Pokemon Colosseum

"A Dark Shadow.."

Foreword

Pokemon has dominated several markets over the last couple of years, mainly because it relies on a tried and true method of game play that just works. If you were to ask me why everyone likes the battle system so much, I'd tell you that it is simplistic enough for someone to walk right into, yet difficult enough that someone who wants to take their game farther can. That's a definite problem with way to many games these days; it is just too complex for a little kid to adequately grasp within an hour or two. I even have a hard time here and there grasping something, and I'm much older than a little kid . Developers have to get back to what gaming really was back then, simplicity yet challenging. Let's face it, anyone who lived through the 90's as a gamer can tell you that games were tough. You can't get past that. I personally didn't start gaming until around 96, as that was when I was actually old enough to start playing with games that didn't start with Elmo or some other licensing garbage that was out there at that period of time. Getting back on track, I really think that pokemon cornered the market on the GBA. Pay attention to that last statement; as if you get that then you get the whole review. Pokemon, in my opinion at least, is just not meant for a console system. It especially comes down to the fact that they continuously keep trying out new items that stray from what they were doing. Let's face it, why do people who are older play pokemon? For the customization. There are 365 of these different creatures, more than enough to build a different party that what your friend down the block has. When they limited you in this game to around 70-80 something of them, it hurts. Don't get me wrong, seeing pokemon in 3-D is great, it just doesn't do it for me enough to warrant a purchase of a game that lasts for a couple of hours. I still purchased it though, and you will probably as well sometime down the road if you want a cheap multiplayer arena.

Anyway, I've slowly been going away from pokemon over the years, not totally, but I have been. Mystery Dungeon was the last good pokemon game that has sprouted up over the time period that has elapsed since I bought this game. That's right; I'm not a huge fan of Emerald. I'm not a huge fan of any pokemon game for that matter, as when my friend said that they are just good for wasting time, I think that he was honestly right. They are slowly killing themselves, as if D/P doesn't really break any molds, it'll probably be curtains for them here in the states. Kids as a whole just aren't flocking to it anymore, as they are growing up and moving on into better franchises. Let's face it, in all reality, what really constitutes pokemon from other franchises any more? Excluding the battle system, it's all garbage. I think that the frame is great, don't get me wrong, it is just that everything else has really gone down the drain. The difficulty is garbage, that's sad; the areas have been reduced to remakes, it just keeps going in a downward spiral. Hopefully D/P will change that. Now that I've rambled on about what I hate about eh series, let the actual review begin.

That is your hero, a freak in my eyes.

Story

The story of Pokemon Colosseum is simple, yet refreshing. When you look at it, how many pokemon games actually have a story to begin with? If you said none, then you were right. Pokemon has never really been known for epic adventures that span many continents in a quest to save something. Not at all, pokemon just is pokemon. You go to a gym, beat the leader, and then move on. That's perfectly fine for a franchise that just doesn't rely on it, as people have gotten used to it over the years. Pokemon Colosseum attempts to change that, but due to some hideous plot choices, bad character elements, and some abysmal plot twists, the game just doesn't flourish. If I could find the guy that made this game, I'd probably give him a medal for attempting, and then bonk him in the head for being a bad writer. I probably could have done better than him . Still, there is a story, in one form or another.

The story of this game revolves around a guy named Wes who used to be a part of the criminal organization, Team Snagem (Great name!). The organization is known for stealing pokemon, then giving them to some extraneous source that I won't be spoiling here. As the hero makes his escape, he swipes a special gauntlet that allows him to steal this pokemon back from their trainers. Wes sets out on a quest to rescue all of these pokemon from the shadows that have been put in their hearts, and in the process stop the world from being overrun by the criminal organization that threatens them all. As I said before, the plot could have been better, so let me tell you why. First off, you have a plot device of a guy turning from a criminal into a hero. That's been used………hundreds of times before this. The idea of pokemon being turned into shadow pokemon is pretty cool when you think about it, but in reality a failure since they didn't take it farther than they did. You get a partner towards the begging of the game that helps you out by seeing pokemon who are shadows. She was developed, but very little. I barely saw what she was, why she could see the shadows, and why she was what she was. That was another plot point that they ruined. It was mistakes like these that just kept happening, and happening, and happening. If they developed even one of the mentioned points, then it would have been better. Worst part is that there are several more of those points that I just left out. Kudos to the guy who made it.

Wow, that's new. Pokemon trying to be mature.

Overall, for a pokemon game it is a step in the right direction. I just wish that they could have taken it a step further, kept it in development for a couple of months longer, and then released it to the public as a better game. Mistakes like the ones that were made are just unforgivable in terms of story, and I'm disappointed. As I said before though, in the big picture it is in the right direction.

Game Play

The game play in Pokemon Colosseum is different from previous pokemon games in one huge respect; the entire game is fought in double battles. I understand that that is a fun device to use, but not on a continuous basis that just keeps going. I'll be honest, single is better, no matter how much you slice it. People say that double has more strategy, but in an essence it doesn't. More than not I found myself concentrating with two of my pokemon on one measly target, while the other person split attacks. The system itself is broken past repair, and is more than a gimmick than anything else. Some would say otherwise, but I personally enjoyed single battles much more. Not only do they revolve around switching out much more, but you also get to use some of the most misunderstood moves ever, without the pressure of one pokemon on two. That's a problem, if one pokemon leaves the battle for even a turn, you're screwed. Not because of difficulty, the difficulty is a joke; it just is that if a pokemon double teams you, your poke isn't going to survive. In single battles, if you miss a turn, you're fine. By that I mean most cases, but in the long run you generally are. If you get hit twice though, that leaves your imagination in a tail spin. I'll get to battles later, for now, let me go onto some other subjects.

