How Nintendo RUINED Pokémon Stadium - Dissecting Pokemon Game Mechanics - Tama Hero 

Merch store is back! tama-hiroka.creator-spring.com/ I will be streaming a Gen 3 video wrap up Live Q&A with my cowriter later today on my Twitch! I will be playing Colosseum and suffering live.

4 videos in less than a month. You spoil us.

It's always very heartening to hear someone else understand and appreciate the Stadium games

When I heard Nintendo will bring both Stadium on the switch, I literally said that it will be useless as the entire point of those games is using your mons from Red/Blue/Gold/Silver.

Playing Pokemon Red on the big screen through Stadium 1 was one of the funnest things ever as a kid. I put so much time doing everything in stadium. Mewtwo and me went all the way, such good memories.

This issue reminds me of the Stadium game I played in my youth: Battle Revolution. Their rental Pokémon are actually competently built, and it's certainly possible to win the lower ranks with them, but as the game's difficulty goes up, the less and less the mid-tier starter evolutions are gonna cut it. It comes to a head with the Masters Battle, unlocked after you see the credits for the first time (which you can do with rentals). The opponents there all sport powerful Pokémon with fierce AI and the most sophisticated Doubles strategies that Genius Sorority could think of. Since there's no way in hell the rentals can win there, the official strategy guide's recommendation is to win at the Trade Battle in Gateway Colosseum. The Trade Battle is basically the Battle Factory, except the swaps are _permanent._ And in order to find anything remotely decent, you have to keep repeatedly challenging and winning there to increase your Rank. And even if you acquire the Pokémon that'll let you have a chance against the Masters that you had to beat with a _weaker_ team, it's moveset and item are randomly generated. Oh, and the final boss of the Masters has a specific, OU-to-Uber-studded team that he uses if you got there with rental Pokémon, so it's clear the devs expected you to go through that. Not fun, in my opinion.

Tama Bytes has been such an enjoyable series so far! I love the focused lens, and hopefully, they have been easier for you to edit and produce as well. Seriously, these videos feel like separate sections of a larger thesis. They're so watchable but still impressive in their depth. Great work Tama!

Stadiums 1&2 without the old GB/GBC games to go with them... seriously? Like, I know there's no official emulation for those systems on Switch, but both Stadiums feature the Game Boy tower which could be used to emulate the specific Pokémon titles, and so they really should have been bundled into the set.

I am very happy, that I was able to beat all the Battle Chatelaines at the Battle Maison in my copy of Pokemon X. I spent hundreds of hours trying out various team builds and strategies. There were lot of disheartening moments and moments of anger due to at times the AI throwing curveballs or bad RNG to ruin your streak. However, being persistent did paid off, as I found a nice synergy and team composition to take down all the boss fights. I love this sense of reward and accomplishment that you don't often get in the early stories of each Pokémon game.

I loved the gym leader challenge in this game. Rebattling the leaders with their better teams and beating them was so satisfying.

They'd never do this, but all you had to do was just put RBY and/or GSC as a game within a game in the 'gameboy tower' mode, market it as a 'secret game' just announce you can't bring them into home, but can bring them into Stadium and you at least would have bred some good will. Even if you locked it to say Yellow/Crystal (Ignore the lack of certain pokemon) You could have introduced SOME good will. But honestly they're probably figuring people just want to play the mini-games

Another cool thing about the Stadium games were the gift Pokémon and the room decoration trophies for GSC 😮 I love these games. I never did 100% them but they are a lot of fun

Pokémon stadium 1+2 were unbelievable. You could have your own Pokémon, 2D sprites, come to life into 3D battles. They animated Pokémon with so much personality

Pokemon Stadium was the first Pokemon game I ever had. Didn't have a GBC or any Pokemon to transfer but I was just content with playing a Pokemon game in 3D. The animations blew me away, and the commentator had JUST the right voice for hyping up the battles haha... Lemme tell ya, getting those Master Cups felt ROUGH with a team of rentals. I remember barely making it through the Elite Four in Gym Leader Castle mode but never made it past the rival. Honestly, loved the game. Used to play it with my cousins even though they weren't even into Pokemon. They really liked the mini-games haha.

“I want Pokémon content that hasn’t already been beaten to death.” “But my lord, no such content exists-“ *Tama uploads video*

Man I love the stadium games. They were my introduction to competitive battling, showing 12 year old me that the moves I taught my Pokemon mattered.

