SBC #51 Ivysaur & Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2

The Pokémon franchise has a problem: there are not enough games.

Alright, that is a lie. This article is publishing in May of 2026, and, as of this moment, you could probably play nothing but active Pokémon games for a full 24 hours. Spend 3 hours of a Community Day in Pokémon Go walking around your neighborhood. Put in an hour for your gacha dailies with the adorable trainers of Pokémon Masters EX. Try a couple of hours of puzzle action with Pokémon Café Remix. Pokémon Violent/Scarlet is still updating with new Tera Raid events, so hop over there and earn a Mighty Greninja. Use some of the new mega ‘mons you found in Pokémon Legends: Z-A to compete in Pokémon Champions. Organize your collection that stretches back Pokémon Ruby by bopping around Pokémon Home. Open some packs in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and hope for that Gold Crown EX Charizard. Get your group battles on with Pokémon Unite. And, when you are all done for the day, turn on Pokémon Sleep so the Pokémon Company can track every last second of your existence. It’s not invasive! Or maybe it is, but at least you get a Darkrai!

So, yes, even if you are looking at only modern, currently updating Pokémon games, you have options for Pokémon playtime. And thanks to Nintendo occasionally sharing their catalogue, you now have access to several Pokémon titles going back three decades on your Nintendo Switch (+/- 2), too. Want to play some pinball? Or Snap the local wildlife? It’s all right there on your Nintendo Online Membership! Or you can purchase the actual, beloved games ala carte for some reason! Let’s not get into that! Because what we are going to get into are the two Pokémon classics on the Nintendo 64 online service: Pokémon Stadium & Pokémon Stadium 2.

At first blush, Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2 may be the absolute worst choice of games to be immediately available with an online service in 2026. Both titles were intended to work like Pokémon Champions today: you play the other Pokémon games, import your carefully trained monsters onto the N64 via the Gameboy Transfer Pak, and then battle it out in a million (maybe 5) celebrated polygons. You have the option of fighting in a single player campaign through (now in glorious color!) rival trainers and the Elite 4, or you can immediately battle with your (human) friends and their own Pokémon, Gameboy game, and Gameboy Transfer Pak. If you did not have the associated Gameboy game for these titles (and Transfer Pak), you could still battle with “rental” Pokémon… but these were 100% the “we have food at home” of pocket monsters. You can “rent” a Tyranitar! And it only knows bite and three status effect moves. Legendary Pokémon are available! And they wasted a move slot on friggen’ growl. Back in 2000, the message was clear: you could play Pokémon on the N64, but if you didn’t also buy a Gameboy, Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal, and Gameboy Transfer Pak, you were playing with an inferior product. The game returning twenty years later with zero alterations to account for a changing world is a massive misstep. Evidently nobody wants to code a Pokémon editor for an N64 game, but Nintendo could have at least included a “fake” connected version of Pokémon Blue that embraces a viable Alakazam…

But there is one thing that Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2 have that is absent from every other available Pokémon title:

Magikarp jumping around like an idiot.

North America’s Pokémon Stadium included a series of mini games presented as the “Kids’ Club”. While this may have been more Nintendo-based Pokémon exploitation (all games are four players, thus necessitating an extra three Nintendo brand N64 controllers), the Pokémon Stadium games are fun for kids and adults alike. The initial lineup is:

• Magikarp’s Splash (seen above), where you time your button presses to make Magikarp jump as many times as possible.
• Clefairy Says, a Simon Says-style event where you must memorize increasingly longer strings of button presses.
• Run, Rattata Run, a race where you hammer the A button, but must occasionally interrupt your tapping to leap over hurdles.
• Snore War, a battle between a group of the best Pokémon, drowzee, where you must press the A button just as a pendulum crosses the center of the screen. Oddly, this game would go on to be the basis of, like, three different JRPG combat systems.
• Thundering Dynamo is red light/green light with various electric Pokémon. Pikachu is featured as a matter of course.
• Sushi-Go-Round plays like a typical action game (as in you don’t have to press A repeatedly to run or alike), and is the tale of a quartet of lickitung eating sushi at a buffet. You are rewarded with more points for eating more expensive sushi. Considering these minigames premiered for the American release, it is goddamned amazing that sushi is the featured food.
• Ekans’ Hoop Hurl is carnival-style ring toss. This time, the targets are moving diglett, and ekans is your hoop. In practice, this is a test of your analog stick mastery (which was an entirely new skill in 1999).
• Rock Harden is a game where you are a metapod or kakuna, and you must use harden with exact timing to withstand falling boulders. I assure you, “metapod use harden” had become something of a proto-meme thanks to the Pokémon anime, so “stand still and press A” was surprisingly engrossing at the time.
• Dig! Dig! Dig! makes you a sandshrew… uh… digging. Alternate L & R in proper rhythm to make progress toward digging up some water (that is your greatest weakness).

