Pokemon Colosseum

"So much potential… and they were on the right track, too."

Introduction- With the new Pokemon introduced in Ruby/Sapphire, it’s only natural to make a game so you can see them duke it out with each other in 3-D. However, this time around, it’s not a “Stadium” game. It’s a “Colosseum” game, and focuses less on actual battles and introduces a much sought after RPG/Story mode which gives players an opportunity to “Snag” (Not catch) about 49 or so different Pokemon, many of those being unobtainable ones in the Ruby/Sapphire game like Bayleef, Togetic, Smeargle, ect, and transfer them to your game pack (Assuming that you have the Gamecube-Gameboy Advance Link cable) So, is this finally that wonderful RPG Pokemon game we‘ve been looking for? I’ll write the review, you make the call.

Gameplay: 6 * (Received a 3 point penalty, see below)

Story mode- 7
Like all RPGs, Story Mode can be very enjoyable at times, and very boring at others. The bad news is there are a few glaring faults in the Story mode’s gameplay.

You’re objective is to “snag” all of the “Shadow Pokemon” and purify them by using them in battle, massaging them with cologne (Hey, how do you massage a Metagross, anyway?) or just keeping them in your party while you walk around. Once their “heart gauge” is empty, (viewable on the “summary” screen) you must take the Pokemon to Celebi’s shrine to complete the purifying process. It’s fun at first, but in truth, it’s very time consuming and repetitious.

The Story mode is addicting, though- although not as much as the actual Gameboy games, but it’s a reasonably satisfying new approach to the Pokemon series.

Of course, as I mentioned before, we have our flaws…

First, your starting pokemon is Espeon and Umbreon. Great. We have a sweeper that can’t take damage, and we have a tank that can take damage. Plus, when you first start the game, the battles (which, in a nutshell, is all you really do since there are no “random encounters”) are painfully boring as you fight far inferior Pokemon like Zigzagoon, Pichu, or any un-evolved Pokemon who barely provide any experience points or any challenge. Then, 3 battles later, Uh-Oh! You’re fighting a guy with an Afro who has an army of Ludicollo, all 5 levels higher than you. This level gap seems to happen a lot. A minute you’ll be fighting pokemon who get Koed in one hit, the next minute, your Pokemon get Koed in one hit (Okay, so I’m exaggerating a bit, but the level differences can be a nuisance.) You’ll be in for some intense battles, which I’m a fan of.

Challenge is not an issue here, since Colloseum is probably one of the hardest Pokemon games to date. And “snagging” Pokemon can be a real pain in the rear too. The best way to capture a Pokemon is to chip down it’s HP (Hit point) bar, preferably until it’s in the red zone, and start hurling those Poke’Balls at it until it succumbs to a capture. Too bad for you all “snag able” Pokemon have a move called “Dark Rush” which has a power of 90 and an accuracy of 100. No, I’m not done yet, this move is like double edge, the Pokemon using it gets hit with recoil. Oh Darn, Raikou just killed itself, now you have to reset the game. Yeah, you have a chance to catch the three legendary beasts from g/s, without them running away from you, but now you’ll have to deal with the recoil factor. This goes for all Pokemon. Have fun.

My final complaint on Story mode is the text, and how painfully stereotypical the script is. The females in particular, are so stereotypical, “A weak frail girl like me!” in fact, I didn’t even know if I should feel insulted or to take it as a joke. As it stands now, I feel sorry for whoever wrote the script, for this person must have been one of the most ignorant humans to have dared to concept such garbage.

Overlooking the flaws, Story mode gets the job done… barely.

