Pocket Monsters Stadium 2 was basically the closest thing we had to proper 3D Pokémon battles before the GameCube era. You boot it up and suddenly your N64 is pumping out these chunky-but-charming models of all 251 Gen 2 Pokémon – way more impressive than the tiny sprites we were used to on Game Boy.

What’s cool is how it actually makes you think about battles differently. Since you can’t just overlevel your way to victory here, you start noticing little details – like how Typhlosion’s flames animate when it attacks, or which moves actually combo well together. The announcer yelling “HYPER BEAM!” in that grainy N64 voice never gets old either.

It’s not perfect – some of the minigames feel tacked on, and good luck finding someone to play multiplayer with these days. But for pure Pokémon battling with zero grinding? Still holds up better than you’d expect for a 90s arena fighter.