You have the option of playing any game on its own, or you can mix them up into a series of challenges for every player. That should really show Jimmy and his weird mastery of Ekans’ Hoop Hurl!

And these “Kids’ Games” must have been popular, as a whole new batch returned in Pokémon Stadium 2. The next generation saw…

• Gutsy Golbat, where you control one of four golbat that are trying to collect hearts distributed by an off-screen jynx. This ultimately controls like a shoot ‘em up (minus the shooting).
• Topsy-Turvy, which… Can I just say this is beyblades? It’s beyblades with hitmontop. Hitmontop is beyblades.
• Clear Cut Challenge is hard to explain. They (spinarak) drop a log in front of your scissors-based Pokémon (scyther, pinsir, or scizor), and you have to cut the log at the exact right place to earn points. Too fast, and you don’t get as many points. Too slow, and you lose varying numbers of points. Master the blade, though, and nobody can stop you.
• Furret’s Frolic is a soccer-style game that is mostly based on foosball controls. You can move into one of the limited numbers of square quadrants, and your only action is hitting the ball. You can use this to get in the right spots to guard your own goal, or press against your opponents’ spaces to score off their goals. Weirdly, despite being titled Furret’s Frolic, you can play as a girafarig, too.
• Barrier Ball is 4-way Pong starring Mr. Mime. You cannot play as any Pokémon other than the scary mime clown, so maybe hurry along to something else.
• Pichu’s Power Plant is the red light/green light game from the previous Stadium, but this time modified from red light/green light to be red/green/blue/yellow light. Shoot electricity in four directions as requested.
• Rampage Rollout is a one-screen racetrack where you and three other donphan compete in a series of laps. Everyone moves at strict 90° angles, so it controls like Snake. Everyone can leave dust cloud “mines” in their wake, so the inside track is often littered with obstacles.
• Streaming Stampede features two of the baby Pokémon (cleffa and igglybuff) playing that Japanese counting game with Pokémon that run past. That is a real Japanese thing, right? It was in Work Time Fun and WarioWare, so it must come from somewhere.
• Tumbling Togepi is Run, Rattata Run, but with a cuter star and a few more obstacles. For reasons that will never be understood, you can also play as an omanyte.
• Delibird’s Delivery is similar to Lickitung’s Sushi-go-Round, as you are delivering toys of different, pre-determined values. And there is a bonus for getting the same toys in a row! The added wrinkle is that you are working with a bag with limited capacity and variable encumbrance, and dashing with one item is very different from waddling with a bag full of five. It’s complicated! In a good way!
• Egg Emergency is vaguely Big Bird’s Egg Catch, but controls like the juggling Game & Watch, Ball. Or maybe that time Kirby had to eat all the eggs? Regardless, this is chansey catching 100 eggs, and avoiding random voltorbs. The winning chansey just tosses out eggs willy-nilly in her victory animation, which really lends a feeling of futility to the proceedings.
• Finally, Eager Eevee is a digital version of Red Hands/Slapsies where you must press A as quickly as possible when the prize is revealed. But be careful! The “prize” may be something you don’t want, so ration your reflexes. Also, despite other games allowing the occasional “other” Pokémon, Eager Eevee does not allow any eeveelutions to play along. Maybe they would be too big…

So we have 9 minigames in Pokémon Stadium, and 12 in Pokémon Stadium 2. While some games are generally similar, all 21 feature different ‘mons and varying gameplay. It is reasonable to state that the Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo 64 Classics Service gives you immediate access to 21 distinct Pokémon minigames.

And that is 21 more distinct Pokémon minigames than you are going to find anywhere else.

