Pros: good puzzle game,
Cons: not for puzzle hating Pokemon fan's
The bottom line: you know you live in a small town if: everybody's only sorce of entertainment is watching the town's one traffic light.
All right about a year a half ago I picked this game up has a Christmas present to my self. Why well the first reason was I liked a puzzle game called Tetris attack, what does Tetris attack have to do with anything. Well you see Nintendo has way’s of putting different themes on to Tetris attack last time it was Yoshi this time it’s Pokemon. That leads me to my 2nd reason. 2nd reason was I am a Pokemon fan. Well needless to say I was hooked on this from the get go and it's still one of the games I play the most on the N64.

Story.
There is a new Pokemon tournament being held in Puzzle league village, and has usual Ash has usual is wanting to prove that he's the best. He and Pikachu go to the Pokemon league village to compete in a tournament so they can face the mysterious puzzle master.

Graphics.
The graphics on this aren't bad, they aren't groundbreaking but they stick to the anime cartoon show. During the matches, it shows still backgrounds of the trainers and there Pokemon.

There is also a new 3d mode thrown in. This isn’t much really the blocks are put in a cylinder rather then a rectangle screen. You have to spin the cylinder to see all the blocks, and pay attention to the background so the blocks there don't fill up. It might sound hard but it's not because there so many blocks that it's hard not to form chains and combo's, a couple of try's and you'll have it down.

Sound.
If you ever listen to the closing music video's, or the to be a master CD then you know what the music is going to sound like in this. The music is all soft rock versions of the sounds from the cd and the show. The music is dynamic compared to how your doing if your doing well the music plays slowly and softly, if not it plays the chorus lines really fast and loudly giving a sense of urgency to the situation.

Of course there are samples of the trainers and Pokemon. To name a few trainers there are Ash, Brock, Misty, Erika, Gary, Bruno, Lorlei (Prima in the sereis), and many more. The voices also differ to. You can tell if your about to be attack by listening to the other trainer in there Pokemon. If the trainer speaks one your going to get hit by a small block. If the pokemon talk you'll be hit my a line, if the Pokemon starts going crazy and a horn sounds then your going to get hit by a block that fill's the entire screen.

Gameplay.
The gameplay is rather simple to learn hard to master. The idea is to put three of the same blocks together in groups of 3 or more either horizontal or vertically. If you get more then you get a combo, if you cause a chain reaction then you get a chain, scoring chain's is the best way to score.

Modes more then 1 mode to play this game.

1p stadium.
this is the main story mode, you play has Ash while he journey’s thorough the Pokemon puzzle league tournament, battle thorough the 8 gym leaders, the elite puzzle masters, and finally the puzzle master. There are different difficulties each with a different difficulty of AI, the harder the mode the more battles you'll have to fight to beat the game. While in the easy mode all you have to do is figure out simple chain's and combo's and the computer slow enough to make it seem like you got all day to figure them out. In the Very hard mode the computer moves fast and nails you with a bunch of junk blocks, it takes a lot of fast thinking and button mashes in order to figure this mode out.

So how do you win a battle in 1p stadium? Well the objective is to get the other person to fill up his screen first. To help you can form chains and combo's to fill up the opponent’s screen with junk blocks. If a junk block hits you, you have to form a combo right by the block to turn it into a bunch of regular blocks that you can get rid of.

Spa Service.
Jessie and James have open up a phony spa service and has stolen everybody's Pokemon. Now it's up to a certain twerp and his Pikachu to get them back. To win the stages all you have to do is clear the blocks above a certain lines. Sound's easy doesn’t it well it is at first but has the stages go on you have to deal with faster blocks and 3d mode. It takes a good player to beat Butch & Cassidy in the bonus stage, however the real fight that will test your skill will be with Geovanni the Team Rocket's leader at the end of this mode.


Marathon and time attack.
The marathon and time attack are two "practice modes" that you can play in. Marathon you keep on playing until you get tired or die, the speed keep's going up the longer you play so it gets harder. Not bad place to test your speed limit.

Time attack has you trying to get has many chain's and combo's has possible in a two minute time period. This isn’t a bad mode to try out if you want a short game of tetris attack.

Puzzle university.
Forget Very Hard mode on stadium, this is the mode that has me stumped. Ash's friend Ritchie has set up some puzzles for you to complete. The goal is simple get rid of all the block's, the hard part is that you only have a few moves to do them in. The puzzle on this can get very complex, and can make even a season tetris attack player go nuts.

To make it even better you can create your own puzzles in the Puzzle University with the puzzle editor and then challenge other people to solve them.

Other modes.

Two tutorial modes.
The two tutorial modes are Prof. Oak's lab and mimic mansion. In Oak's office you learn the basic rules of the game, these aren't too hard to figure out so you might just want to skip his lecture. Mimic mansion teaches you the advance tactics of combo making. In this one you watch Tracy play and perform moves, and then try them out yourself. This is definitely something for people who never played Pokemon stadium need to check out.

2p player stadium.
yeap this has a two player stadium in case you get bored with your computer players presented to you. The two-player mode has variable difficulty, and different modes to play. You can do the traditional battle mode, or line clear and point’s battle. While it's easy to complain that there isn’t a multiplayer mode the answer is obvious if you played Dr. Mario 64. The sprites in Dr. Mario where hard to see in multiplayer in Dr. Mario 64, and you didn’t have has much to move around has you do in Tetris attack. It would be a pain to keep track of blocks if they where to small for you to see.

Pokemon center.
The Pokemon center is the option's screen where you can do the usual adjust sound and stuff like that. You can also change the blocks to classic Tetris attack look instead of the Pokemon look. You can also compare friends scores in all the modes side by side to see how your doing.

Final recommendation.
If you like Tetris attack or puzzle games don't let the Pokemon from scaring you away from this game. However I won't recommend it if your a Pokemon fan who hates Puzzle games.