Pokemon Colosseum

"Could have been better"

Surprisingly, one of the core genres to pull this industry forward is the RPG one. Then again, when we see that the Pokemon, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy franchises are included in that genre, it's no wonder. For years, there was nothing that would stand in the way of the games that beared the above game's title. Though Pokemon, despite loosing some quality over the years, concreted itself as an instant sell name. See, unlike the other two games I've mentioned, I think that a ton of effort--excluding a particular Dragon Warrior game on the PS--were put into the games that followed. Though judging from recent Pokemon offerings, particularly the latest Gamecube release Pokemon Colosseum, it seems like Nintendo thinks they can whip up an average game and make it sell millions. No offense to Ruby and Sapphire; they were pretty good games, but compared to Gold and Silver, they just don't stack up.

While Colosseum is the first Pokemon game on a Nintendo home console to not be a random exhibition fest, you can immediately tell it was rushed. Though for the sake of those who haven't been caught up in the pokemon craze (mind you, the craze died down a little but is still strong), pokemon are monsters that resemble our world's animals. Pikachu takes the form of a yellow mouse, while Mightyena resembles a dog. Often times they'll be rooted with a creature from our world, but they can also be based off of non-living things too. Geodude is a living rock, while Sudowoodo is a tree. These pokemon roam wildly, which makes it perfect for trainers to catch them! Basically, the whole outline of almost every Pokemon game is to catch pokemon using pokeballs. Your ultimate goal is to become a Pokemon Master by training your pokemon, and testing their skills by challenging the elite four.

There really wasn't any story to them; boy catches pokemon, beats a couple of gym trainers so he can receive a qualifying badge, and defeats the elite four. Though Colosseum takes a much different approach. Seth (customizable name, but I picked this because it was the most coolest sounding), is part of an underground organization known as Team Snagem. This group is dedicated to snatching pokemon while member's battle innocent trainers, while stealing their lovely creatures in the confusion! That's horrible! But Seth realized they were bad people, and practically destroyed their base using a bomb. Right after doing so, he encountered another organization who have similar goals as his former gang, and this new group is called Cipher. It seems like Cipher has been secretly undergoing a project that will allow them to take over the world. They plan on turning pokemon into Shadow pokemon!

Shadow pokemon are obviously superior to their normal underlings, but for some reason, when you snatch them from bad guys, which is all thanks to your Snag machine that you stole, they suck. First off, the only move they have when you first acquire them is shadow rush, a move exclusive to Shadow pokemon. While it does have its pros, it's not really that great, and you'll get tired of using it quickly. Though the more you battle with your Shadow pokemon, the more it'll dig up its past moves and memories. The heart's of the Shadow pokemon are closed off, making them pure fighting machines. Though I guess through some moral way, the bond you have with them will slowly widen, resulting in turning them into normal again. The game does a good job of encouraging you to battle with the pokemon with the most closed hearts, because they won't level up anyway until purified, and the old moves will slowly appear again. Seth, along with his red headed companion, who's the only known person to distinguish between normal and shadow pokemon, go on a journey to save the pokemon from turning to the dark side.

Colosseum's story mode is a lot more diabolic, but it's a lot more shorter, and not as fun. As said before, the journey here feels rushed. Instead of starting off with one Pokemon, you start off with two. I guess it makes sense, since for the entire game, two pokemon are required on the battle field for each side rather than the traditional one, which was a feature started on Ruby and Sapphire. Secondly, instead of starting off around the level 3-5 area, your pokemon are immediately at level 30, along with the rest in the beginning. Thirdly, there are no random battles whatsoever! I'm one to despise them, but then how the hell do you catch your pokemon? Well, you do it through stealing shadow pokemon and shadow pokemon only! This leaves most of your training to trainers who are re-fightable. Fourthly, there are hardly any locations to visit! Which leaves you to fighting the same people over and over again! So what happens when your current pokemon level up to a point where they totally own your only source of training? Well, they level up too. Not a bad idea in a situation like this, but it feels unprofessional and not a game worthy of selling over a million copies (which it did).

