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The Ultimate Pokémon Stadium Retrospective

bubbletea

142,922 views

patreon: Patreon: bubbletea_
bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bubbleteacor...

timestamps:
0:00 a brief pre-history
2:26 the original stadium
13:59 pokemon stadium... 2?
49:51 pokemon stadium gold & silver
1:16:38 spiritual successors

supplemental footage:
JohneAwesome - Pokemon Stadium (N64)
Platinum - Pokémon Red Version: Missingno.
Hawlo - Pokemon Colosseum - 100% Video Walkthrough ; Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness - 100% Video ...
Sirloin - Pokémon Champions - Full Game (100%)

transfer pokemon to n64 emulator: Pokemon Stadium 2 | N64 Transfer Pack Emul...

sources:
shmuplations: Pokémon – 2018 Developer Interview - https://shmuplations.com/pokemon/
Iwata Asks: Pokémon HeartGold Version & Pokémon SoulSilver Version, 3. Just Being President Was A Waste! - https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv...
Shinya Takahashi Is the 'Conductor' Taking Nintendo into the Future - https://time.com/4653977/shinya-takah...
Pokémon Stadium Q&A - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/so...
Translation: Forgotten Story of Pokémon Blue's Release - https://lavacutcontent.com/corocoro-c...
Tournament Rule Variants - https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Official Fancy Cup Event Page - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/event/p_fe...
Pokémon Stadium JP Opponent Team Info - https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...)
Pokémon 2000 Stadium Tour - https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
In-game Trades (Red & Green) - https://www.serebii.net/rb/trades.shtml
In-game Trades (Blue) - https://www.serebii.net/rb/greenblue....
In-game Trades (Yellow) - https://www.serebii.net/yellow/trades...
Official Battle Historia for 1st & 2nd Generation - http://pokemon.s20.xrea.com/historia-...
Pokémon Gen 1 Item IDs - https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Pokémon Gen 2 Item IDs - https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Colosseum Strategy Guide - https://archive.org/details/pokemon-c...
Battle Revolution Strategy Guide - https://archive.org/details/PokemonBa...
Reddit post explaining Replica Teams - Reddit: rental_teams_no_longer_exist_in_pok%C3%A9mon_champions
Pokémon Champions' Director Tells Us How He's Bringing Pokémon's Best-Kept Secret to the Masses - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/f...

music:
Game Demo - Pocket Monsters Stadium & Pocket Monsters Stadium 2
Title Screen - Pocket Monsters Stadium & Pocket Monsters Stadium 2
World Map - Pokémon Trading Card Game (Gameboy)
Professor Oak's Lab - Pokémon Stadium
Black Market - Shin Megami Tensei IV
Pokémon Selection - Pocket Monsters Stadium & Pocket Monsters Stadium 2
Jika Net Tanaka - Persona 3
Battle! Pokémon Trainer (Free Battle • Tournament Rounds 1-3) - Pocket Monsters Stadium
Gearing Up - Kingdom Hearts II
Credits - Pocket Monsters Stadium
Kid's Club - Pokémon Stadium
Working Together - Kingdom Hearts II
Shop - Shin Megami Tensei (PS1)
Club Master Duel - Pokémon Trading Card Game (Gameboy)
Crystal Drops - Castlevania Symphony of the Night
Normal (jingle) - Devil Survivor
P97+98 Cup Battle 4-6 - Pokémon Stadium
P97+98 Cup Semifinal - Pokémon Stadium
Duel - Pokémon Trading Card Game (Gameboy)
Rival Battle - Pokémon Stadium
Pokémon Present & Pokémon Present Revealed - Pokémon Stadium
Map - Pokémon Stadium
VS Mewtwo - Pokémon Stadium
Credits (Round 1) - Pokémon Stadium
Prime Cup Battles 1-3 - Pokémon Stadium
Gym Leader Castle Menu - Pokémon Stadium
Club Master Duel - Pokémon Trading Card Game (Gameboy)
Meeting and Parting - Pocket Monsters TV Anime OST Vol 2
Pewter City - Pokémon Gold, Silver, & Crystal
Stadium - Pokémon Stadium 2
Challenge Cup Battle - Pokémon Stadium 2
Little Cup Final - Pokémon Stadium 2
White City Menu Theme - Pokémon Stadium 2
Gym Leader Battle - Pokémon Stadium 2
Lance's Theme - Pokémon Stadium 2
Rival Theme - Pokémon Stadium 2
Battle with Mewtwo - Pokémon Stadium
Rival Battle - Pokémon Stadium 2
Credits (Round 2) - Pokémon Stadium
Minigames - Pokémon Stadium 2
Da'at - jingu naien - Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance
Battle SIM - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
Mirror B Battle - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
Agate Village - Pokémon Colosseum & XD: Gale of Darkness

Pokémon Stadium started off as a rough 3D battle simulation based on the mechanics of the Gameboy games in 1998. In this video, we'll see how this simple N64 game eventually grew into its sequels that saw out their full potential. Pokémon Stadium is easy to write off as long sequence of repetitive battles, but it's a ton of fun when you fully engage with its strategic aspects.

