Pokemon Stadium

Projected Release Date: October 1999
System: Nintendo 64
I think it's safe to say that with the coming of Pokemon Stadium, the Game Link Club will see a lot less business. To put it simply, Stadium is a 3-D version of the two-player Tournament version of Pokemon, where one player can battle against another or the computer, using their own Pokemon from their Game Boy cartridges, or the less personalized Pokemon that come with the game. Due to the simplicity of the Game Boy system, the original red and blue games were never able to do much more for battles than an unmoving picture of each Pokemon, and a couple of flashes, lines, and circles representing moves. Stadium is so much more. In Stadium, the Pokemon move about during the battle and all the moves, from the ground-shaking Earthquake to the speed-reducing String Shot, can actually be seen in great detail! However, there are many additional features to this game, including the new edition of the Pokedex, featuring three-dimensional rotatable images of all 150 Pokemon, and several minigames. The use of Pokemon from your own cartridge is made possible by the use of the Game Boy 64 pack, that works much like the Super Game Boy did, in interfacing your Game Boy cartridges to the larger systems. Through this Game Boy 64 pack, you will be able to play all your Game Boy games (like Pokemon) through the Nintendo 64.

(Images courtesy of the summer/fall issue of Pocket Games, Fantasy Anime, and Dark Menace)

Several shots from a Blastoise-Charizard battle.