If you thought the entire setting of Colosseum's story mode was limited enough, the battling isn't really exciting as well. It carries the same ol' goodness of the original Red and Blue, so it must be good, right? It is good, but what makes it so bad is the trainers you're fighting. There's one trainer you fight who's a bodybuilder....that's a girl! Even worse, she probably toned her body to a level where neither you or me could reach! Who could like a game like this! It sucks! It sucks! Actually, that was just a minor gripe I had that shouldn't be a major bother at all. What really holds Colosseum down is the animation sequences for every attack done. They're soooo long! This reminds me a lot of The Third Age because their number one weakness is present in both; battles are too long as a result of long nonsensical animations. If Pikachu does quick attack, it'll show him attacking his target in a convincing manner. Then, whomever he attacked reacts to it by swerving for a couple seconds. It's not over, because that same pokemon has to recover from it as well! Battles are dragged on way too long because of these, and I can't picture how longer they would take if every single battle were only waged using one pokemon. Those that are interested in Pokemon Colosseum should buy a ton of popcorn with them, because you'd only be doing yourself a favour by eating while playing, since the majority of times during battles you'll be watching your pokemon do their thing.

Also, there aren't really any challenging activities to take your mind off battles. You'd never know the importance of dungeon puzzles until you've played this game. Basically, when entering a “dungeon”, you'll be going through a linear path, with occasional split paths, while battling the myriad of trainers that come your way. I really loved how moves in past Pokemon games could be used to surpass certain environments; the move waterfall enabled you to climb up waterfalls, while the move surf allowed you to travel among the sea. Here, these moves serve nothing more than offensive methods. There were also the puzzles you'd have to solve before gym fights, which were pretty fun to solve. The closest thing here to solving is getting one key from one place so you can open up a locked door from a whole other location, or turning on a switch so the inaccessible door you've encountered earlier will open. Really, you're left wondering what the developers were thinking when making the story mode. They've made the single player portion of Colosseum a gigantic battle fest, while taking out the fun solvable puzzles that made them so great. After you've completed it, which only takes 20 hours, you have the chance of fully beating it by capturing every single Shadow pokemon and purifying their hearts, where the legendary Ho-oh will magically appear in your collection of caught Pokemon. Only those who are dedicated to getting the most of their games, or love seeing the 100% sign in their file names, could withstand the long hours of doing all this purifying crap.

The only one thing that I preferred here in Colosseum over its Gameboy predecessors are its technical departments: sounds and visuals. I really liked the jazzy tunes while walking around Pyrite town, or the mysterious theme while battling a normal trainer who possesses a shadow pokemon. The character models were also pretty nicely drawn, especially Seth's model. They all look like anime characters, which is convenient since Pokemon has an anime TV series currently running. Though it would probably have been more wiser if the graphics engine used a cel shading system to make it even more appealing.

I know I said a lot of mean things to Pokemon Colosseum, but it's really not a bad game; just inferior. The whole premise of training pokemon and seeing them evolve into stronger creatures is just one of the most rewarding things anyone can experience in their gaming career. You'd have to be heartless to not have a spot for this entire concept. It's the one thing that keeps me coming back for more. The single player journey is the first Pokemon RPG adventure on home consoles, and hopefully this will open up for more of its kind that will greatly improve on Colosseum, or perhaps even match the quality and charm of the Gameboy versions. For Colosseum itself, after you've completed it all, you can even use your own pokemon to battle against trainers who have Ruby and Sapphire, or Fire Red and Leaf Green using the infamous GCN-GBA capable that has fanboys rambling amongst each other whether it replaced online connectivity or not. For die hard Pokemon fans, this is definitely a recommendation, but to those who have already been absent in the Pokemon addiction, you're better off getting another RPG.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/04, Updated 09/01/05