7. Pokemon Stadium (1999)
Like most kids in the late 90s, Pokemon was my life. The cards, the shows, the toys… but most of all, the games. I had my little Gameboy Color and “Pokemon Blue,” where I wasted hours upon hours catching them all… and yet, I craved even more. I wanted Pokemon on a big screen, with big visuals and big sounds – as if I was playing the show myself!
That’s why I lost my mind when Pokemon Stadium came out. There it was! I could finally have a fully colored Charizard on my tv screen, not loafing about like Ash’s did on the cartoon, but blasting stupid Vileplooms in the face with a flamethrower at my command! The thrill of getting together with a friend and each of you assembling a team to duke it out on the big screen was sensational. Then, to make things even more personal, you could import your own roster from a Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue cartridge, so you could truly see your homegrown team in 64-bit glory.
The “story” mode might have been lacking, but the minigames more than made up for it. I remember myself and three friends getting together just to spend hours digging for water as sandshrews, tossing ekans rings at digletts, and of course, gorging on as much sushi as possible in the greatest game to ever involve lickitung ever.
It was nothing but pure Pokemon revelry at a time when Pokemon was in its prime, and it remains to be the very best like no one ever was. – Alexander Suffolk
Advertisement
Advertisement