in 3D...it can't get any better than this!!"

I was so happy when this game was finally released for the N64. "My Pokemon team on the GameBoy would look GREAT in their 3D glory!" I thought to myself. I was right! If you are a pokemon fan, you're going to LOVE seeing your team in 3D, as opposed to dot-matrix sprites on a tiny Game Boy screen. Even though nowadays, Pokemon Stadium is vastly overshadowed by Stadium 2 and Colosseum, this is one of the greatest Pokemon games ever!

GRAPHICS: 10/10
Pokemon look the way they are supposed to, and their attack animations are breath-taking! Hit animations and faint animations look awesome as well, even if YOUR pokemon are the ones to take the brunt of it. Attack moves, like Fire Blast, Seismic Toss, and Psychic have neat animations.

SOUND: 9/10
When a Pokemon hits the field, it makes a cry similar to the cry they make on the GameBoy, only a little more enhanced. The announcer adds a nice touch, though some find him a bit annoying. But how could you not like when he goes on and on after your Pokemon finish off your foe's Pokemon?! The mini-games have pokemon actually talking (well, in their language, anyway...which is them repeating their name), and the sound effects in the mini-games is cute and fun.

MUSIC: 10/10
Very good. A vast improvement from Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow. New music has been added to Stadium as well. Some of the best music is when you are fighting against Mewtwo and during many of the battles. The mini-game's music is nice, too.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10
Contrary to what people say, Pokemon requires strategy to win. You can't go through the game with all of one Pokemon type. The exception is psychics and the almost invincible Mewtwo (It's your whole team vs him in one round: THAT'S how strong he is!). If a pokemon is not limited to moves that are the same element as it is, you'll be in for a nasty surprise! Imagine the shock when the water-type Blastoise uses an ice attack on the grass-type venusaur, who is WEAK to ice attacks! You can use moves to do damage to a foe, subtract damage from your pokemon, afflict an ailment on the foe, raise your stats, or lower their stats.

CONTROLS: 10/10
Everything works out fine. Bear in mind, if you fight against a human opponent, in order to command your Pokemon's set of four moves without your opponent seeing what they are, you need to memorize the order of your attack moves, and press the designated buttons to execute the moves.

REPLAY: 10/10
Unless you bore extremely easily or super easily, you'll replay this game more times than you can count! Replay is VERY high here, especially if you want to obtain the hidden features and rewards, or to see how well other pokemon you've caught will fare against the foes. You can even use this opportunity to check out your pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, since foes will be MUCH weaker and will die in one hit on the Game Boy versions. If you want to give a rest to fighting for a while, you check out the 3D pokedex. You can also try out the mini-games. Some of them are silly, and others will have you laughing your head off! The magikarps going "karp, karp, KAAARRRP!" as they jump up and down to hit a button had me laughing until my sides hurt.

On another note: You can choose to download your GB team onto the game pak, but if you don't have a game boy game pak, you can choose to instead hire a team of rental pokemon. If you feel like a challenge, you can use the rental team instead of your own team, but I'd rather use my team.

OVERALL: 10/10
Do your eyes deceive you? A 10? No, your eyes do not deceive you. Yes! I am giving this game a 10! Why? Because it is fun. This game is a pokemon fan's delight! If you have Pokemon Red or Blue or Yellow (Sorry, this game is not compatible with Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red or Leaf Green!), or are a pokemon fan, this game is a MUST! Of course, you may want to go for Pokemon Stadium 2 by now, or Pokemon Colosseum, but this is the game that started it all!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/04