Collessum Battles- 10
I’m all for the battles. I can careless about catching old Pokemon, I want to see my finely trained pokemon from my Sapphire version get it on in 3-D! I wasn’t disappointed, either. Before buying this game I was concerned if the programmers would distribute stats on the CPU’s Pokemon efficiently or not, with the new effort point system with Ruby/Sapphire (In Round 2 of Stadium 2, all the Pokemon had max stats, which is now impossible to attain in R/S) but thankfully, they did- or at least on the lv 100 battles which are accessible after completing the fairly easy lv 50 cups. You can play a single battle or a double battle, which is great because double battles were underused in the Ruby/Sapphire game. And they did an excellent job with programming CPU AI, and move sets. They have the “Follow Me” Togetic with the “dragon dance” Tyranitar, the poison +guts+ façade on Swellow, the dangerous “skill swap” on Slaking, even the ruthless explosion+protect/ghost Pokemon combo. Indeed, this game delivered the fiercest 2 on 2 battles I’ve ever experienced, and they were both fun, clever and challenging, and I only wish that the game focused more on colosseum battles rather than the RPG mode. One on One battles were very good too, but the lv 100 2 on 2 battles were extraordinary.

- - 3 POINT DEDUCTION--
* With all of the good things described above, you may wonder why the I gave the gameplay a 6, because it should of received a 9 rounded from a 8.5.

Compared to Stadium 2’s mini games, Earl’s Pokemon Academy (This was great!) Gameboy Tower, (could go 4 times as fast, too!) Gym Leader Castle, Rival Battle, Room decorator, and most importantly, Oak’s Lab, Colosseum doesn’t have much to offer with only Story mode and Colosseum Battle mode. Sure, you can still battle with your friends, but for some reason you can no longer simulate your own battles like you could in Stadium 2. I used to love using my Pokemon from Gold/Silver, and putting them against the computer also using my pokemon. It gave me a chance to further improve as well as construct new teams. Also, you could register 10 different teams, but now in Colossum, you may only register ONE team at a time. I find this… I find this… words that aren’t profane to describe my anger for this major flaw escape me. What a pain in the butt this is. What a let down.

People will say, “You want mini games? Go buy Pokemon Channel” or, “You want box storage? Go buy Pokemon Box.” Yeah, well, you know what **I** say? Nintendo has turned into a bunch of gold-digging scoundrels. Not only is that going to cost more money than it should, but it’s less convenient and actually HURTS this game’s Gameplay value. It’s very, very sad, if this game had all of the features Stadium 2 had, I would of given it a perfect score of 10.

Storyline: 5 (RPG Mode Only)
It’s a nice change of pace, but it’s horribly generic. So generic, in fact, it almost parallels that of Final Fantasy 7. Hero is former member of ShinRa- er, Team Snag Em, an evil organization that wants world domination- or something like that. Storyline is predictable, but you do meet some quirky characters on your so-called quest to purify the Pokemon whose hearts have been sealed to do evil biddings for Team Snag Em, so for whatever reason which is never explained in the game, the “hero” (Has no official name) blows up a Reactor- I mean Snag Em Hideout, and thus the storyline unfolds. Lovely.

Graphics: 7 (Rounded from a 6.8)

Split into 5 categories:
RPG Mode- 6
The over world graphics are far from worship, but don’t look terrible. Just not exactly on par with the true potential of Gamecube’s graphics; Some places like Celebi’s shrine, and the Tower look exceptional, while others look like a baby step above N64 graphics.
The problem I’ve had with them is I noticed every time you move your character, almost everything on the screen tends to get rather fuzzy/blurry. It’s not terribly noticeable, but nonetheless, it’s still there. .

Trainer models- 4
Terrible. And why do they have all the females wearing stupid mini-skirts. It’s okay with May (heroine of Ruby/Sapphire) but Jesus Christ, how about some diversity? And the protagonist you play as in the RPG move is just plain bizarre looking. He has protruding lips which are disturbing, and a skinny body that looks like can be shoved over by a Magikarp’s tackle! I’m serious!! The only reason why it gets a 4 is there were some interesting characters like that Disco/Ludicollo guy and a few other characters that had creative designs.

