Introduction & History
Nintendo Cup '97 is the oldest official competitive format in Pokemon history and would shape the way Nintendo makes GBU and VGC formats in the future. It introduced bans on Mew and Mewtwo, Team Preview, Species Clause, Sleep Clause, Self-KO Clause, and "Bring 6 Pick 3". This format was originally made to promote Pokemon Red and Green, and would even see matches televised on 64 Mario Stadium, Nintendo's TV show in Japan. This would all culminate into a national tournament at Spaceworld 1997 that would be won by Tōru Miyasawa, whose team was immortalised in the Stadium games. You may know this venue for being where Pokemon Gold and Silver would first see their playable reveal. This format would also become what's referred to as "Poke Cup" in English versions of Stadium, though it plays very differently due to changes in mechanics.
Today, Nintendo Cup '97 is often played by Japanese players, though without a good simulator (until now, though we have language barriers...) it's mostly played at real-life tournaments, such as the Historia Cup 2016 trilogy of tournaments, which was well-received and has some popular VODs on YouTube.
What makes this different from OU?
The differences between RBY OU and NC97 cannot be overstated. While you have "the usual suspects" clause-wise, the similarities end there, this format plays completely differently. Battles often end in less than 20 turns unless some Evasion debauchery happens, so you have to make every turn count. This makes it great if you just want to have a quick fight and don't have much time for anything else.
Players of formats like Battle Stadium and VGC can corroborate that teambuilding in a "Bring 6 Pick 3" Team Preview format differs significantly from how you would build 6v6. You have to make a team where most team combinations aren't objectively worse than others while teching in specific Pokemon to give yourself better matchups against different opponents. This style of teambuilding takes quite a bit of getting used to, and is probably one of the biggest hurdles to getting into the format. For a basic example, L55 Zapdos and Articuno is a decent combination where you can essentially run two cores at once, benefitting either bird and getting completely different matchups as a result.
Additionally, Nintendo Cup '97 features a unique ruling where you can use Pokemon with a range of levels from 50 to 55, and those entering the battle cannot have a combined level of over 155. This effectively gives you 5 levels to distribute amongst your 3 Pokemon going into a battle. Since there's no move relearner or breeding, this means that some moves are effectively locked out, or have to receive level investment to be "unlocked". For example, to use Dragonite or Agility Legendary Birds, you need to make them L55 and build around them from there. Factoring in the previous paragraph, this makes NC97 a much more builder-intensive metagame than RBY OU by a long shot. It's not uncommon to see people using Pokemon like Dugtrio, Jolteon, and Electrode to speed creep L55 Pokemon without investment. Generally, Speed is the most valued stat.
There's also a lot of stuff unrestricted here, like Freezing, Dig/Fly, OHKOs, and Evasion. This can make for a bit of a silly format, though the variance is significantly reduced by the sheer fast-paced nature of the format. You'll definitely still see it in action, though, and you will have games where you just can't do anything. The OHKO moves are surprisingly not that bad, in part due to the speed creep metagame and the nature of the moves not succeeding against faster Pokemon. Evasion is something you'll be seeing frequently, but it can be counterplayed through means such as Toxic, Leech Seed, partial trapping, PP stall (which is often quite easy due to not having much room for attacks) and more. You can manipulate the rules when challenging people to clause this stuff out if you really wanted to - Pokemon Showdown is very flexible - but obviously, this is never a standard, being official and over 20 years old and all. You're playing this primarily for the historical factor, after all, you may as well experience it in all its glory.
Because this is played on the Japanese Red and Green versions, there are some mechanical differences to consider as well, in addition to your usual mechanics;
- The infamous 30.1% Freeze Blizzard is unleashed, which often prompts people to bring Pokemon like Jynx and Lapras to abuse it, as well as help stave it off.
- Swift doesn't have its "true" accuracy, so it isn't counterplay to Evasion. Bide still ignores accuracy, though.
- Draining moves fail on Substitute, just like in Stadium, though it still doesn't block status. You'll be shocked to know that the international games letting draining moves work was actually a glitch that would later become a feature!
- In V1.1 of Red and Green specifically, you could cause the wrong side to faint during partial trapping if residual damage is involved, which causes a desync. PS! presumably simulates V1.0 or V1.2, so we don't have to put up with it.
- Since the format happened during the Red and Green era, Yellow moves are often disallowed, though this doesn't make any substantial format differences. The biggest one is losing Bind Pinsir and Fly Charizard, for what it's worth. There's a guide I wrote about this here.
Viability Rankings
Compiled February 15th, 2026
Resources
This will expand as more resources are produced.
:jynx: Pokemon Battle Historia
A Japanese website dedicated to Gen 1-2 run by Gold, centred on Nintendo's official formats, which are how they're played over there. They have their own analyses and VR from Gold's point of view.
:jynx:Levels & Moves in Nintendo Formats
A guide that basically tells you how to not fuck up in the builder, showing level restrictions for moves alongside anything outright lost. This guide shows lost Yellow moves as well, though it's much less important.
:jynx:RoA Sample Teams
Sample teams from players of the metagame will be stored here. Updated periodically, and I'm open to submissions if you DM me!
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