In April 2000, Pokémon Stadium promised what every Pokémon Red and Blue player dreamed of: seeing their Pokémon battle in 3D, on the television. Twenty-six years later, with its re-release on Nintendo Switch Online, what is left of this one-of-a-kind game in the series? Our review, written with hindsight, complements our review from back then, which we also invite you to read again.
A battle game, and nothing else
Pokémon Stadium is not an adventure. No map to explore, no Pokémon to catch, no story: only battles, organized into tournaments. The Stadium lines up four cups with different rules, the Gym Leader Castle brings back the eight Kanto Gyms and the Elite Four, and Mewtwo waits at the end of the road. The battle system is the one from the Game Boy games, fixed of its worst bugs and enriched with a preview of the opposing teams that forces you to pick three Pokémon out of six before each match.
For anyone discovering Pokémon battles on Game Boy, the depth is real: 80 matches per round in the Stadium, 37 in the Castle (eight Gyms of four Trainers, the Elite Four and the Rival), then a more demanding Round 2. The opponents have well-built teams, with their traps (Explosion, one-hit KO moves, sleep), and the Prime Cup in Master Ball remains a serious challenge.
The Transfer Pak, the real great idea
What made Pokémon Stadium strong comes down to a small gray accessory, included in the box: the Transfer Pak. Plugged into the back of the controller, it reads Game Boy cartridges. Your Pokémon from Red, Blue or Yellow, with their nicknames and their moves, battle in 3D. The Lab serves as a PC and a trading machine, and the GB Tower turns the Nintendo 64 into a giant Game Boy, sped up to three times. And the game rewards your victories with Pokémon to send to your cartridge, from the missing starter Pokémon to the famous Surfing Pikachu.
For a player in 2000, it was the ideal extension of their games. It is also the game’s limit: without a cartridge, it loses much of its meaning.
Rentals, a stopgap
Without a cartridge, you have to make do with the Rental Pokémon. Their moves are fixed and often poorly matched, and their stats are lower than those of well-trained Pokémon. Winning the small cups is still enjoyable; the Prime Cup in Round 2, with borrowed Pokémon, becomes a matter of patience and luck. Several reviews at the time noted it: without your own Pokémon, the battles lack stakes. This is even truer today, since the Nintendo Switch Online version does not support the Transfer Pak.
A presentation that left its mark
Seeing Charizard spit flames for the first time, or Snorlax get up for a Body Slam, with cries more realistic than in 8-bit, was a shock for a whole generation. The 151 models are faithful and respect the size differences between species. The animations, on the other hand, have aged: the Pokémon never touch each other, and many moves boil down to a pose and a light effect launched into the void. The arena backdrops are simple. The commentator, dubbed in French by Jean-Claude Donda, has his fans and his detractors: he repeats the same phrases quickly, but he gives the matches the atmosphere of a sports broadcast.
The music reuses the themes of the Game Boy games, reorchestrated for the Nintendo 64, with a real pleasure of rediscovery for players of the time.
A pleasant Kids Club, nothing more
The nine mini-games of the Kids Club are simple: Magikarp‘s Splash, Clefairy Says, Sushi-Go-Round and the others can be understood in ten seconds and played by four. They work well among friends, but you quickly run out of things to do, especially since they unlock nothing. Pokémon Stadium 2 will do better, with twelve more varied mini-games.
And today?
On Nintendo 64, with its Game Boy cartridges and a Transfer Pak, Pokémon Stadium remains a unique experience, one the series never truly reproduced. On Nintendo Switch Online, it comes down to its tournaments with Rental Pokémon and its mini-games: pleasant for nostalgia and for playing online, but far from what made it interesting. Fans of first-generation strategy will however find an interesting format there, with its fixed rules (see the battle rules).
Our verdict
A foundational game, driven by a brilliant idea: linking the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy games. With your own Pokémon, it remains an excellent battleground; without them, it quickly feels repetitive.
What we like
- All 151 Pokémon in 3D, a first in 2000
- The Transfer Pak: your own Pokémon on the television
- The GB Tower, up to three times faster
- Plenty of content: cups, Castle, Mewtwo, Round 2
- Fixed battle rules and a preview of the teams
What we like less
- Far less appealing without a Game Boy cartridge
- Rental Pokémon with often weak moves
- Stiff animations and bare backdrops
- Mini-games that wear out quickly
- The Switch version strips the game of its best features
Going further
- The fact sheet, for the dates, the team and the re-releases.
- Getting started in Pokémon Stadium, to get off to a good start.
- The history of the game, from the first Japanese Stadium to the success of 2000.
