Pokemon Colosseum

"A new, enjoyable, Pokemon experience"

With each new Nintendo system, comes a new game for each old franchise. Now at the Gamecube era, most other franchises have gotten their game, except Pokemon. Now Pokemon comes to the home console once again in the form of Pokemon Colosseum. Does this one successfully snag the gamer's attention, encounter good scores, or whit out?

If you're a huge fan of the original hand helds with the same plot of catching the world's Pokemon, you'll be slightly disappointed with this game. There's no professor that gives you a starter Pokemon. In fact there are several other areas in which Colosseum also strays away from the originals, but we'll get to that later. The story starts out with you playing as a shady trainer (you name him) who has just escaped from Team Snagem's headquarters with a mysterious device attached to his arm. After blowing the base sky-high, you make a quick escape on your motorbike with your pals Umbreon and Espeon. Later in the game, you meet a young girl (whom you can also name) that was being kidnapped by two shady thugs because she has the ability to see "unusual" Pokemon. These unusual Pokemon are called Shadow Pokemon. They are normal Pokemon that have had the doors to their hearts locked away and have been attacking people. Now, it's up to you, the trainer, along with your new girl partner to snag all the shadow Pokemon and save the orre region from an evil organization named Cipher.

The plot is quite different from the handhelds, but that's not to say that a little difference is bad. It's refreshing from the usual "Become a Pokemon master." The story itself is pretty interesting when you're paying attention, but the game is surprisingly short.

Gameplay boils down to 2 aspects. Exploration, and battles. But keep in mind that this isn't the Kanto, Jhoto, or Hoenn region. It's a new region called Orre, which is a desolate desert. In exploration, it's pretty straightforward where you need to go since there's no routes to get you lost. Each town routinely consists of a Pokemon center, mart, and houses that the townsfolk live in. Gyms are gone in favor of Colosseums, where you can test your team in a string of 4 opponents in order to win a cash prize and a TM. Each new town you visit helps to progress the story along. My only complaint with the towns is while some people offer you hints on what you're suppose to be doing, most of them repeat the same dialogue throughout the entire game making them pretty pointless. But it's forgivable since all Pokemon games have faced this and there's not much one can do to improve it. There really isn't anywhere else you can explore besides the major towns. There are no open fields to catch wild Pokemon, or any areas to search for secret items.

I'm assuming that you're familiar with how a Pokemon battle works so I won't need to explain it. However, all the battles in Colosseum are 2 vs 2. There are no 1v1 battles in story mode. Most of the trainers in Colosseum have normal Pokemon and only a handful in the entire game have Shadow Pokemon. You need to snag all the shadow Pokemon if you want ultimately complete the game. So when your partner shows you a shadow Pokemon, it is important that snag it quickly, but efficiently. Catching shadow pokemon revolves around the same technique as catching wild Pokemon. Carefully knock down their HP to yellow or red, give it a status effect if you have one available, and use a pokeball to catch it. However, this formula changes slightly. Remember the snag machine the trainer stole in the beginning of the game? It transforms pokeballs into snag balls, which can ONLY capture shadow Pokemon. This is a big deal because you steal the shadow pokemon from TRAINERS. However, you can't snag any regular Pokemon from the trainer. But you'll sometimes wish you could since there's a very small amount of shadow pokemon to catch and some of the choices for shadow pokemon don't make much sense. After you catch a shadow pokemon, you can open the door to their hearts by battling with them until the purple gauge (which are located where the exp bar should be) is empty. Shadow pokemon can't earn experience until they're purified so they won't go up any levels until you open their hearts. At that time, they'll regain all the exp points they should've earned from battling. You also should note that you cannot enter shadow pokemon in colosseums, or import them into your handheld games.

Music is pretty good. It's nice to see that Nintendo wasn't lazy and just recycled all the old tunes from the handhelds. The music has this western feel at times. While others can be catchy. The battle music is upbeat and really helps the battle come to life. There isn't any voice acting in the game. Every single person in the game speaks through written lines of diolague. But somehow, there are some characters that seem to build their own personalities through text, which makes the story more enjoyable. However, all the Pokemon use the same sound effects that have been used in the handhelds. This feels like Nintendo got lazy here and could've at least made the sound effects a little higher quality to hear.

Graphics have their ups and downs in Colosseum. The towns are bright, colorful, and bursting with personality. The visuals for the attacks are also very well done. However, the trainers in this game look downright blocky and by having the same facial expressions and animations, they look like robots. Another thing that bothers me about the trainers is the lack of variety. In each and every area you'll encounter the same old trainers every single time. Would it really have killed Nintendo to make some other character models?

Multiplayer mode is pretty impressive. You can use your team you've raised in colosseum, or import your team from Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red, or Leaf Green to watch them battle in 3-D. You can participate in 1 vs 1, or 2 vs 2 battles in colosseums under set criteria. Or you can do 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 battles in Mount Battle. Where you battle 100 trainers with a save point after every 10 battles. Mount Battle is also available in story mode and makes an excellent source to train you Pokemon to level up and purify your shadow Pokemon. Besides going it alone, you can also battle your friends in 3-D. They import their Pokemon, and you can import yours, or use your colosseum team if you think they're ready. The multiplayer is pretty deep in modes and is a good multiplayer game for Pokemon fans.

Pokemon Colosseum is a very fun game that many fans will enjoy as a breath of fresh air from the recycled handheld plot. The story could've been a little longer, the sound effect quality is a tad low, the variety in catchable Pokemon could've been better, the trainer graphics need work, and the game could've included some more of the elements in the previous games to help verteran trainers feel a little more at home. But regardless of these minor complaints, Pokemon Colosseum is a very enjoyable game that should be considered to rent. If you do like it after renting, it's a very good game to add to your collection.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/09, Updated 07/23/09

Game Release: Pokemon Colosseum (Player's Choice) (US, 2005)