Battle Environments- 7
For the most part, the environments which the battles take place look very good, but once again, nothing mind blowing. Some designs are very creative, while others such as the ones in the 100 trainer knockout tower are extremely dull.

Attack animation- 8
Very good, almost too good. Very nice lighting effects, moves like earthquake and surf look terrific, but some leave much to be desire, but I’ll get to that later; First, many of the moves are a little too grandiose, or so over done to the point you may have a hard time distinguishing a move like thundershock (weakest electric move in the game) with the much more potent thunderbolt (one of the best electric moves in the game.) In other words, even the most pathetic moves look like they’re lethal, and the more powerful moves look more tame. This is what marked down the score by a point.

The other point would be move creativity: There are circumstances in which the N64 Stadium games had the right idea, but just failed to have the technology to deliver it. The Gamecube has the technology, but now lacks the originality.

Let’s look at the move psychic- in the previous N64 game this move looked marvelous, the screen would turn a black, purplish milky color then flash white after the Pokemon’s “attack” animation. It looked real good. Now, it’s a dull grayish color and looks like they used the spiral effect on Photoshop, and I can hardly tell the difference between it and confusion.

And the last example I’ll give you is Ho-oh’s signature move, sacred fire. In Stadium 2, just like in the g/s game, Ho-oh would engulf itself in flames (which a Phoenix creature should do..) then an enormous fireball would descend from the sky, slamming on the foe, with flames dancing around it. Now in Coliseum, Ho-oh simply spits out a fireball, and it crashes into the foe with a *MINOR* explosion. Okay, that’s not acceptable at all. When using a move that has a base power of 100, and burns 50% of the time, I would expect A LITTLE MORE than that to happen. Super Smash Brother Melee’s animation delivered it more efficiently. You know what I’m talking about. There are many other examples of this which I could list but I’ll spare you the misery of hearing it.

Still, you have to give the animations some credit, you can tell that the designers put a sufficient amount of effort into them, even though they clobbered some of the older attacks in the process.

Pokemon Models-9
All have beautiful bright, vibrant pastel like colors (it’s NOT cel shaded) and look pretty good, although some standout more than others. I’ll talk about the old pokemon first.

Many people may say that the older pokemon, or the ones from the red/blue and gold/silver generations have been directly ripped off from the N64 games, I’m here to make it clear that yes, in a way, they have been ripped off, but no, they have NOT been DIRECTLY ripped off. They have smoothed out the polygons, so the older models look better. Not completely different, but better. It all depends on the Pokemon itself. They have also added many new textures, like Electrode has a metallic look now, Misdreveous’ necklace looks like real beads, stuff like that. The frame rate, smoothness and ironically, the Pokemon’s eyes have also been improved. They’re not 1 dimensional and soulless looking anymore, and when they fall asleep, it doesn’t look “flat.” However, the most greatest improvement would be brand new animations for the old Pokemon. Tyranitar’s crunch looks different, Ho-oh does a backflip in the air when using fly, Pikachu looks REALLY angry whenever it uses an electric move, Jigglypuff jumps into the air and actually deflates when it uses certain attacks, Azumarril makes a cute gesture with it’s hands when using surf, and so on. There’s tons of new stuff that you won’t see if you only played Stadium 1 & 2. Contrary to what most people say, you’ll enjoy the old Pokemon almost as much as the new ones.

I said almost, didn’t I?

This brings me to the new Pokemon. The problem with these creatures are they all tend to look a bit better than the old ones, while some new ones simply TOWER over ALL of the Pokemon in terms of appearance and animation. Two examples of this is Groundon and Rayquaza. Groundon looks strikingly perfect, it’s body glows and shines, even when it’s not intensifying the sun’s rays. And Rayquaza- my god that thing’s animation is so fluid, so precise, clearly they have spent more time on certain Pokemon, and this isn’t going to be a good thing. Compared to Pokemon like these, some look downright awful. Poor Kyrouge doesn’t look much better than Wailord, but that’s okay, for something that powerful, the damage it does makes it attractive enough. Shroomish looks adorable, with that little >:I expression on it’s face, Latias looks cute, but Latios doesn’t look right. I can’t put my foot on it, but for some reason it looks strange. Must be it’s face. Many of the new Pokemon aren’t as graphically equal as the old ones, and this can be rather annoying during battles. But, all of them are cleverly animated, and whenever Larion or Wailord “faints” it always makes me laugh.

