Meowth's Party

Meowth's Party
A screenshot of Meowth and his red Fender Stratocaster.
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Pokémon
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release	August 23, 2000
Genre(s)	Tech demo

Meowth's Party (ニャースのパーティ, Nyāsu no Pāti) is a GameCube tech demo showcased at the 2000 Nintendo Space World convention. It features Pokémon dancing to Meowth singing and performing a song with a guitar. The song used is an ending theme song from the Pokémon anime series.^[1]

Demo contents

Meowth is seen dancing with his associates, Team Rocket members Jessie (Musashi in the original Japanese version) (voiced by Megumi Hayashibara) and James (Kojiro) (voiced by Shin-ichiro Miki), and their two Pokémon, Arbok and Weezing (Matadogasu). In both the ending sequence, and the tech demo, he is voiced by Inuko Inuyama, who voices the character in the Japanese version of the anime series (where the character is known as Nyarth). In the United States, Kids' WB! aired the original Japanese version after the episode, "The Pokémon Water War", and an English dub of the song after the episode, "Pokémon Food Fight!".^[2] The English dub also features Maddie Blaustein as Meowth, Rachael Lillis as Jessie, and Eric Stuart as James, who were voicing their respective characters in the series at the time and it has new lyrics. This ending was never aired again on the network.^[3]

The animation for both versions was composed in 3-D computer graphics, with the exception of Jessie and James, who, in the ending sequence, remain as 2-D cels in the style of Paper Mario and PaRappa the Rapper.

CD single

Meowth's Party (ニャースのパーティ Nyarth's Party) is a mini CD single that was released on October 27, 1999 in Japan. The lyrics were by Akihito Toda, the songs were composed and arranged by Hirokazu Tanaka. The song is performed by Nyarth / Meowth (Inuko Inuyama) with guest vocals by Musashi / Jessie (Megumi Hayashibara), Kojiro / James (Shin-ichiro Miki).

Amazon.com has a listing with information on the single but it is usually out of stock. Packaged with the single is a small poster with a screenshot from the ending sequence and the lyrics to the songs. There is also a 41-second-long fifth track that isn't listed on the packaging.^[4]

Track list

1. Meowth's Party (ニャースのパーティ)
2. Meowth's Song 2000 (ニャースのうた2000)
3. As I Said (と★いってるニャ)
4. Meowth's Party (Original Karaoke) (ニャースのパーティ(オリジナルカラオケ))
5. Meowth's Rant (hidden track, not listed on packaging)

Reception

In contemporaneous impressions, IGN described the tech demo as not as graphically impressive as others by Nintendo, but noting that it effortlessly showed the GameCube's advanced lighting effects.^[5] Stephen Kelly of Nintendo Life called the demo an "anomaly" with "spectacularly goofy music", as well as a "fever dream".^[6]

Legacy

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, there is a trophy of Meowth's character model from Meowth's Party holding a red guitar. The description gives a brief explanation about the demo.^{[citation needed]}

References