Lame
User Rating: 5.9 | Pocket Monsters Stadium 2 (Japan) N64
Expecting something along the lines of Pokemon Red, Blue or Yellow for Nintendo 64? Prepare to be majorly dissapointed. Pokemon Stadium is a turn based strategy game, that requires little strategy and more emphasis on knowing your type advantages. For example, knowing that water beats fire, fire beats grass, grass beats water, etc. Sure, seeing your favourite Pokemon 'duke it out' on your living room television may sound fun at first, but the mechanics grow old and get boring. It may appeal to pokemaniacs, but if you recommended this to someone else, they would probably throw it at the tv after purchasing it. There are several game modes in Pokemon Stadium. Stadium mode is where you enter a team of 6 pokemon to battle cpu controller opponents and fight your way up the ladder of 4 cups. Each of these cups has 4 difficulty levels, and pokemon level restrictions for each cup (eg. one of the cups only allow lvls 1-55), however, there is no levelling up involved, so expect all your favourite pokemon to be between the level caps. Gym Leader castle involves you taking on all the gym leaders from the show, the elite 4, and finally your 'rival'. This can be quite challenging, especially when you reach the Elite 4 and Rival. Though, the gameplay doesn't change the slightest. The best inclusion to Pokemon Stadium, is the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. With this nifty little device, you can stick it into the back of your controller, and put your Pokemon gameboy Red, Blue or Yellow versions into it. You can then upload your pokemon caught in the game to Stadium, and use your own preferred movesets, or play Red, Blue or Yellow on the screen. This is a decent addition to the game, as the preset move sets in the game generally suck. Free battle is where you can unwind from all the strict single player battles, and just vs your friends in a 'friendly' game. You can have 1 on 1 matches, 2 on 1 matches, or 2 on 2 matches. You can vs the computer if you feel the need to hone your skills. The graphics in the game are decent, and the attack animations are good, however it would be nice to see the pokemon actually connect in battle. We are instead reduced to choosing an attack, watching that pokemon stand back and unleash that move, without actually connecting with the opposing pokemon. The sound is alright, and expect the pokemon theme to be played during battle. The announcer is a pain in the @$$ though. He repeats the same thing over and over, and says some incredibly stupid things that aren't even relevant. After using hypnosis on a unsuspecting opponent, and resulting him in falling asleep then waking up, the announcer will proclaim something moronic like "They've exchanged glancing blows!" or "What an exciting battle!". Overall, I recommend this game to fans of pokemon, though I guess they would be the only ones buying it anyway. If you have never played pokemon before in your life and want to get in on the worldwide phenomenon, don't bother starting with this. It is no-where near as good as the Gameboy game that started it all.
