Pokemon Colosseum

"Charizard, burn this colosseum down! Oh, wait, there isn't much to burn down."

Everybody knows Pokemon. How can you not like Pokemon games with all these cute little creatures and the gruelling beasts? You can catch them, raise them, put them into battle and in Ruby and Sapphire you could even enter them in contests! It sounds fun, doesn't it? And Pokemon Colosseum is even in 3D! That means it has to be good! Well…..no. To be honest, there isn't anything in this game that didn't disappoint. Why? Read on.

You know the story from the Pokemon games on the Gameboy? Catching Pokemon and raising them to become a true Pokemon master? Yeah, the story was primitive. But at least we got some long and compelling games to cover the crappy story. Nintendo really tried to bring some story to the Pokemon games by trying something different than the regular Pokemon formula in this game. Too bad they did that. The story is just as primitive as the Gameboy games and its unoriginality makes this even worse. You're playing as a guy who is accompanied by a girl. The guy has a snagging device, allowing him to capture Pokemon from other trainers. The girl is there to tell the guy which of the Pokemon is a “Shadow Pokemon”, Pokemon that have been made evil and have the doors to their hearts closed. Funny how Nintendo intended to make them seem even more pathetic with that “deep” sentence. As you can see, there is no originality in this story. You might like the idea of stealing Pokemon from other trainers though, but I don't. You'll immediately feel that the Pokemon part of this game just doesn't fit in the story. Luckily, there is also a Battle Mode, in which you can let your Pokemon battle against the easy computer or slightly more fun, against another person, so you can always do some relaxed battles if you get sick of the Story Mode, which I can understand.

I bet you're thinking: If you need to steal Pokemon, doesn't that mean there aren't any wild Pokemon in this game? Yeah, you thought right. There are NO wild Pokemon in this game. You collect them by stealing them from other trainers. And to make matters worse, there are only a silly forty-eight Pokemon to be caught. After catching your poor Shadow Pokemon, you have to open the doors to their heart. This means you cannot train them while they're in their Shadow form. They do get all the gathered experience points when you finally purify them completely at some shrine, which you need to do before you can actually train them, but purifying them is a pain in the ass as they don't get stronger by battling. You are rewarded with something when you have purified every Pokemon, though. You can also trade them to your Ruby or Sapphire game later if you have one, so at least there are reasons to do the hard and repetitive purifying process.

To be honest, the only thing you do in the game is battling, stealing and purifying. No searching for Pokemon, NO exploring, something the Gameboy games did have, no puzzles or something. It becomes repetitive and tiring after about two hours already. You might become immersed in the game's sort of evil story so that you don't mind doing three things all over again, but I really doubt that. The most stupid thing is the lack of exploration. Although it was always clear where to go in past Gameboy games, there where always some paths or caves to explore, which led to an item or something else. When you complete a part of this game, the map shows where to go next and you only have to click on the next city to go there. You immediately get the feeling that the creators were just too lazy to put some more exploration in these games and that they wanted to get over with the making of this game as soon as possible. If there was at least a little bit more variety in this game, it would've already been better than it is now. I mean, it's not that there isn't any bit of fun in this game. Although the Story Mode feels very unfinished, the battling is still somehow addictive, but it's too much. This game really focuses on Pokemon battles, but it focuses on battling too much.

To add to that focus on battling, there is a Battle Mode with a Single Player and a Multiplayer Mode. Single Player Mode should be completely ignored, as there isn't any bit of challenge in the battles with the computer. Whereas the Stadium games had Mini-games to forget the repetitive battling, this game doesn't feature any, so still nothing else than battling. And when battling, you can't even choose the Pokemon you want! There are only a few Pokemon you can get, and you can't even pick them, it's just a random team you get (always the same teams, by the way) and there are only a few of them. Multiplayer is a lot better though. It's quite fun to battle with a friend in full 3D, but still, I feel there is lack of possibilities in the Multiplayer.

That 3D battling looks pretty good, with some great effects in the attacks of the Pokemon. The Pokemon look good overall, though a bit blocky at times. The battles and the Pokemon are probably the only positive things of the Graphics; I really didn't like them in Story Mode. The heroes look pretty detailed, but far too uninspiring (too plain) and they sometimes look more like a painting. The environments are blocky and a little bit blurry too, sometimes, but it could've been worse. The sky doesn't really flow well, the pixels are too clear and it's quite blurry. Not that it matters, because you won't even see the sky with the view that you're playing the game in. One of the worst things in this game graphically wise is the view. This is supposed to be a 3D game, but it's in top view. I never felt like playing a 3D game. A 3D game shouldn't be in top view. The view should be behind character to see the environments in the distance, like in real life. This feels more like a 2D game with 3D elements. It's not that the Graphics suck that bad, but it's definitely not, let's say, Metroid Prime's quality, and the Graphics feel just way more cartoony than they should've been (not as extreme as the Wind Waker, though I loved those Graphics). Overall, the Graphics just looked too tiring and repetitive too impress me.

The same goes for the sound and music. It's way too tiring and repetitive. The only sound effects you'll find in this game are in the battles, but these sound effects are too plain and predictable. Electric attacks sound like a shock, water sounds like water, but extremely weak. Music is decent at best. Though some tracks, like Mt. Battle, sound okay, they all sound more like upgraded Gameboy songs and thus they are annoying and repetitive. You should really avoid staying in one place for too long, because you'll get tired from the weak and bleepy music. There are no differences in volume or tone, like Metroid Prime had. It doesn't dim for a moment, which doesn't add any atmosphere to the game, and seeing as the game doesn't have any sort of (exciting) atmosphere, that is quite a problem. There are also very few battle songs, which means even more repetitiveness.

All this focus on battling means the game is short. I still can't see why I did so long about this game. I needed 20+ hours to complete the Story Mode, which is really sick. You won't need longer than ten hours or maybe a little bit more. And it's really ten hours of battling, catching and purifying, but mainly battling. There is not a bit of replayability in this game. Complete it once and be prepared to let the dust get to your disc. You won't replay it for purifying the Pokemon either, because it's just too boring and it takes too long to do all this just so you can trade it to Ruby or Sapphire. You might get some bit of fun with the Multiplayer Battle Mode, seeing all of your strong Pokemon battling in 3D, but that isn't a reason to spend so much money on this game. I can understand you got excited of this “3D” Story Mode it has, but seeing as it is only battling, the excitement was probably for nothing.

Overall, the game is just too repetitive and unfinished to recommend it. It's like you're beginning a game from middle to end, and it lacks a beginning, seeing as you start with two evolved Pokemon on level 25. There is no exploring in this game, which makes this a hero's adventure, and not your adventure and it also makes the game too short. The Battle Mode feels limited, there are no Mini-games and it seems like it has been thrown in quickly just to have something else. The Story Mode is like a pushing Battle Mode, with the only elements being battling and the tiring purifying. The Pokemon really feel misplaced in this game. I hope you'll have fun with this game, but you probably won't. Goodbye!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/04