A Program Expansion Disc containing bonus footage from the Pokémon movie!
- JP release: 18th July 2003
- NA release: N/A
- EU release: M/A
- Developer: Ambrella
- Publisher: Nintendo
- NGC Magazine Score: N/A
- Mods Used: None
In Japan, you could get Pokémon Channel with a second disc, which features some promotional channels. I was originally going to just talk about this with the regular game, but there’s not a great deal of information on this on the internet (and some of it incorrect), so I thought it was worth it to talk about what it contains. It’s essentially some promotional videos on a disc, and you can watch them without Pokémon Channel.
However, if you’ve got a save file in Pokémon Channel (the Japanese version) after meeting Pikachu, he’ll join you to watch the videos and react to them like the main game. Here are the various channels.
Movie Channel 1
This has a narrator talking about the history of Pokémon films. One thing I noticed about the preview disc is that Pikachu seems to react to specific moments more.
Movie Channel 2
This is a trailer for the film Jirachi: Wish Maker, and Pikachu is very excited about it.
Song Channel
This features the song Polka o Dolka, which was one of the endings of Pokemon Advanced Generation in Japan. This is the version of the song from the short film “Gotta Dance!”. Pikachu dances to the moves seen on screen, which is absolutely adorable.
Event Channel
A short video of a Pokémon themed fireworks display. This is an actual recording of a live event.
Nintendo Channel
An advert of various Pokémon games for the GameCube and GBA.
Credits Channel
This is just the credits of who worked on the bonus disc.
And that’s it. It was a neat way to do promotional videos, and very much worth it to see Pikachu dancing.
Fun
Exclusive to the Japanese release, it came with an expansion disc (番組拡張パック) that read the save of Pokémon Channel from the memory card.
Bulbapedia
Remake or remaster?
Put translated versions into the main game.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get Pokémon Channel Program Expansion Disc
Europe
Japan
North America
GameCube Games by Date
2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
That’s so cool, I’d never heard of this bonus disc. The real life fireworks display sounds especially interesting and I wanna see it! It’s a shame Pokemon Channel didn’t release a generation later, as I feel like it would have worked a lot better on the Wii, and could have had new videos via the internet.
I wish they’d have done more GameCube promos like that with various titles, as I can’t imagine additional GameCube discs were too expensive to manufacture, and when I was younger it always felt cool watching footage on the GameCube (like the Pikmin trailer on Luigi’s Mansion).
Had no idea there was an expansion disc for Pokemon Channel! That’s actually pretty neat!
Also didn’t know that the Meowth’s Party tech demo ended up in Pokemon Channel. What an interesting little weird treasure trove of Pokemon and Nintendo history that disc is!
And yes, the Pokemon Mini is pretty rad. Still have mine, and the full library of carts to go with it; though these days I tend to play the games on the Analogue Pocket instead (Pokemon Tetris and Pokemon Pinball Mini are legit!).