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Pokémon Stadium is coming to Nintendo Switch Online next week — but with a catch

Pokémon Stadium is coming to Nintendo Switch Online next week — but with a catch

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The battle-focused N64 Pokémon game will be available to NSO subscribers on April 12th, though you can’t bring your own caught pokémon.

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Pokémon Stadium will join Nintendo’s growing roster of Nintendo 64 classics you can play through Nintendo Switch Online starting April 12th. First released in 2000, Stadium is a battle-focused Pokémon game featuring the original 151 pocket monsters.

The thing is, this version of Stadium has a very big catch (no pun intended): you can’t transfer any of your own pokémon to the game. When I was a kid, part of the appeal of the game was bringing over my well-trained Pokémon Red with the N64 Transfer Pak so they could duke it out in glorious N64-era 3D. Without the transfer feature, it seems you’ll have to instead rely on the game’s rental teams, which probably won’t be as satisfying as coaching my own beloved Butterfree to victory.

Nintendo first announced that Stadium was headed to Nintendo Switch Online in its September 2022 Direct, where it also said that games like Pokémon Stadium 2, Excitebike 64, and 1080° Snowboarding were headed to the service. To play N64 games, you’ll need to subscribe to Nintendo’s more expensive expansion pack tier, but at least it finally includes GoldenEye 007.