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Pokémon Stadium
North American box art featuring Blastoise (left) and Charizard (right)
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Takao Shimizu
Producer(s)	Kenji Miki Tsunekazu Ishihara Satoru Iwata Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmer(s)	Yasunari Nishida
Artist(s)	Tatsuya Hishida
Composer(s)	Kenta Nagata Hajime Wakai Toru Minegishi
Series	Pokémon
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release	JP: April 30, 1999 NA: March 6, 2000 AU: March 23, 2000 EU: April 7, 2000
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Pokémon Stadium, known in Japan as Pokémon Stadium 2, is a strategy video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan on April 30, 1999; in North America on March 6, 2000; in Australia on March 23, 2000; and in Europe on April 7, 2000. It was the first Stadium title released in Western regions, succeeding the Japan-only 1998 Nintendo 64 release Pocket Monsters' Stadium. The gameplay revolves around a 3D turn-based battling system using the 151 Pokémon from the Game Boy games Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Originally intended for the 64DD, it was later developed into a standard console game after the add-on failed. Using the Transfer Pak accessory that was bundled with the game, players are able to view, organize, store, trade, and battle using Pokémon uploaded from Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow. The game includes four stadium cups, each of which is a series of three-on-three Pokémon battles against an ordered lineup of opponents. Gym Leader Castle mode involves battles against the eight Kanto gym leaders and the Elite Four. Pokémon Stadium also features mini-games and numerous features available through its compatibility with Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Pokémon Stadium became one of the best-selling Nintendo 64 titles, selling one million copies before the end of 2000. Critics praised the game's visuals and the connectivity with the Game Boy games but criticized the games' audio quality and repetitive gameplay. A sequel, Pokémon Stadium 2, released in 2000, supporting connectivity with the games Pokémon Gold, Pokémon Silver, and Pokémon Crystal games. Stadium was later re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on April 12, 2023.

Gameplay

Unlike the Game Boy games Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, Pokémon Stadium does not have a storyline or a well-defined world or story, meaning that it is not considered a role-playing video game. Stadium takes a more battle-focused approach with its gameplay, which functions similarly to Red, Blue, and Yellow. Players bring teams of six Pokémon; these can either be selected from an option of rental Pokémon with pre-determined movesets that are not able to be altered, or they can be imported from the Game Boy using the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. Only three Pokémon may be selected to bring to a battle out of the six brought. Pokémon are depicted in 3D, and have unique animations in-battle, which is a first for the series. The game also featured an announcer, portrayed by actor Ted Lewis, who says voice lines in response to actions that occur in battle.

The game challenges the player to succeed in trainer battles at the Stadium, a tournament consisting of four "Cups" and eighty battles in total, as well as the Gym Leader Castle, where the player battles the eight Kanto Gym Leaders, the Kanto Elite Four, and the Champion. When all Cups have been won and the Gym Leader Castle is completed, a six-on-one battle against Mewtwo is unlocked. Defeating Mewtwo unlocks another round of Stadium, Gym Leader Castle, and the Mewtwo battle, but with higher difficulty. If certain conditions are met using imported Pokémon from a Game Boy cartridge, the player will be awarded a Pikachu with the move Surf, which unlocks a mini-game in Pokémon Yellow.

Other features

Pokémon Stadium features other game-modes. The Pokémon Lab feature allows players to connect with Pokémon Game Boy game cartridges via the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. A player's stored Game Boy Pokémon can be organized and traded in the Lab, and players can view Pokedex information and models for particular species. Players can store Pokémon and items from the Game Boy games in Stadium, and allows players to transfer Pokémon stored on Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow Game Boy cartridges to Stadium, where they can be used in Stadium's battle modes. Players can play the Game Boy games through Stadium via the connection. The Lab also allows players to receive Pokémon species as gifts, with the species available being species obtainable only as part of a one-time choice in the Game Boy games, allowing for players to more easily complete their Pokedex in the Game Boy games.

