Pokemon Stadium

<p><P>Pokemon Stadium<br><br>There’s no getting away from them, folks. Everywhere you turn, there’s a Bulbasaur,or a Charizard, or an impossibly cute Pikachu, begging to be played/traded/hugged/fought/whatever. You may as well sit down and get acquainted, people, because Pokemon is here to stay. <br><br>Having been bigger than God, Buddha, and whoever the deity of Shintoism is put together is Japan, Pokemon finally hit the scene here last October, as if you didn’t know. Baffling most people -- and, most amusingly, piss-poor journalists -- as to their origins, Pokemon Red and Blue, the GB games that started the whole phenomenon, quickly went on to be among the biggest sellers of the year. And now it’s time for the N64 versions. Cruelly, there’s no Pokemon RPG as such on it s way for the N64 -- we believe that little gem is being saved for Dolphin -- but the three games we do have, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Snap and Pikachu Genki Dechu, are all remarkably innovative pieces of software, pushing the limits of the N64. Of the three, Pokemon Stadium is most normal, ‘Normal’, of course, being used in its loosest sense in a game that features singing pink marshmallows. Fantastically, it comes complete with the Transfer Pak, a wonderful, typically Nintendo piece of hardware that allows you to load data -- in this case, your Pokemon -- from Game Boy games onto your N64. Pokemon Stadium is, for the pedants amongst you, actually a translation of the Japanese Pokemon Stadium 2.<br><br>The original, nearly two years old at this stage, was basically the same concept, except it only featured 41 of the 150 beasts. Pokemon Stadium 2 allows you access to the full 150, and a whole lot more besides. For fans of the GB game -- most of the civilized world at the time of writing -- this will be the greatest thing since canned Pikachu. The main attraction of Red and Blue being to capture, raise and train your monsters, being able to load up YOUR Charmander or Gengar, and see it battle in full 3D, is a brilliant experience. Every monster, every attack and effect is here, fleshed out into three dimensions. The graphics are spectacular, with the monsters looking exactly as in the TV show, launching spectacular, and no doubt very painful, attacks on their enemies. Whether the manic Japanese commentator makes the translation over to English is another question, though we certainly hope he does. It’s a Nintendo game, so naturally it’s packed to the nines full of mini-games, extras and additions. There are a whole array of computer trainers to battle against -- including the hard-as-nails Elite Four -- and a bevy of Pokemon mini-games, including the frankly surreal Likitung sushi game. There’s an array of cups to enter, taking place across the the famous Indigo Stadium, and naturally you can fight a friend and have your Onix grind his Butterfree into a bloody pulp. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Sorry. <br><br>The only forseeable problem is the wait. Quite inexplicably, it’ll be released in the US in March, but shan’t been seen here until September. Probably something to do with getting Pokemon Yellow into more homes and not clogging up the release schedule. Or something. Pokemon Stadium is looking to be a superb continuation of the latest Nintendo franchise. The Transfer Pak -- also to be used in Mario Golf and Perfect Dark -- is another little piece of magic from the Big N, proving once again that what they deliver is innovation and quality. We still desperately want a true 3D follow up to Pokemon, but in the meantime, ths’ll have to do. <br></P><br /> <P><a href="mailto:bribrad@eircom.net">Noel Brady</a></P><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p> <p> <br /> <br /> <br />