Platform guide
All Pokémon N64 games
Four Pokémon games came out for the Nintendo 64 in Europe, between 2000 and 2001. Two of them are half a product without a small plastic module called the Transfer Pak — and one of the four was never released in Japan at all.
The short answer
Pokémon Stadium (2000) → Pokémon Snap (2000) → Pokémon Puzzle League (2001) → Pokémon Stadium 2 (2001). Buy Stadium 2 if you still have Game Boy cartridges to plug in, Snap if you do not. Both Stadium games need the Transfer Pak to be worth owning.
Every Pokémon N64 cartridge, in release order
| Game | Year (EU) | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Stadium | 2000 | Battle simulator — needs the Transfer Pak |
| Snap | 2000 | On-rails photography |
| Puzzle League | 2001 | Puzzle |
| Stadium 2 | 2001 | Battle simulator — needs the Transfer Pak |
Game by game — the buying notes
Pokémon Stadium (2000)
The first Pokémon game on a television, and the point of it is the Transfer Pak: you plug your Red, Blue or Yellow cartridge into a module on the controller and your own team appears in 3D. Without that, you are renting Nintendo’s teams. It also plays the entire Game Boy game on the big screen, at speed, which in 2000 felt like magic. The Transfer Pak came in the box — check whether a used copy still has it.
Pokémon Snap (2000)
You ride a fixed track through a park and photograph Pokémon. There is no catching, no battling and about six hours in it — and it is remembered far more fondly than that description suggests, because it was the first time these creatures behaved like animals. Europe waited until September 2000, over a year after America.
Pokémon Puzzle League (2001)
A falling-block puzzler wearing the anime as a skin — underneath it is Panel de Pon, one of the sharpest puzzle games Nintendo ever made. It was never released in Japan at all, which is unusual enough to be worth saying twice: the Japanese version stayed Panel de Pon. Cheap here and genuinely good.
Pokémon Stadium 2 (2001)
The second generation added: 251 Pokémon, and the Transfer Pak now reads Gold, Silver and Crystal as well as the first three games. More minigames, a proper trainer school, and everything the first one did. If you buy one Stadium, buy this — it does not replace the first one’s Game Boy Tower, but for battling it is strictly better.
The Transfer Pak is half the product
Both Stadium games are built around one idea: your own Pokémon, the ones you raised on a Game Boy, fighting in 3D on a television. That only works with the Transfer Pak — a module that clips into the back of an N64 controller and holds the Game Boy cartridge while the console reads it. Stadium reads Red, Blue and Yellow; Stadium 2 adds Gold, Silver and Crystal.
Without the Pak, both games fall back to rental teams: still playable, but a fraction of what they are. The Pak was included in the box with Pokémon Stadium, so a genuinely complete copy has one — and a cartridge-only listing usually does not. It is the single question worth asking before you buy either game.
Or buy one that has already been checked
Every N64 cartridge we sell is play-tested on real hardware, with a save written, the console switched off and the save checked again. We have been doing this since 2019, with 1400+ verified reviews at 5.0★, and we ship tracked to all 27 EU countries.
Browse tested Pokémon gamesQuestions we get asked
How many Pokémon games are there on the Nintendo 64?
Four in Europe: Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Snap (both 2000), Pokémon Puzzle League and Pokémon Stadium 2 (both 2001). A fifth, Hey You, Pikachu!, came out in Japan and North America but never here — it needed the Voice Recognition Unit microphone, which was never sold in Europe.
What is the Transfer Pak and do I need it?
For the two Stadium games, yes. It is a small module that clips into the back of an N64 controller and holds a Game Boy cartridge, so the console can read your save. That is how your own Pokémon get into Stadium — without it you can only use rental teams, which is a fraction of the game. Stadium came with one in the box; a loose disc-only listing often does not include it, so ask.
Which Pokémon N64 game should I buy first?
Pokémon Stadium 2 if you still have Game Boy cartridges to plug in, Pokémon Snap if you do not. Puzzle League is the surprise of the four and the cheapest — buy it even if you have no interest in Pokémon, because the puzzle game underneath is excellent.
Which one never came out in Japan?
Pokémon Puzzle League. It started life as Panel de Pon 64, was reskinned with anime characters for the West, and the Pokémon version was never released in Japan. It is one of very few Pokémon games that exists only outside Japan.
Will the save still work on a used N64 Pokémon cartridge?
These use battery-backed memory, like most N64 saves, and after twenty-five years some of those cells are flat — the game plays but forgets. It is a replaceable part. We write a save on every cartridge, power the console down and check it again before listing, so the state is stated on the listing rather than left to chance.
Are N64 cartridges region-locked?
Yes, and physically: the cartridge slot is a different shape per region, so an American cartridge does not fit a European console without modification. Everything we sell is the European (PAL) version unless the product page says otherwise.
Do you ship Pokémon N64 games across the EU?
Yes — tracked shipping from the Netherlands to all 27 EU countries, no customs charges inside the EU, and 30 days to return an order. Your country’s exact rate appears at checkout before you pay.
The handheld generations these read: Game Boy and Game Boy Advance — one console on: all Pokémon GameCube games. Or the whole series in order. Same console, different franchise: all Mario N64 games.
Dutch reader? Nintendo 64-games — het hele aanbod in het Nederlands.