Mini-games

The Kids Club feature allows players to play mini-games, which deviate from standard gameplay to Mario Party-styled mini-games. Nine mini-games are included in Pokémon Stadium, and each game allows up to four players. If any of the four player slots are not taken, the CPU takes over the excess slots.

• "Clefairy Says": Played similarly to the game Simon Says, players must follow the directions given on a blackboard by an instructor Clefairy and repeat them using the controller. To win, players must be the last one standing or have the fewest misses after five rounds.
• "Dig! Dig! Dig!": Players control Sandshrew and must alternate between the controller's shoulder buttons in order to dig underground as quickly as possible. The first player to dig underground first wins.
• "Ekans' Hoop Hurl": Players toss several Ekans, in a manner akin to ring toss, onto Diglett that pop out of the holes. Each successful toss gives the player points, and the player with the most points wins.
• "Magikarp's Splash": Playing as Magikarp, players must attempt to jump as high as possible and compete against other players to see who can jump the highest.
• "Rock Harden": Players play as Metapod or Kakuna, and must use their Harden technique to prevent taking damage from falling boulders. Being hit and using Harden use stamina, and players must manage their usage of them to outlast other players.
• "Run, Rattata, Run": Playing as Rattata, players run on a treadmill, and must avoid obstacles like hurdles. The first Rattata to make it to the end wins.
• "Snore War": Playing as Drowzee, players must use the move Hypnosis on a pendulum when it hits the center of the swing to make the other Drowzee fall asleep. The last player to remain awake wins.
• "Sushi Go-Round": Playing as Lickitung, players must eat as much sushi as they can while avoiding spicier foods and the tea, both of which slow down Lickitung's speed. Different food items are more expensive than others, and the player who has the largest bill at the end of the game wins.
• "Thundering Dynamo": Playing as either Pikachu or Voltorb, players must rapidly press a directed button to feed electricity into a machine. The player to fill the machine first wins.

Pocket Monsters' Stadium

The first Pocket Monsters' Stadium was released only in Japan on August 1, 1998. Once intended as a 64DD launch title with a March 1998 release date, the game was planned to take advantage of the 64DD's functionalities by allowing Pokémon to be played both on the go and at home. Stadium was eventually converted to a standard Nintendo 64 game on a 32 MB cartridge. Because of technical limitations, this version features only 40 Pokémon that are available for battle, instead of the full 151 Pokémon from the Game Boy versions as originally planned. Trainers battled in-game are based around participants in Pokémon championships that took place in Japan in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Connectivity with the Pokémon Game Boy trilogy is available using the Transfer Pak (bundled with the game) in the same way as the internationally released Pokémon Stadium. HAL Laboratory president Satoru Iwata, who would later head Nintendo itself, was the one who managed to port the battle system to work in the Nintendo 64, taking a whole week to read the entire Game Boy source code, and afterwards convert Shigeki Morimoto's programming from the Pokémon games. Iwata additionally fixed the compatibility issues with the Game Boy games and Stadium singlehandedly.

GameSpot reported that it had 1.4 million pre-orders by June 1998. The game sold a reported 270,000 copies in its first month of release. This version was not released outside Japan, with the more expanded Stadium (titled Pocket Monsters Stadium 2 in Japan) releasing internationally instead.

Release and promotion

Pokémon Stadium was announced in the December 1998 issue of The 64Dream. On February 16, 1999, Nintendo announced that it would be showing the game in a Japan-exclusive event called Pokémon Festival '99. Early reviews of the game from Japan's Weekly Famitsu Crew were favorable.

On March 6, 2000, Nintendo launched a $7 million Pokémon Stadium advertising campaign on television, print, and online media as part of a wider $30 million Pokémon promotion. Nintendo released a promotional Pokémon Stadium bundle featuring a Nintendo 64 console, two differently colored Nintendo 64 controllers, a poster, a journal, and a "Cool Porygon" promo card for the trading card game.

In celebration of the game's North American release, Nintendo and Blockbuster partnered for a promotion in which the first Pokémon Stadium game cartridges delivered to Blockbuster contained a coupon for a limited-edition Pokémon Stadium sticker poster and a free "Pokémon Smart Card," which could be used to redeem up to sixteen stickers at Blockbuster locations. The Smart Cards were previously available in Blockbuster's 1999 promotion for Pokémon Snap.

