Pokéminigame Stadium (Pokemon Stadium 64 (N64))

Member Name: ihatebroccoli

Product:	Pokemon Stadium 64 (N64)
Date:	20/10/00 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Mini Games!

Disadvantages: The annoying voiceover on the main game, the slow action, that the mini games aren't available separately!

Buy it for the mini-games alone!

To be honest, I was not *that* impressed with the main game, and at 50 quid, it would have to be pretty darn impressive for me to shell out for it (as opposed to playing it on someone else’s N64 as I do now!) However, if the Mini Games were available separately, I wouldn’t hesitate to cough up the “currrching”.

Don’t get me wrong, the graphics on the main game are excellent, and the ability to upload your existing trained Pokémon from your Game Boy (via a Transfer Pak) to fight on Pokémon Stadium is a good feature. The problem I have is with the actual game – it’s nowhere near as good as the original Blue and Red games on the Game Boy. On N64, after a while, I start to get really fed up with the voiceover narration (which I know can be turned off) and the fact that it repeats a lot of the same things, like saying “This is a heated match!”, when there is virtually nothing happening between the two fighting pokémon!

Another problem I have with it is that there is such a long wait between you choosing the move your pokemon makes, and the move being carried out, as you have to choose from onscreen menus every time – it kind of kills the “heated match” somewhat! I have to admit though; it is nice to see the pokemon you’ve caught on the Game Boy, coming to life in colourful 3D.


Moving on to my personal favourites: the Mini Games. The Mini Games apparently resemble Mario Party, although like I say, I’m no games expert. They are brilliant fun to play with other people, and highly addictive to play on your own against the computer. My person favourites are Clefairy Says and Sushi Go-Round.

If you go to: http://members.tripod.com/ThePokemonSpa/pokesta.ht ml there are some great screen shots of both the main game, and of some of the Mini Games.

The mini games consist of: Snore War, Magicarp’
s Splash, Clefairy Says, Ekans’ Hoop Hurl, Rock Harder, Sushi Go-Round, Dig! Dig! Dig! Thundering Dynamo, and Run, Rattata Run.

Snore War
Your Drowsee has to concentrate on a swinging pendulum in the middle of the screen, and every time the pendulum passes the middle, you press a button on the game pad. The winner is the Drowsee who can stay awake. You *really* have to concentrate for this one!

Magicarp’ Splash
You have to make the Magicarp jump up and touch the counter, which makes a ringing bell sound every time. It’s a hard one this, because sometimes the Magicarp misses because you haven’t pressed the button hard enough, or in time. You’ve got to have good reaction times for this one.

Clefairy Says
The Clefairy have to follow their teacher’s instructions, which are written on the blackboard. The instructions are a set of arrows giving directions for you to press the appropriate direction buttons e.g. for -> you would press the right button, and <- the left and so on. The person who manages to follow all the directions to the end, wins! You’ve got to have a good memory for this one.

Ekans’ Hoop Hurl
This one is a nightmare. You have to hurl the Ekans, which are curled up like hoops to land over Digletts, which are various distances away. Note: the person who is in the middle usually wins on this one, because they are more in line with the Digletts than anyone else, and therefore, it’s easier to get the hoops over them. The control stick is very sensitive, and the slightest movement will misalign your Ekans.

Rock Harder
I can’t help laughing at this one. The object of the game is to get your Kakuna or Metapod to “harden” its shell every time a rock missile comes towards you, and the funny bit – if you don’t harden your shell in time, you get “squished”, which makes an unpleasant “squishing”
sound. Everytime you “harden” your shell, it uses up energy points, so you should only do it in short bursts, and only when a missile is coming.

Sushi Go-Round
I love this one! Lickitung has to eat as much sushi as possible in the time from a revolving table, and certain bits of sushi make it turn green or red, depending on whether it feels sick or not. The different kinds of sushi are worth different points, and you really have to align your Lickitung to the plates on the revolving table, quickly, in order to beat your opponents out of the way, from eating the higher pointed sushi. Amusingly, at the beginning of the game, someone shouts “Licky!” and it sounds like Bianca shouting “Ricky!” in Eastenders… or maybe I’m just hearing things.

Dig! Dig! Dig!
Guaranteed to wear out your game pad in seconds. The object of the game is to get your Sandshrew to dig as fast as you can into the ground, until you hit water, then you are shot up into the air on a jet of water, and you’re the winner.

Thundering Dynamo
The object of the game is pretty simple – whenever a green light shows, you press one button on the game pad, and when the blue light shows, you press the other button. The idea is that the Pikachu (or Voltorb) gets charged up more, depending on whether you have pressed the buttons in the right order or not.

Run, Rattata Run
I like this one too. It is a race between your Rattata and the other players (or the computer). You have to jump over fences, and run until the end.


If you choose to play with other people, you can either choose the mini games individually yourself, or you can let the computer choose at random. You can also set the required number of wins on all the games played, in order to win overall.

To those of you who have no idea what I’ve just been on about (non-Pokémaniacs I mean!) the Mini Games are colourful, ente
rtaining, again you don’t have to know anything about Pokémon to play them, and they are highly addictive, so if someone you know has a copy of Pokémon Stadium – crack open a nine-pack of Mini Games and have a good laugh at playing “all you can eat sushi” or “snake-hoopla”!

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