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 Pokémon
Stadium 3 (or Stadium 2 for Americans) is not a revolutionary game, and
does not claim to be. It is simply an update to the previous Pokémon
Stadium with full support of Pokémon Gold/Silver and possibly Crystal.
The game will feature some upgrades, though. We will be seeing new
mini-games, as well (the mini-games may have been the glue that held the
1st edition together in the US). Other than support of the new games,
there are no plans for an engine overhaul, nor a graphical one. Will this
update be worth it? |
Here is a list of new features as reported
by IGN64
251+Pokémon
++++++3D polygonal battle scenes with upgraded special effects.
including new mini-games
Four-player battles.
Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon
Gold/Silver and the upcoming Pokémon Crystal.
Data exchange via Transfer Pak.
~Factor 5 Voice Compression. |
 What
will these new gameplay modes be? One of them sounds quite interesting.
The "My Room" feature is sort of like a trophy room, of sorts.
You can stash items you win there. It is a 3D room, and each Pokémon will
have one. That is the only one that we currently have knowledge of. There
is a possibility that there will be a new way to play 4-player battles
(which are very expensive since you need 4 transfer paks to all use your
own Pokémon). |
 The
graphics and textures seem a little better than the previous version, but
they're nothing new enough that you will bow down in the game pak's
presence (which would make game play very difficult, by the way). There
may be more voice in this one. Factor 5 knows sound compression, to say
the least. After playing the original for 30 minutes, the announcer got
old and recycled his commentary (of which he had about 4 comments). One
thing that I'm hoping for is more options, particularly in regard to the
speed of gameplay. Pokémon Stadium takes forever to play, especially if
your team isn't totally dominate. Move animations should be allowed to be
turned off. Yes, they are cool, but if you use your level 100 Alakazam's
Psychic move to kill absolutely everything, it gets dull. The announcer
should be killable, too, unless there are loads of new speech (as much as
Rogue Squadron). The single player gym challenges might be changed, since
Gold/Silver have some different gym leaders (and Ash is the man to beat). |
 With
all this talk of new features, there are even more things left unspoken.
Will this game be any good? Will it be worth another 60 dollars to get 100
new Pokémon, 9 mini-games, and a rehash of everything else? If you are a
diehard Pokémaniac, probably. Some people probably have an idea where
this might be headed in the US market, though. Pokémon Stadium 2 in Japan
was an update to Japan's original (the original only had 70 or so Pokémon,
it was released unfinished and sold really well), the update featured all
151. The Pokémon craze was just starting to lose some steam in Japan
(like it is here, mainly from the older end of Pokémon fans). Pokémon
Stadium 2 wasn't leaps and bounds different than the first, either. Pokémon
Stadium 2 was selling terribly. It has had a fairly steady number of
buyers, yet initially it wasn't a hot item. There are still enough blood
thirsty kids running around America that Nintendo will probably sell a
bajillion of them here, though. But that number is down slightly from the
million bajillion figure of the original Stadium product in the US. Can't
win it all, I guess. |
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