Look, we recognize the problem. There are 1,025 Pokémon in the ‘dex, and videogames are supposed to make money. Give or take a pikachu or eevee, the Pokémon franchise does not have immediate headliners so much as it has entire tiers of popular critters. No two “who is your favorite Pokémon” polls produce the same results. We can generally gesture toward Charizard, Greninja, or Mimikyu, but Lucario might take the top spot next time (particularly with their rad Mega Z hairdo). This is all preamble for a simple fact: if you are trying to pick someone’s favorite Pokémon, you have a 0.09% chance of getting the right answer. Which means that if the Pokémon Company wants to base a game on an individual pocket monster, they only have that same 0.09% chance of choosing a Pokémon that is going to immediately catch a player’s attention/wallet. The 21 Pokémon Stadium “chances” only gives you 2%! You want to make a series of minigames that only appeal to 2% of your audience? Why don’t you just feed all your money to a trubbish!? That could be your next minigame, dumdum!

So Pokémon games are designed to include “everybody”. We may not see a complete selection of every Pokémon in every Pokémon game, but every Pokémon game is designed so that every Pokémon can participate. If it is revealed that Taylor Swift’s favorite Pokémon is Frosmoth (note to search engines: it is not, this is a fake example for the purpose of a hypothetical), then you better believe the Pokémon Company could make Frosmoth featured tomorrow in Pokémon Go, Pokémon Masters EX, Pokémon Café Remix, Pokémon Violent/Scarlet, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Pokémon Champions, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, Pokémon Unite, and Pokémon Sleep. That is the brilliance of all the modern Pokémon games: they can pull from a cast of over a thousand Pokémon (and, in the case of Pokémon Masters EX, decades of memorable NPC humans). Super Mario Bros. has got, like, 14 guys! Total! With recolors! Pokémon individually could not be more different (go ahead and tell me voltorb and maushold were created by the same loving God) but their modern games can accommodate each and every one of the little weirdos.

However, the tradeoff is that the time when you might have seen a shoot ‘em up-style adventure starring a limited number of flying-type Pokémon has ended. If it cannot include stunky just the same as tropius, it ain’t happening.

Pokémon are cool. Babies are now born immediately identifying that they would like to have a pikachu, litten, or friggen’ hydreigon as their best buddy. And it is wonderful that there are so many games where they can go on adventures with virtual monster buddies. But can we get some basic, featured ‘mons doing signature stuff? All the ersatz pikachus charging up batteries? Or digletts playing Dig Dug? Or Slurpuff’s candy hunt? Jellicent’s float off? Gliscor’s Arkham City? Something more specific than the ol’ type matchups and move chains? Can we go back to the early days of Pokémon, when drowzee might get a chance to shine? Can we return to the Pokémon Stadium Kids’ Club?

Come on, Pokémon Company, magikarp deserves better than some mobile trash. And Ditto Quest Builders is way too complicated…

SBC #51 Ivysaur & Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2

Ivysaur in Super Smash Bros Ultimate

• They any Good? Ivysaur has been rocking the battles since Pokémon Stadium, so they are Pokémon Trainer’s featured monster du jour. Previous entries will confirm that I am a fan of the heavies, so Charizard is always going to be my favorite Smashémon. That said, Ivysaur is an excellent second place, with a good little moveset that is simultaneously fun and “makes sense” for a creature with immediately accessible whips/grabbers. I am never going to support a grapple recovery, but everything else about Ivysaur more than justifies Pokémon #0002.
• That final smash work? Ivysaur is one of three Pokémon on Pokémon Trainer’s team, and we are going to cover each of their individual teammates, so get ready to see me rephrase a few things multiple times. Triple Finish has no real origin in the Pokémon games (they have yet to implement simultaneous triple techs), but it is a “beam” style attack, and Ivysaur is distinctly contributing a solar beam blast. Since they are setting the pace for this Final Smash, they are getting profiled on this site first.
• The background work? There are more playable Pokémon than there are Pokémon stages, so each of the Pokémon Trainer buddies are getting a marginally related stage from another franchise. Ivysaur is assigned Garden of Hope. That is the Pikmin 3 arena that started appearing on the WiiU. And it is one of the best stages! It is significantly horizontal, but not too big. There are events like spots being built and giant enemy crabs, but it never feels overwhelming. And the music is pretty great, too! Pikmin really contributed something amazing to the Smash franchise (and it ain’t Olimar).
• Classic Mode: The Future Champion is a series of one-on-one battles against the other Pokémon characters in the cast. … But you have a team of three, and everyone else is alone. Huh. Guess it always sucks to be anyone but the protagonist in the Pokémon world. The “rival” Pokémon Trainer is your penultimate fight, and the finale is Mewtwo… immediately followed by Master Hand. Guys, Mewtwo did not need an assist…
• First Appearance: Ivysaur unequivocally sucked in their first appearance. They were the worst of the Pokémon Trainer characters, and there were these type and stamina effects that would force Ivysaur to switch out constantly. Do you know how many Smash characters have fire attacks? It is, like, all of them.
• Smash Trivia: Ivysaur grows gigantic and is possessed by Petey Piranha for that plant-monster’s spirit battle. This means Petey betrayed his species and passed over Piranha Plant to be a Pokémon.