Reception

Pokémon Stadium received mostly positive reviews from critics, attaining a score of 78.60% on review aggregator GameRankings based on 26 reviews. GameSpot contributor Jeff Gerstmann highlighted the Pokémon's visual appearances and battling, but stated that the lack of a story and the "generic" battling may be off-putting for players. IGN's Peer Schneider praised the game's connectivity with the Game Boy games and the game's difficult battles, as well as the visual appearances for the Pokémon. He criticized the game's repetitive gameplay and the game's sound design.

GameRevolution praised the game's expressive Pokémon models and animations, and highlighted the degree of strategy needed to succeed in battle compared to the Game Boy releases. They criticized the repetitiveness of the gameplay and the game's announcer. Regarding the game's announcer, a frequent complaint among critics, RPGamer's Ben Martin praised the game's interactions with the Game Boy and accessibility, but criticized the game's lack of features for players who didn't have access to the Game Boy games, as well as for the lack of content available to returning players. He also criticized the game's lack of striking musical score and the game's announcer. Nintendo Power praised the game, highlighting its graphics, but criticized the game's music and announcer.

David Grossman, writing for Inverse, praised the game's Game Boy compatibility and novelty factor as a result, but criticized the Nintendo Switch port for not maintaining that novelty. Arjun Joshi, writing for Nintendo Life, praised the game's 3D graphics, gameplay options, and music, but criticized the game's lack of content for players without access to the Game Boy's compatibility features. The book Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon stated that the while the game's innovative features helped elevate it to a level of success, Stadium was unable to replicate the success of the Game Boy games before it.

During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Pokémon Stadium received a nomination for the "Console Family" award by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Sales

In its first month of sales in North America, Pokémon Stadium sold over 1 million copies, and it became the best-selling console game in the region during the year 2000. Nintendo of America announced that it would be released as a Player's Choice title, a well-selling game with a lower suggested retail price, on December 26, 2000. At least more than 3.97 million copies have been sold, including 3.16 million in the United States, 710,765 in Japan, and more than 100,000 in the United Kingdom.

Sequel and legacy

Months after its debut, a follow-up to Pokémon Stadium, tentatively titled Pokémon Stadium Gold/Silver, was announced by Nintendo. The game was released in 2000 and 2001 as Pokémon Stadium 2, featuring every Pokémon from the first two generations, including those released in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Transfer Pak compatibility is included for Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal as well as Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Following the release of Stadium 2, several games with similar gameplay to the Stadium series were released, but no official continuation to it was. According to Game Freak employees Shigeru Ohmori and Junichi Masuda, the Stadium series' main feature of allowing for Pokémon battles in 3D was not considered as "impressive" as it was before, primarily due to the release of Pokémon X and Y, the first mainline Pokémon games to feature entirely 3D graphics. They stated it would require "some sort of new invention" to justify the series' return.

The game was re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on April 12, 2023. The re-release functions identically to the original game, but transfer and connectivity capabilities with the Game Boy are not available. Online features were additionally implemented, allowing players to play the Kids Club mini-games with players through Nintendo Switch Online. The game was later updated to patch out a bug that would consider in-game rental Pokémon's movesets to be hacked.

Notes

1. Japanese: ポケモンスタジアム２, Hepburn: Pokemon Sutajiamu 2

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External links

• Official website
• Pokémon Stadium at the Wayback Machine (archived 2007-10-11) at Nintendo.com

• 1999 video games
• Cancelled 64DD games
• Nintendo 64 games
• Nintendo Switch Online games
• Party video games
• Turn-based strategy video games
• Video games developed in Japan
• Games with Transfer Pak support
• Pokémon video games
• Multiplayer and single-player video games
• Video game spin-offs
• Video games produced by Shigeru Miyamoto
• Video games scored by Toru Minegishi
• VSDA Game of the Year winners
• Creatures (company) games