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3) Pokémon Stadium
Released: 2000
Platform: Nintendo 64
Fans had been clamoring for Pokémon developer Game Freak to bring the franchise to Nintendo 64 ever since its debut. The prospect of collecting and battling Pokémon in glorious 3D was irresistible, but Game Freak and Nintendo had to figure out the best way to adapt the Game Boy experience to the N64. The result was a unique collaboration between Game Freak and HAL Laboratory that produced the powerhouse Pokémon Stadium. The hope with Stadium was to remove the Pokémon RPG play mechanics and swing the focus squarely onto the elements of battling and collecting. It worked. Distilling the two features of Pokémon that fans seemed to enjoy most launched Stadium to great success.
The biggest (literally) innovation that Stadium brought was the Transfer Pak peripheral that came with each copy of the game. The Transfer Pak plugged into the underside of an N64 controller, which then allowed for a copy of either Pokémon Red, Blue, or Yellow to be inserted into it. Players could then transfer the Pokémon they caught in the Game Boy games directly into Stadium. While that feature alone was ingenious, the developers also utilized the Transfer Pak as a means of playing the Game Boy games on the TV screen! The list of features in Stadium is incredibly robust: Pokémon battles, Game Boy emulation, trading, a Pokedex, mini-games, and the opportunity to snap pictures of your Pokémon and have them printed at Blockbuster stores. Stadium might not have quite fulfilled the dream of Pokémon fans to play a 3D version of the Game Boy games, but it was an engaging and creative experience nonetheless.
Excellent list! But Pinball at 9? I loved Pinball. *sniff*
Lol, I understand… these things are hard to organize!