More people in this world really need to see Geodude's fainting animation. It perfectly represents internet culture in a nutshell lmao

There is very little more difficult in the Pokemon series than trying to fight the Cooltrainer's Mewstor in Prime Cup Master Ball. Especially with rentals... It'll at least be fun to play with rentals with friends.

You've been my fav Poketuber since I was 12. I'm 23 now and still enjoy your content! So glad you're uploading more!

The fact that the Prime Cup expects your Pokémon to be level 100 but doesn't just temporarily set them at 100 like the battle facilities of later games is so bonkers. I've owned the _Stadium_ games for almost all my life and I really owe it to myself to sit down and finish them one of these days, but grinding to 100 without the benefit of Blissey Bases sounds like getting teeth pulled. Granted, with the speedup options emulators afford, maybe it's not _quite_ as bad as I imagine (heck, _Stadium_ itself gives you an emulator with a speedup option, so maybe that's just part of the authentic experience).

So much Tama lately! I feel like you're spoiling us xD But yeah, you tapped into one of the many big reasons that I love the Stadium games so much, and seeing the Stadium games come to N64 Online was just about the biggest roller coaster of emotion I've had related to a game announcement. I feel like the Stadium games have become so misunderstood over the years, with so many people saying "The mini games were the only good part" so much that I guess someone who's in charge of NSO just assumed that was how everyone felt. It's even more frustrating when Home has already proven 3DS-to-Switch connectivity is a thing, and if they didn't want to do that... Just put Red/Blue/Yellow on the Switch eShop for $10! Trust me, it would sell

The grumpy old gamer in me is shaking his cane at Nintendo saying, "This is another reason why I stick with only Gen 1&2 on original hardware!" Great video! I can still remember that first weekend of renting Pokémon Stadium with the transfer pak and seeing my Venusaur up on my TV in 3d graphics. He went from this little sprite on my Game Boy to a behemoth on the TV. The full screen 3d battles. The enthusiastic announcer commenting on the fight. What a sweet spot for Pokémon.

I remember thinking when Stadium was announced for N64 online it would be crazy hard without being able to bring in your own teams.

Honestly remembering my childhood I don’t know if I ever actually used my own mons because I didn’t have the peripherals to do it so I struggled with the rentals. On top of the fact that what I remember the most was the mini games for multiplayer

Tama, I just wanted to say despite the drop in views over time, I think the quality of your uploads has increased tremendously and I'm glad you continue this format of content

I remember facing Mewtwo for the first time. In Round 1 his genetics were all 0 but his EV's were maxed out. He annihilated my entire team with his move set, Psychic, Thunderbolt, Rest, Blizzard. In Round 2 his Blizzard was replaced by Amnesia, and with Mewtwo having his Genetics and EV's both maxed out for Round 2, his Special of 406 became 812 with one use of Amnesia. Combine this with the Special stat in Gen 1 not being split into Special Attack and Special Defence, Mewtwo becomes completely broken. What I think is also worth pointing out is that both the Stadium games use more realistic Pokemon cries. Even today I don't think there's a game in the series that use the cries from Stadium 1 & 2. Not even Pokemon Colosseum or Pokemon XD use the cries.

This pumping of content is really so nice! I watched you ages ago on a RU-vid account I don’t even remember anymore, so it’s really great to see you still around AND doing video essays. Please keep it up Tama! 🙏🏾 I appreciate your research and opinions!

This is such a problem with lazy porting/rereleasing in general, mostly by Nintendo. Really sucks

Tama Bytes is a great series! This is why I come to your channel. You tell me things about these games that I had no clue about since we had no internet access at home, no friends who were into Pokemon like we were, and didn't get Nintendo Power often enough to learn about these things. Like I had no idea that Stadium was made to be post-game content for the Gen 1 Game Boy games. I just thought it was cool that we could use the Transfer Pak and use our Pokemon from the Game Boy games in battle, and that, using the Transfer Pak, we could play the Game Boy games on Pokemon Stadium if the other two were playing their games on the Game Boy since we only had a Game Boy and a Game Boy Color in the late '90s and early 2000s.

It's always a great day when Tama puts out a new video! Also, hope you're doing well! Keep up the great work! :D

I actually think Pika cup is extremely under rated. How you do the level distribution of your team is extremely relevant when you can go with 15,15,20 16,16,18 or 16,17,17. If you go all out with one 20, you are done for if that 20 gets paralyzed. On the other hand, if your opponent has a 20 that you don't have a good counter to, you are also done for.

