Pokémon Stadium series

The Pokémon Stadium logo, depicting Blastoise and Charizard

The Pokémon Stadium series (Japanese: ポケモンスタジアムシリーズ Pokémon Stadium series, officially Pocket Monsters' Stadium series) was a spin-off series of Pokémon games for the Nintendo 64 released during Generation I and Generation II and compatible with the games of those generations. In the games of this series, players can upload Pokémon from their Game Boy games to battle in 3D in various modes, most notably Stadium Mode, featuring various classes for Trainers to beat, and the Gym Leader Castle, featuring the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Champion of the respective generation's games. Players who did not have any core series games could still rent almost all 251 Pokémon at the time in certain modes.

Members

There are three games in the series:

Discontinuation

When Generation III was released, many expected a third (fourth in Japan) Stadium game to surface, complete with a Hoenn Gym Leader Castle. Instead two RPGs were released, Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD, and a separate storage system, Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire. In the most basic sense, the Stadium series had ended. However, the Generation IV game Pokémon Battle Revolution brings back many of the features of the Stadium series, such as Little Cup, the division to rounds and prize Pokémon. However, there is neither a Sinnoh Gym Leader Castle, a storage system, nor a mini-game mode.

In the Super Smash Bros. series

A stage based on the Pokémon Stadium games, simply titled Pokémon Stadium, was featured in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a Melee stage. Super Smash Bros. Brawl also featured the Pokémon Stadium series-based Pokémon Stadium 2.

Trivia

The Stadium series were the first games to color-code types. The colors used in the Stadium series were different than those that were introduced during Generation III in the main Pokémon games (e.g. Fire was red, not orange).