Pokémon Stadium uses the battle system of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, but it does not simply copy it. The developers fixed a good share of the famous first-generation bugs and reworked several mechanics. A player used to the Game Boy games will be surprised: sleep is much weaker, Hyper Beam has lost its status as the ultimate weapon, and critical hits no longer always land on the fast Pokémon. Here is everything that changes.
What changes in the interface
- The team preview: before each match, the opponent’s six Pokémon are revealed and you choose your three fighters accordingly. No more surprises: a Gengar or an Articuno hidden in reserve loses much of its appeal.
- Numerical HP: the health bars of both Pokémon show their exact HP.
- No items in battle: no Potion or Full Heal. Only moves count.
- The commentator announces critical hits, status changes and super effective moves. In the French version, Jean-Claude Donda does the commentary. It can be turned off in the options.
- Illegal moves (moves a Pokémon cannot normally learn) are displayed in purple, as is their trainer’s name. The Pokémon can still fight.
Built-in rules
- Sleep Clause: only one Pokémon on your team can be put to sleep by the opponent at a time. Rest counts as sleep: a Pokémon put to sleep by its own Rest therefore protects its teammates from the opponent’s sleep moves.
- Freeze Clause in the cups: only one Pokémon can be frozen at a time.
- Self-KO Clause: if a player’s last Pokémon faints at the same time as the opponent’s because of Explosion or Self-Destruct, the player who used the move loses. A draw cannot be forced.
- One of each species per team.
Only the battle against Mewtwo lifts the Sleep and Freeze Clauses.
The major mechanics that change
| Mechanic | Red, Blue, Yellow | Pokémon Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep duration | 1 to 7 turns | Greatly shortened: a few turns at most, and an immediate wake-up is possible |
| Critical hits | Proportional to base Speed: fast Pokémon land plenty | New, more balanced formula: fewer critical hits for fast Pokémon, more for slow ones (Snorlax goes from about 6% to 10%, Electrode from about 27% to 21%) |
| Focus Energy | Divides the critical hit rate by four (bug) | Finally works: a Nidoking goes from about 15% to more than 60% critical hits |
| “1 in 256” miss | A 100% accurate move can miss | Virtually eliminated (1 in 65,536) |
| Accuracy and evasion | Very strong multipliers (Double Team and Sand Attack are formidable) | Softened multipliers, as in the second generation |
| Paralysis and burn | Bug: the Speed or Attack drop can be reapplied or cancelled | The drop stays tied to the status and disappears with it (Rest, Haze) |
| Recoil | The user always takes recoil | No recoil if the move knocks out the opponent |
Modified moves
Those that lose power
- Hyper Beam: on Game Boy, it did not require a recharge turn if it knocked out the opponent, which made it the ideal finishing move for Tauros or Gengar. In Stadium, the recharge is mandatory in every case, even on a miss or a KO.
- Wrap, Bind, Clamp and Fire Spin: if either Pokémon is switched out, the turn ends immediately. These moves no longer let you chain an opponent down to a KO without it being able to react.
- Counter: it can no longer return damage taken on the previous turn or during a Pokémon switch, and can no longer counter another Counter. Bide also loses its damage stacking.
- Hypnosis, Sleep Powder and the other sleep moves: less reliable because of the reduced duration and the Sleep Clause.
Those that gain power
- Substitute: the substitute now blocks status conditions and HP-draining moves, such as Mega Drain. It becomes a major defensive tool.
- Rest: it also erases the stat drops caused by paralysis and burn, and resets the Toxic counter. Jolteon and Exeggutor benefit a lot.
- Haze: it also cures the status of its user.
- Focus Energy, see above.
Bug fixes
- Dig and Fly: if the Pokémon is paralyzed or confused during the invulnerable turn, the move is cancelled as normal. The permanent invulnerability bug disappears.
- Recover and Soft-Boiled no longer fail when the HP gap lands on certain values (255 or 511).
- Struggle hits Ghost-type Pokémon, and Transform fails against Ditto: no more endless battles.
- Swift no longer hits a Pokémon underground or in the air, and can (very rarely) miss.
- Psywave always deals at least 1 HP of damage.
- Rage no longer sees its accuracy collapse after a miss.
- Effectiveness messages on dual-type Pokémon are fixed (only the display was wrong, not the damage).
What this means for your teams
- Do not count on sleep to win: a sleeping Pokémon can wake up as early as the next turn. Hypnosis is still useful, but as a chance, not a certainty.
- Be wary of Hyper Beam as a finisher: every use gives the opponent a free turn. Body Slam or Take Down are often preferable.
- Take advantage of Substitute to protect yourself from status conditions, and of Rest to erase a paralysis.
- Slow Pokémon (Snorlax, Rhydon, Exeggutor) land more critical hits than before: they become more effective.
- Use the preview: every match is won by choosing the three right Pokémon against the opponent’s six.
For more practical advice, see our tips; for the opponents of each tournament, see the Stadium and the Gym Leader Castle.