I'm still hoping when they inevitably add a collection of GameBoy titles that there's some connection between RBY and Stadium, but it is a shame that it at best won't be available at launch. Those minigames are still gonna be sweet.

i like how it looks like you're filming with a webcam but the audio is pristine quality, visually nostalgic but without the audible anguish

Pika Cup Round 2 is the hardest cup in Stadium 1. The opponents using Dragon Rage is incredibly cheap and unfair.

Your ability to analyze Pokemon from every angle (thematically, mechanically, et al), get it down to q science, and explain it all so well is honestly awe inspiring. If a fangame ever had your involvement I'd be so eager to play it!!!

Nice to have you back making regular content

been watching your videos for what seems like a decade now, its good to see you back at it :)

I would love to see something like this covering Battle Revolution. I really miss the 3D console games overall from all those gens, they effectively extended all their lives and were a great novelty

I randomly got recommended this video. I haven't seen a Tamashii video in years. I am glad you are doing well.

Set-up Mewtwo with Amnesia? Nah, bro. You set up Mewtwo with Surf, Fly, Dig, and Psychic.

Great video! Loved stadium back in the day. Would love to see you dissect more about the battle frontier facilities and the colosseum battle modes!

I love that Snorlax is actually blocking the way 😂😂😂

“I do not look cute in this.” Literally impossible, Tama!

Sigh....I miss hearing Ted Lewis in Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2. He did such a great job commentating on the action.

I really like your videos dissecting Pokemon game mechanics, and your recent content has given me more appreciation for the Pokemon Stadium games, which I wrote off as a kid when I didn't know how to play Pokemon well. Those games tried hard to be challenging within the limitations of the Gen I games. That is commendable.

I love your content! After how many years, it still feels polished, yet not sold out. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to what you’ve got in store for Scarlet and Violet! ❤️💜

I am loving these new videos! You’re doing such a great job and we’re all proud of you 👍

Finally someone is talking about this! I have been going on so many rants with my wife and friends bout this topic and I was not understanding why no one else was upset like me. The point of these games is bringing over your Pokémon from the GB games. Without that feature of the game pac, this game is kind of pointless! Thanks for the video. Keep up the good work.

It's as if they eventually release Pokemon Battle Revolution without the ability to import Pokemon. Now, that game is actually TERRIBAD if you are stuck with Rental Pokemon. Good thing I actually got to play PBR with my DPPt Pokemon, unlike how I played Stadium with only rentals (though I didn't mind the latter too much because I played Stadium as a kid and didn't take it too seriously; I just played it because it was cool)

Nostalgia. I never owned Stadium 1 or 2, but some friends did, so I was still able to spend many hours on both. Talk about difficult games, especially if you used the rental teams. I did manage to beat Gym Leader Castle and the Prime Cup and get to Mewtwo, but I couldn't beat him. 20 years later, I still have nostalgia for the games.

I had a bit of a nostalgia trip and just went through a bunch of videos about Pokémon Stadium. Your analysis about the difficulty/gameplay aspects were very interesting to listen to - I definitely wasn't expecting to find a serious video about it in 2024, so I'm pleasantly surprised. I'll definitely be watching more of your stuff.

I'm definitely liking these shorter segment videos. Keep doing them.

Love that you are making more videos recently. Keep up the great work.

RU-vid just recommended this. Subbed! Good content! On a side note - I feel like the visuals are a bit fuzzy although you look well lit. You might new camera?

Loving these weekly uploads.😊

Love to hear others give love to the stadium games. They are what introduced me to the series all those years ago.

Nice seeing you upload consistently again ❤️

Woah, so your video was recommended to me out of the blue this morning and I think the last video I watched of yours was your ANCIENT review of your bros copy of Pokémon Green? What a glow up! Good for you

Seems really bizarre that they wouldn’t allow transferring Pokémon to the Stadium games 🤔 unless they’re planning on the Gameboy Tower doing something else

I have a topic I'd like you to think about tackling. Battle Styles. 'Set' vs 'shift'. How the styles are never explained in game, how one makes the game significantly harder, how Scarlet/Violet don't have the option AT ALL, how one mimics vs battles and the other doesn't. I'm sure there's plenty to dive into that you can find.