In Pokemon Colosseum, you have a vast world before you to explore and find new pokemon. Well…..not really. The areas in which you travel are cramped, laden with some excess pixels that get annoying. Some would say that the world is vibrant, I disagree. The areas that you travel in are laden with too many trainers for my liking, most of them just easy one shot kills. That's a problem right there. The battles that take place are way two easy, and serve no purpose other than training for who knows what. There are no wild encounters, another problem that I'll get into in a minute, and barely any wide open spaces from which you can explore. It just is one screen into the next, with no sort of puzzle element to drive your experience along. The fact that there are no wild pokemon encounters really hurts this game, as that basically limits your stock of available pokemon to a crawl. In other pokemon games, you caught your pokemon in the wild; in this game you catch them from trainers. If you mess up, well too bad for you. Trainers are usually one shot deals until the end of the game, when you can waste even more of your time by re-fighting the same trainer dozens of times before you finally stumble across a trainer that has the pokemon that you missed. The game constantly forces you to back track to the save points every time you catch a darn pokemon, as if you miss one that you want, unlikely since most of them are garbage, then you have to re-set every time.

Your team that you will have at the end of the game, well, let me tell you what it will look like. Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Metagross, Tyranitar, Misc. starter. Now, that isn't a good team. Why, because it has weaknesses up the kazoo. The game offers literally no good pokemon whatsoever, so you are screwed with that team. The trainer tower that they offer you outside of the main game? Useless with the pokemon that they give you in the game itself. You are forced to often transfer your pokemon from a gba cart into this game in order to complete that. Guess what though, you just can't do it like that, otherwise you don't get the main pokemon that you would even do the mountain for. If you want difficulty, you have to go through about 70 some trainers before a good fight comes along. In between each of those fights is a long, boring scene that takes forever to honestly complete. Expect several boring hours out of that.

Now, in all actuality there are some very good points, mainly in the form of the shadow system. Of course, they screwed up there as well. The idea is great, you having to purify a pokemon from its darkness. That's fine; it ties with the story, and just is a good element. Problem is they screwed that up too. You normally have to go through several hours of purifying to purify some of the later pokes that come into your roster, often the very good ones. It's useless to not purify them immediately, as then you miss out on level boosts until you purify it, when all of that exp. comes back to you. If anything at all, that burdens the game even more with repetitive game play that takes forever to complete. All in all, the game play in this game is a mess, plagued with problems that should not have occurred.

Graphics

The one point of the game that can actually drag it out of its slump, and guess what? It messed up too. Some areas of graphics are pixilated, with scenes not looking anything like they should. They opted for a cartoon look in this that I thought ruined it completely. Not only are you basically segregating it, but you are also taking what ever is left and messing with it completely. I'll give it that some scenes are actually fun to look at, and some of the areas do look nice, but in a whole sense the whole game is so messed up past the point of no return that it just doesn't make sense to even think about it. On a side note, some of the characters also look blocky in design, partially from the graphics. Most of the character designs anyway are bland and horrible to look at as it is to begin with, so this didn't help.

See the hideous graphics.

Music

The music in this game is nice to listen to, at some points at least. The battle music is repetitive and boring to listen to as a whole. Often times I turned off y volume because of just that. Another thing that they muffed up on unfortunately. Some tunes are fun to listen to though, mainly the town music in some areas. I hated the usual battle music though, as well as the boss music. Both really distracted me from what I was doing, and as a whole both really messed up in a bunch of key points. I didn't find any need whatsoever to want to keep my volume on in most parts of the game, and that is definitely a sad note.

Too many times a developer relies on music to bring it through, and because they did this in this game they truly finished themselves off. Nothing else in the game was left to help it along to success. I honestly think that this was a horrible patch job in a musical sense. Where is the symphony that dotted previous pokemon games, where is the cheerful tunes that allowed success in previous pokemon games? All we get is a weird piece of garbage track that doesn't do anything at all for the game except make it unmemorable.

Difficulty

The difficulty is a joke. Not only does it truly make the game un-playable, but it gave me no incentive to want to truly finish it off. The final Boss? So easy that I could have taken a level 5 pokemon and told it to hit him in the head. No strategies, no work ethic, no challenge. That describes this game perfectly. Want to know were the really good battles are? Level 95 in the trainer tower. That is probably one of the toughest match areas in the game, and that doesn't say much. As a whole, you don't need a good team to beat anything; you don't need a good team to do much at all. I think that the regular game is probably harder than this, and that is a joke as it is.

Replay

Nil to none, I had no incentive to want to replay this game at all. In fact, I wanted to beat myself over the head for buying this game.

Finale

This game is a piece of garbage. That is what I could best describe it as. XD really made the series better, mainly because it did improve upon many of the mistakes that were made into this. If I could recommend his game to you, I would. You are probably saying WHAT to me right now after I said all of these nasty comments about it. Truth be told, it is a great game for one purpose, to show you how blessed you are with every other pokemon game out there.

FINAL SCORE BRACKET

STORY: 3/10

Trash in most areas.

GAME PLAY: 5/10

More trash plagued by hideous difficulty and bland battles. No wild encounters really hurt this as well.

GRAPHICS: 5/10

Decent for the purpose.

MUSIC: 3/10

I didn't know whether to keep my headphones on or off while I was playing this game, mainly because I could be listening to good music.

DIFFCULTY: 5/10

Joke in almost every area.

REPLAY: 4/10

No incentive to replay this game.

FINALE: 5/10

Hideous game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/07