The Ultimate Pokémon Stadium Retrospective

20 Comments

@bubbletea_ Creator 1 month ago (edited) Pinned

a few corrections:
-vulpix/ninetales gets hypnosis through breeding
-"select glitches" exist in the japanese gen 1 games allowing for vitamin and tm duplication
-i forgot to put a pic of the pokemon 4ever movie when i said "4EVER" ;-;

@justfruitiepie 1 month ago

Not mentioned in the video: In stadium gold and silver, you can also play the minigames with the pokemon from your transfer pak if you have ones that are eligible for the according minigame. There's some pokemon that can only be played as if you have a transfer pak, such as pikachu in the electric shock game, blissey in egg emergency, omanyte in the rolling togepi game, and scizor in the log cutting game. These playable mons even maintain their color or if they're a shiny. It's purely aesthetic but it's a cute touch. Oh yeah, the pokemon you transfer into any of the stadium games may have a mild discoloration, which is arbitrarily based on the nickname and trainer ID. If the pokemon is not nicknamed, it won't have any discoloration.

@silentbob4343 1 month ago

No minigame discussions. Ultimate my ass.

@ellieellieonthewall9189 3 weeks ago

Nah homie the mini games are the best part for those of us who were there. If ya weren't there you just don't get it.

@bigtimetimmyjim6486 1 month ago (edited)

Over two decades later, Stadium 2 still holds up in every single way; the graphics, the music, and the difficulty are all superb. It is the only game I have ever loved enough to route a speedrun for, despite the complete game taking over half a day!

@firebat36 1 month ago

Pokemon was so ubiquitous when stadium came out in the US, I never knew a single person who played it but did not have the GB games.

@LordEmpyreal 1 month ago (edited)

So, in Pokemon Yellow you can catch a level 20 Haunter in Pokemon Tower. Then just trade evolve it to get Gengar. So yes, level 20 Gengar is a legitimate capture in generation 1.

You can also get a level 16 Cubone from the Safari Zone in Yellow. But alas, no level 15s unless you trade a bred one from generation 2.

@bosejorgeli2847 1 month ago (edited)

You can even make mewtwo struggle with a rental team if you use evasion tactics. Which shows his physical attack animation

@pages4573 1 month ago

Honestly nice to see someone do such a complete retrospective of these two games. Most people just go through with rentals and only touch upon the transfer abilities, not many people really go in and play the game as semi intended.

This is pretty much the battle facilities in later games sectioned off as its own thing. Kind of like an expansion for old games that required a whole seperate console XD

@NekoKasane 1 month ago

9:08 imagine getting your own personalized artwork by Sugimori in an official game. that's rad as hell

@alejandrosegato671 1 month ago

Honestly, as a person who played on release.

Wether rental or owned, you didnt care, because as a kid it all came down to "oh, it has a cool attack". Now not gonna lie, using your own felt super cool, but it wasnt a life or death situation as most metaheads want people to believe.

@iamthehobo 3 weeks ago

"Pokemon party games" may as well have been the name of the game for me. So many hours playing with friends. Didn't even touch the "real" modes until years and years later.

@simonfreys 1 month ago

the minigames are what I remembered most about the stadium games honestly, it's because I would play those with my little brother and my cousins a lot more than the actual battles.
definitely shoutout to earl's academy though, back in the early 2000s when I got Stadium 2 and had only the cryptic and "we won't explain shit" gameboy games to go off for knowledge about the battle mechanics, this was the first time ever I had a chance to actually learn about them properly. it definitely also helped that the gameboy bugs were fixed in Stadium, earl's academy was the first time I learned how moves like focus energy were actually meant to function and that they only had seemed useless because of glitches before lmaoo

@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan 1 month ago

11:30 so fun fact, at least in JP copies of gen 1, Blizzard has a 30% chance to freeze. The reason nobody would run fire moves and would always use Articuno is because Freeze in gen 1 is basically a KO unless the frozen pokemon is hit by a fire move... Or iirc Haze.

So no fire moves and Blizzard spam. This was very reasonably changed in international released of Red and Blue

@minigmaenigma 1 month ago

1:14:17 dude its not a bit😭
My fondest memories of Stadium are hanging out with friends/cousins and playing the minigames

@Honeymuts 4 weeks ago

2:44 The transfer pak was so sick at the time. Being an elementary schooler, I dropped my controller pretty often, and the pak connector underneath would get a bit more prone to disconnects every time. But it felt great to bring your team into the game with that lil peripheral. And I was able to save my pokémon from Gold into my Stadium 2 cartridge, right before the internal battery bit the dust. It's a great memory I'll cherish, if not a clunky one.

@jonathanlgill 1 month ago

My favorite memory from Colosseum's 100 battle Mount Battle challenge was my streak nearly ending towards the end, but Manetric gets a Paralysis using Thunderbolt, robbing the opponent of their turn. Without the luck of getting the Paralysis, and it activating, my streak would have ended then and there!

@1996-w7v 1 month ago

I didnt see it mentioned, unless I blanked out but:

One of the biggest features in Stadium 2 no one talks about, is the Mystery Gift functionality. If you talk to the girl in Goldenrod Dept Store and then connect Stadium 2 to an actual cartridge, grinding in Kanto becomes much easier, because you can fight the girl (Carrie) in the Trainer House and she has some of the best teams in the game. You would also get exclusive dolls and wallpapers for your room for connecting to Mystery Gift every day.

This feature was sadly removed in HGSS, and the Trainer House kind of became moot due to the Battle Frontier existing.

@BananaBolsterDuck 1 month ago

I lowkey miss these silly and complicated video game accessories, especially Nintendo's. The Transfer Pak, the Rumble Pak, the GBA Wireless Adapter, the GCN – GBA Link Cable, the Game Boy Camera, the Game BoyPrinter, the Super Game Boy, the NES Zapper, the Satellaview, 64DD, e-Reader, heck, even the Poké Ball Plus, which is almost a decade old!
I can't explain why, but there's something satisfying with these add-ons.