Loved your take on the first Stadium game! I went back and finally beat the game over quarantine. I actually fell in love with the Pika Cup because of how strange the challenge was and how much strategy/cheese the mode offered. You can only use Pokémon level 15 - 20 and your team of 3 can't exceed level 50. I realized Yellow version has some amazing in game trades that almost seem tailor made for this cup. For example, you can catch a level 18 cubone and trade it for Ricky the Machoke which evolves into a Machamp upon trading. You can also catch a level 20 Golduck via fishing and trade it for Buffy the Rhydon. I can't forget my boy Miles the Mr. Mime which you can get at a pretty low level if you can catch an Abra. I was really happy to figure out that these powerful Pokémon could be obtained legally at low levels and didn't require any glitches. I made up the rest of my team with the level 15 Lapras from Silph Co, a level 15 Dragonair you can catch from the Safari Zone, and a chansey that you can catch at the ridiculously low level of 7 in the Safari Zone. Also, the cup doesn't ban moves like Dragon Rage, Sonic Boom, Seismic Toss, Nightshade, or Psywave which adds an extra level of difficulty or cheese depending on how you want to approach this cup. I just love how weird/unique this mode is and how much fun it is to battle with full or second stage evolutions that are much lower than they should be. Such a fun mode!

This btw was a very well done video. You covered everything of Stadium we needed to know, for those that never of played it. Awesome Job 👊

Great video! I love when people talk about the stadium games. Although one minor clarification on gen 1 OHKO moves: OHKO moves in Gen 1 are locked at 30% accurate, but instead of requiring you to be a higher level than your opponent, you have to be faster. I like how the AI knows this, so it’ll use Body Slam or Thunder Wave support to slow you down and give more chances to roll that 3/10. Although funny enough, an X-accuracy on cart makes them ignore accuracy if you’re faster. This is why speedruns of gen 1 use Horn Drill on Nidoking along with X-Speeds. Not being able to transfer mons really does put a dampener on Stadium though, I 100% agree. If you are curious on how people have hyper-optimized rental picking in Stadium 1, a few speedruns exist that do their best to balance speed and consistency. It’s a lot of fun!

YOU ACTUALLY CALLED IT TAMA BYTES love the new content recently! keep it up

playing the game with just rentals is also incredibly challenging and super satisfying to complete. it makes an already hard game to making some fights being literally impossible if a specific pokemon gets chosen (looking at YOU, Fisher's Alakazam in Pika Cup Round 2).

Stadium, even more than my copy of yellow, was the reason I loved Pokémon! Seeing my favorites in 3d, being able to play at 2 or 3 times the normal speed. That laboratory where you could see all the pokedex entries and find out where the mons were hidden you hadn't found yet! And then the gym tower, mysterious and hard but so much fun! Or finding Lapras in yellow and finally learning I could murder the whole petite cup with my dragon breath! And seeing Bob, my giant Snorlax in 3d crushing people! 😂❤️

It’s good to have you back full time 👍

Tamashii, I watched your videos as a kid obsessed with Pokemon, and now I'm a near adult having another Pokemon phase, and I enjoy your RU-vid videos just as much as when I was a kid, if not more. Love how you're not pandering to what gets more watchtime like most other RU-vidrs. Thanks for the entertainment over the years.

Mupen64Plus recently added Transfer Pak emulation so you can import your teams from your save files from Pokemon games played on most Gameboy emulators. Even works with Pokemon games that are hacked to include all 151/251 and QOL improvements.

I haven't seen a video of yours in a while, then I just looked and seen you've been putting them up for the last few weeks! I though you vanished from youtube. Pokemon stadium for me was mostly just being able to play my gameboy games on my TV with the adapter thing on the n64.

I recently played Pokémon Stadium on an emulator and had a lot of fun. It was massively challenging with the rental Pokemon but is do-able with enough strategy and managed to complete normal and gym leader castle (can’t remember whether I bothered with round 2 though 😅) I have my fingers crossed that Nintendo will release GB games as a service as well although it’s unlikely that they’ll bother.

I get your point about bringing in your own team as an extension of your in game story, but 20+ hour rental only Pokemon Stadium speedruns are one of my favorite genres on RU-vid.

