Stadium Events is a sports fitness game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was part of a short-lived Family Fun Fitness mat (Power Pad) accessory where the player would stomp on various section of the mat for control. The North American version was recalled shortly after its 1987 release in order to rebrand the series as World Class Track Meet for the newly named Power Pad accessory. Original North American copies of Stadium Events are now considered to be among the rarest NES games, it’s estimated that there less than 200 copies remain worldwide, and yes, I have one of them, hence the frame.

Pros:

This is probably the cream of the crop when it comes to popular rare video games, definitely the rarest NES game out there. Sadly that’s the only real flair about this game. The game is ok, you get to play four different track and field events (100M dash, 110M hurdles, long jump, and triple jump) and you need the Power Pad to play them all. There is some simple and fun companion that can happen between you and player two and if you are playing the computer in tournament mode it can get crazy challenging, since “The Olympics” mode sets the bar to the world record holders of that time. Now there is something to be said about the fact that Nintendo was trying to do something like this years before the popularity and success of Dance Dance Revolution or the Wii, but as far as the game goes, that’s about it.

Owning it does make it feel a bit funny watching the documentary “Nintendo Quest”. I got nothing on this guys finishing collection though.

Cons:

Well obviously you can’t get your hands on it, sorry. Also if you do, you do need a Power Pad to play it, and how many other NES games do you have in your library that uses that thing. I feel the game plays a bit more like an Atari-era game, where it’s more about beating a score or record than it is investing and progressing in beating the game itself… if that makes any sense.

I know it seems like I don’t “appreciate” what I have here, but I am just trying to be honest with regard to the review of the game itself. I mean it is pretty awesome to have access to something that there are only X amount of in the world, but again I am doing a review on the quality of the actual gameplay and in regard to that you are better off getting World Class Track Meet for pennies in comparison.