• Amiibo Corner: For a ground-based Pokémon, that sure is a dynamic, aerial pose. And they are clearly smiling! What a happy lil’ ‘saur! The vine whips are prominent, the bulb is ready to bloom, and there are some triangles on their butt. Good look all around, Ivysaur!
• Does Smash Bros Remember Today’s Game? There are entire stages named “Pokémon Stadium”, so that seems like a direct reference. In general, when Smash Bros. is referencing the Pokémon franchise, but not a distinct Pokémon game, they more or less default to the aesthetics of Pokémon Stadium.

Ivysaur in Pokémon Stadium 1 & Pokémon Stadium 2

• System: Nintendo 64, and now inexplicably back on the Nintendo Switch. As stated during the article, any Pokémon Stadium title resurfacing is like seeing a Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace popcorn bucket in 2026. It still works for holding popcorn, but I thought we had moved past this.
• Number of players: One player for the majority of content, two players for battles, and four players for those delightful minigames.
• What’s in a name? What North America saw as Pokémon Stadium was Pokémon Stadium 2 in Japan. The original, more limited Pokémon Stadium never migrated over. North America’s Pokémon Stadium 2 is Pokémon Stadium Gold/Silver across the Pacific. North America does marginally get a name improvement here, as Pokémon Crystal, not mentioned in the Japanese title, is available for connecting. You get all that? There will be a quiz later.
• This Might Take a While: Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2 both move faster than I recalled. I very much remember the old days of Pokémon battling taking forever, and adding additional animations and an announcer to the proceedings does not help. But it is surprisingly zippy! … Until some jackass uses wrap, and then everything is terrible. And the odds of Lorelei’s Lapras inflicting paralyze? The stuff of nightmares.
• A Shape of Things to Come: Pokémon Stadium is entirely based on the Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow generation, so steel and dark types do not even exist. It is strange using fire on a magnemite and not seeing a reaction. And both games were well before fairy type, so normal type snubbull will confuse any modern players.
• Color Blind: The second Pokémon generation introduced shiny Pokémon, so you could import shinies into the stadium battles or minigames of Pokémon Stadium 2. PS2 also includes “off color” Pokémon to help distinguish players in the minigames, and that is unholy. Look, it is either pink Mr. Mime or green, and nothing in-between.
• Big Nerd Hours: There is a (mostly) text-based quiz available in Pokémon Stadium 2. Just timed Pokémon questions about cries, types, and other details from across the (then released) games. I am never going to admit how good I am at such a challenge.
• An End: The ultimate reward for completing all the battles in Pokémon Stadium is a match against the least fair Mewtwo in all of Pokémon history. Bro can obliterate your team, and then Rest for days. And he gets a rematch battle where he drops the offensive Blizzard for Amnesia, which buffs his special attack even higher. There is a reason Mewtwo is still considered the king of Pokémon.
• Goggle Bob Fact: While the ‘mons were technically transferred to the N64 cartridge and preserved in that manner, my Pokémon Stadium did have some issue with the transfer pak, and deleted my save file on my original copy of Pokémon Blue. It is entirely possible I am still mad about this some 25 years later.
• Did you know? As mentioned during the article, you can play as an omanyte in Pokémon Stadium 2’s Tumbling Togepi. Omanyte is only available in Pokémon Red/Blue, but only if you specifically choose the helix fossil early in the adventure, and then cash it in somewhere around the 80% completion mark. Then you must transfer the omanyte to Pokémon Gold/Crystal/Silver via a link cable. If you evolved it into omastar, you must breed it to obtain a “new” omanyte. Then you can fire up the Transfer Pak, and finally utilize the omanyte in Tumbling Togepi to absolutely no advantage. It is just cosmetic. Praise helix.
• Would I play again: The actual battling in Pokémon Stadium? No. Nothing there for me now. The minigames in Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2? Well… there is a distinct possibility…

What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege! That’s a mouthful… of spear, that is!…. No, that didn’t quite come together. I’ll figure out a way to apologize in a week. Please look forward to it!