I dont know if many of you remember the first episode of the pokemon cartoon series, when the intro to Blue/Red lept into colour 3D cartoon style action. Well when this happened the first time around I gawped and thought “How cool would the fighting mode from the gameboy games be in 3D!” back then it was stuff of wishful thinking.

Thankfully on December the 31st 2000 the freindly and creative minds at HAL laboratory gifted us with the untimely classic that is pokemon stadium. The answer to so many young pokemon infected minds favorouite question: What would Pokemon fighting look like in 3D?
Other than posing as an answer to a fanatical question, it was a highly creative and innuetive game. It took the 151 original pokemon and allowed you to set up your own teams of them or simply rent some just for the one off battle, but what was awesome is that rarity didnt matter, you could pick any from the start (Excluding Mew and Mewtwo) even the legendary birds! So when playing against freinds, you could be an arsehole and pick all the best ones. Or in single player, build up an elite team and take down the gym leaders.

In the heat of this you can earn all the badges and challenge the fury of the elite four. Each fight plays in a very similar fashion to the gameboy fighting modes but in some ways it feels a ton less restrictive, im not sure if that is because for one you can release a Moltres on a wincy catterpea or something else but it feels smoother than the gameboy melee modes and the attack animations between each move choice are cinematic and stunning. The multiplayer mode is an essential party encounter with your freinds, theres also dramatic stadium cup battles, minigames and even a way to port your photos from pokemon snap into a gallery. Lets not forget the fabulous Super Gameboy like feature where you can utilize an transfer pak and your gameboy pokemon to play on the big screen and challenge your freinds gameboy pokemon through this nifty feature aswell, the possibilities are seemingly endless!

For an N64 pokemon title, this game is big and very open! Definatly a collection essential for both the pokemon and N64 enthusiast