Music: 5

The music is very atmospheric, and completely different from the traditional Pokemon music. In fact, only four tracks being the Pokemon center music and the r/s battles are re-mixed. Sadly though, none of these are very memorable.

The Battle Music, Ironically, is relaxing and pleasant to listen to, thus failing to capture the intensity of a battle. Also, many of these songs are fairly short, and become repetitious fast. Although this is a common flaw to many RPGs, Coliseum’s seems to top all of them.

Most of the out-of-battle music sounds like it was created through a synthesizer, or may I dare say it- a Midi. Think Final Fantasy 7 quality only not as “blopy,” but less catchy.

Sound: 2

Argumently the weakest point in Colosseum. Hardly any sound effects, and most of them are re-used to the point where it’s pathetic. Light screen, dragon breath, and attract (!?) all sound the same, and God knows which other moves make the same noise. Also, when a Pokemon is used in battle, it’s exactly the same as the Gameboy version. That’s fine with me, but a new feature to the Ruby/Sapphire games was a “modified” battle cry which you hear when your Pokemon faints. For some reason, they only have the initial battle cry in Colosseum. I don’t know if it’s lack of effort, of lack of space on the Game cube, but it’s disappointing. Also, no voice acting to be found in the RPG mode, and nor is the infamous battle announcer to be present (well, that’s really not a bad thing) either.

Replay Value: 1

That’s right, I gave it a one. After purifying all the Pokemon on RPG mode, and clearing the 100 trainer battle tower, you get Ho-oh, now go home. That’s it. You’re done. Oh wait, you can still compete in those cups which you don’t even get rewarded for clearing, except for the “CHAMP!” word will be lit up. Sure, you get poke coupons to exchange for those berries that you would always wonder where the hell they came from in the Ruby/Sapphire’s Battle Tower. Well, they’ll raise a respected stat in a pinch, ho-hum. Did I mention they take forever to grow? If you’re some kind of moron who’s like “OMG! I GOTTA GET A FEMALE POKEMON SO I CAN BREED IT!” Three words for you: GET A DITTO! I feel sorry for people who constantly reset or start over their file just for the sake of getting a female Pokemon to breed for their earlier evolutions. Plus, Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green will be coming out, so who cares?! You can’t even get the national Pokedex until trading with one of those, so why kill yourself for a female?
Anyways, this game had hardly any replay value, or secrets to unlock like the previous Stadium games did. Hell, you would get a brand new title screen every now and then, but you don’t get anything like that in this game.

Buy or Rent?
Rent. I don’t care if you’re a Pokemon fanatic or what, this game has major flaws and major disappointments. Leaves much to be desired.

Bottom Line:

Pros:
- Improved Graphics
-Compatible with Ruby/Sapphire & Leaf Green/Flame Red
-Story Mode is a nice direction for the series
-You can transfer certain G/S Pokemon to your Ruby /Sapphire game
- This includes Ho-oh
-Clever Animations
-Great Two on Two Battling for lv. 100
-Good A.I.

Cons:
- Mediocre Music
- Poor collection of sound effects that are constantly re-used
- You have to buy a cable
- Unstable quality of Pokemon Models
- Very Generic RPG
- Trainers look horrible
- This game is very shallow when compared to Stadium 2
-Only able to register 1 Pokemon team at a time
- Missing a handful of features, including box storage and mini games

SCORE TOTAL:
Gameplay-6
Graphics-7
Music-5
Sound-2
Replay- 1

Game Average- 4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/04