Intoduction for Pokémon Stadium - Pokemon - http://maxpages.com/togepi8/Intro2

Released last year in Japan, the first Pokémon Stadium was one of the Nintendo 64's few hits in its country of origin. It allowed Japanese N64 owners to connect their Game Boy Pokémon catridges to the N64 via the 64GB Pak and pit their saved teams against their friends' in 3D battles. Unfortunately, only a third of the Game Boy game's 151 Pokémon could be used in Pokémon Stadium, limiting the game's depth. The missing monsters are now finally making their appearance in this year's edition -- Pokémon Stadium 2 includes every monster found in the Game Boy game, from Exeggcutor and Cloyster to Dewgong and Farfetch'd.

In addition to the expanded cast of characters, Pokémon Stadium 2 features several new game modes. The most intriguing is the tag team mode, where two players can combine half of their Pokémon squads (for a total of 6 members) to battle another tag team of two players. While not the free-for-all some would have hoped for, it still marks the first time Pokémon has been playable with more than two players at a time.

Other extra modes include a selection of nine different mini-games to play, some of which can boost the stats of the participating Pokémon, and the GB House. The GB House contains a colorized version of the original Pokémon game, where trainers can go to refine their team between battles. It's by no means a complete Game Boy emulator -- you can only play whichever version of Pokémon is in the 64GB Pak -- but it certainly beats the Game Boy's small screen.

Mini-games aside, the true focus of Pokémon Stadium 2 is on the battles. Now that all 151 Pokémon are available, players can send any team from the Game Boy game into battle. The battle system itself is almost identical to the originals', but the fights now run in 3D at 60 frames per second, replete with an array of special effects that rivals that of many recent Square efforts. One-, two-, and four-player modes are available; the new one-player mode sees you fighting through six tournaments to earn trophies. Another feature not seen in the Game Boy games is the ability to set time limits; fights can be restricited to anything between 5 and 90 minutes, and a time limit for each player's turn can also be enforced.

Longtime Pokémaniacs will certainly be pleased with the new additions, but newcomers to the Pokémon world may be left out in the cold: A few generic "rental" Pokémon are available to those without a Game Boy game, but the vast majority can only be used via a 64GB Pak and a copy of Pokémon.

Nintendo has already announced it will be bringing a Pokémon Stadium title to North America. Pokémon Stadium 2 will be out here soon. We will be getting the second one the first time around... Hey, that's good!!

*These pictures thanks to http://lovetron.interspeed.net/imagemain1.html *

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Page Updated Tue Jun 27, 2000 9:58pm EDT