Very boring and very repetitive
Review 16
Game Genre: Strategy
Graphics
The graphics are pretty crappy for a Nintendo 64 game. I think so at least. They aren’t so bad that you can’t bear to play the game, though.
Gameplay
This was the first time that Pokemon fans could play in 3D and watch their Pokemon attack. Even though the animations are pretty bad (it just shows the attack, you can never see it hit the other Pokemon), it was still a cool aspect. That’s pretty much it. You choose your Pokemon, then in battle you choose their attack and whether or not to switch them out, just like the Gameboy games.
An interesting little side trip are the mini-games. Almost like a Mario Party-ish theme, there are 9 minigames that you can play either separately, or in a “first to ‘insert number here’ mode”. Because the Nintendo 64 has 4 controller ports, it can be fun to play these minigames with friends sometimes.
Controls
Simple enough. Typical “A” selects and “B” cancels, all of the controls are always listed at any point throughout the game.
Story
I guess I can’t completely discount this category. There are two main places that you can go that I will explain in-depth.
The first is Gym Leader Castle. As it implies, it contains the eight gym leaders from the Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow games, plus the Elite Four. As in all events in this game, Pokemon can either be rented or, with the help of a special game pack that I doubt you could find anywhere anymore, you can connect your Gameboy with Pokemon Yellow in it and use your Pokemon from the game. The second place is the Pokemon Stadium. There are 4 tournaments: The Petit Cup, Pika Cup, Prime Cup, and Prima Cup. Each has its own set of rules involving Pokemon levels and contains eight battles.
Everything else involving an actual storyline…wait, there is nothing else. The only other major things that you can even do are the minigames and (again, with the special game pack) play your Pokemon Yellow game on the big screen. Unless your TV is small. Then it’s on a slightly bigger than Gameboy small screen.
Durability
As I stated earlier, there are the stadium competitions, the minigames and the Gym Leader Castle. There is nothing else. It can keep you occupied if you are bored, but that should be the only time you will ever play this game. It is in no way addictive or insanely fun at all.
Frustration Rate:
Not too high. Some of the final battles in the tournaments are pretty hard, but otherwise I was just plain bored.