This post was initially written for a July/August release, but I still lack some images from the games fully explain what I was talking about.
One question I’ve been heard a few times: Will there be another or a “Third” Pokémon Stadium game?
I personally think there will not be another game, as long as the Switch is around.
There are many reasons, as a fan can see.
Before I’m going compare features to now and back then.. But Before then I really need to cover which of the 3 versions of the game I’m covering. Yes, technically, there is a third Stadium game already, and we have it…
I’ll be covering the two international games, Pokémon Stadium, and Pokémon Stadium 2. In Japan only, Pocket Monsters Stadium 1 was limited in functionality, while Japanese Pocket Monster Stadium 2 was the international Pokémon Stadium. For the Johto games, Japan had Pocket Monsters Stadium Gold Silver, which was the international Pokémon Stadium 2.
For the most Part, I’ll be treating Pokémon Battle Revolution (shortened as PBR) as a part of the Stadium series.
First, Battling in 3d and on the TV…
The feature that alot of the N64 Blurbs promoted heavily was the fact your Pokémon was now in 3d, and on the TV.
Unlike the Classic Gameboy games, the Nintendo Switch plugs in to most modern TVs.. Well better than many can get with the N64. (Baring the Switch Lite model.) Also the game now 3D in almost all areas.
Staying with Battling: The Free Battle mode was basically a VS mode, and so two players with a pair of Switches. This was already available in the Gameboy games, but just easier and on the big screen.
The N64 Cups now kinda exist in as part of the Battle Tower, you can enter real tournaments with similar rules to the cups. The Gym Leader tower was more to cover the fact there is no overworld and could have been a considered only story progression in the game, so one could argue the mains story/gym challenge to be the replacement.
The Pokémon Stadium Exclusive was the 3D Pokédex, with print out with certain Kiosk N64 models, mostly in video rental stores. Today, the rental stores are gone. But On the left Joy-con we have a button just for this task! While actual paper print out aren’t common due to they way people do photos today compared to back in the 2000s, the ability to share of images is again part of the Switch system, and one could easily make a print out if the so desired. I expect that the Kiosks already had been removed during by the release of Stadium 2, as it was 2 years since Pokemon Snap was released.
Pokémon Stadium 2’s unique feature swapped the 3D Pokédex for the Gold/Silver/Crystal’s Player home viewer. While it made the home seem more real, it didn’t really add anything functionality wise. While this feature hasn’t returned, but other customisation options now exist. Altering the Player’s home was did not return in the remakes, Heart Gold/Soul Silver.
Another Stadium 2 Exclusive was the Pokemon School, which taught intermediate to advanced Pokemon Battling Techniques to Players. This was mostly to help player to improve the mechanics over using just using a single Pokémon.
The GB Tower turned the your N64 in to a limited Super Gameboy, with support for the Main series Pokémon games. This was some what needed at the time, as the Super Gameboy and SNES required was considered old news, and was considered by many out of stock, by the English release of Pokémon Red and Blue. Considering the main games are on the Switch.. there little this could add in todays games.
Professor Oak’s Lab had several features.
The Item Bag Organiser enabled players to rearrange their item bags and their PC item box, this feature was rendered useless as Most players bags are limitless and don’t require a PC to store items. The fact Pokémon can now hold items can reduces the need even use the Organiser to transfer items.
The Box Organiser allows for a player to get around the Gameboy limits and let you arrange multiple boxes in alot quicker than the Classic Gameboy could. Whilst the two panel interfaces was not kept for later game, modified to show a separation between the game and the storage’s own. The List was actually kept in in Pokemon Box RS and Pokemon Bank. They even let you store some Pokemon on the N64 cart in a similar means to Box RS, My Pokémon Ranch, on their respective consoles, and to the internet cloud storage with Bank and Home does today.
The final section is the ability to trade between two Gameboy carts without needing the remove the carts from the N64. This will let Pokémon Evolve. I won’t be showing it off here, mostly due to how hard it to get my copy of Blue working.
The last machine in the Lab is to select one of the attached game carts, but this is more to let multiple games to be managed without turning off the N64, or backing out to the main menu.
The Minigames in Pokemon Stadium games were nice distractions, but most of the Minigames are now gone from the modern Main series Games, but to be available in Minigame series such as PokéPark series for the Wii, and various Pokemon themed Mobile games, some of which are on the Switch.
As for PBR had mostly Battle modes, The only new thing to the “Stadium” series it added was limited Trainer customisation. Given that Pokémon trainers have way more options today, with it easier to get as well.
So, my opinion I don’t see any reason to bring back the Stadium games that is not already being done with within the Sword or Shield or even a side game. The fans do most of their competitive battling with Battle Emulators such as Pokemon Showdown.
Also Given how long expensive it is to remake models, with Sword and Shield, they’ve reusing alot of Assets from Previous Pokemon games, going all the way back to 2013’s X & Y, with touch ups over time. If they where to reuse assets, the game would look like either Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee or Sword and Shield, which do more damage to potential sales to the Stadium sequel.
Another thing to note is what information I’ve been able to find, Pokémon Stadium series, as gotten Progressively worse in sales. While Stadium did well getting near 5.5 million, PBR could only get 1.9 Million games sold. Let me put the numbers another way.. There are about 8 and half, Red, Blue, Green and Yellow carts per Stadium 1 cart.. But for PBR there are roughly 18 compatible DS carts per Wii disk.. Of course these numbers are based on World wide sales figures and are estimates.
So what about the “Virtual Console” or Emulation? This is in my opinion the most likely way we see the Stadium games to return. This would have to been made in away to work with the Red, Blue Yellow emulation re-releases. However to date Nintendo has not shown a Gameboy game working with N64. To date any Virtual Console version game that didn’t connect to their counterpart. However, the same could have been said about Link cable support, which only got added for the Pokémon Games.
At the time of writing, there are almost no N64 or Gameboy games on the switch. The ones that are brought out by the company who made it usually in a compilation, not the Nintendo. The example I own is Square Enix bringing out the Collection of Mana, which featured the Game Boy game, Final Fantasy Adventure, which was released under different names outside of America. I’m not sure if any N64 game have been released on the Switch, but Microsoft have brought some N64 games to the Xbox One. Since this article was written, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, that Featured “updated” Mario 64 has been announced and released.