Just wanted to say love the jumper you're wearing, Tama! The aqua really pops

Been blasting fun, quality videos like clockwork! This idea, covering minigames in the mainline games like the Pokeathalon or Super Training + if they serve their purpose in the respective games

love the intro. also stadium looks good, I'm not sure if Battle Revolution is a good successor to it or not, people seem to be more into Stadium than that.

When I played these games as a kid, I thought I was THE pokémon master because I was able to clear the gym leader castle and (Most Of) the Cups... on Round 1 - using rentals of course, because the Transfer Pak was too rare and fancy a gadget for my itty bitty self. I think it's a good thing I never even tried Round 2 because I would have probably cried.

Pokemon friendship and all it's quirks in and outside of battle would make a cool Tama Bytes episode

Bloodshot eyes Venusaur still haunts my darkest dreams

I wish modern Pokemon Games would have "Stadium" as a ultimate challange Place, Black and White 2 had something like that, but the newer ones lack it.

This is a fantastic video. I really fear that newer fans playing the Stadium games on Switch won't have any idea why anyone ever thought they were good games because they'll be missing such a huge part of what made them worth playing. Stadium 1 and 2 are the best post-game content we've ever gotten for Pokemon.

Tama! Amazing to see your uploads 😃

I have a few Pokemon animation suggestions, if you're interested. 1. James and Jessie have a fight, so the former sends Graveler and the latter sends Machamp (both Pokemon from _Journeys_ ) to battle and settle their differences. Four armed wrestling. 2. Geodude, Graveler, Regriock and Midnight Lycanroc as a team, against four Fighting Pokemon. See, long story short, I feel the four Rock Pokemon ought to be Fighting types too, so I want to test my theory onscreen. 3. a medieval Pokemon video, with Escavalier "slaying" a Dragon Pokemon, wielding Honedge, double-dueling Duoblade, etc. Fairy Pokemon would be here also.

So many videos in a short time. Thank you Mommy Tama 🤟❤️

What a nice video. I wanted to hear about the mini-games as well. Those were my childhood! 😆

Glad your doing these Tama Bytes more :)

Fun moment here: I was in Pokemon Satadium 2 battling the Standard Cup R2 Master ball difficulty and i had a Scizor with 6 boosts of evasiveness thanks to double team and the opponent used Horn Drill with Rapidash and it hit first try lol

Been enjoying these recent videos. Keep it up!

You got it wrong, you don't start with any continues! You start with zero with nothing

First of all I'm so happy you are back, and second I love this video because I totally agree with you, omg it feels like I got to see one of my friends again that share my opinions ❤️oh I forgot to say your hair looks great👌🏾

So, if I have a request for a future tamabytes episode but don't know how to reach Tama...how would I go about finding out?

great video, I'm always disappointed in the battle challenges in end game like battle tower and i miss stadium so much sometimes

I think a deep dive into the diffrent move types would be a cool video. Or your take on how to make a competitive pokemon team.

Yes!!!!! Another video! Let us freaking go! I don’t even play Pokémon but I come for your videos! Thank you! Keep up the killer work 🎉

I think the gameboy player will have the Pokémon game for that game (stadium 1 - RBY, stadium 2 - GSC) and have not said anything to maybe make a few more sales on the 3DS

You look like a professional pokemon news reporter as in the shows in the games! Amazing!

Really enjoyed this video. Its really interesting how Pokemon Stadium almost got ruined yet there was a both a first and second one installed and later down the line with a similar style one of Battle Revolution for the Wii and you would think GameFreak would have been in charged of developing these than Nintendo.

After losing my Battle Tree in UM at battle 49 due to Zapdos spamming Double Team, it took me like a year and a half to attempt the streak again. That aside, I wish we actually got continues in main series games, that is such a neat QoL feature that they absolutely should have added in later games.

Stadium added do much to Gen 1 and 2. That's the Era of pokemon I miss the most. It felt like they wanted us to have and use our pokemon instead of just leaving them behind.

Your videos are always so special, I love your content. 😊

I like your clear love for stadium but stating that you don't have access to 90% of the content by not being able to transfer in is a wild overstatement. I never figured out how to transfer as a child - but I still managed to make it through both R1 and R2 with rentals. It makes you have to consider stats and moves as tradeoffs and work to find interesting solutions. While not being able to transfer is certainly an annoyance I think you are being dismissive of the fact that these games are fully playable and enjoyable as standalone experences and not just post game content for the main line games. Also you didn't talk about the mini games in the kids club! thats the best part!