Pokemon Colosseum

"Well, at least they tried"

I dropped out the Pokemon scene about 3 years ago after graduating high school and just got back into it about a month ago, so I have yet to experience Ruby/Sapphire. But after going through Leafgreen this past week I decided I wanted to see my Pokemon in 3D and decided on Colosseum. And I immediately got excited upon finding out there was a story mode.

Story: Just another white male trying to save the world. How many of those do we have now? Does every game have to have a protagonist out to save the world? Can't we just have a game in which you are out to just discover new things and add to the things you already know. Oh wait, we do have those. They are called Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Leafgreen, and Firered. Why couldn't they just recreate one of those games for the Gamecube platform? Instead they decided to have this ridiculously looking white male, (I stress that because you get no choice as to what kind of character you have as in male or female) teamed up with an equally appalling redhead, and they decided to capture all the "shadow" Pokemon and of course, save the world. The hero, Wes, decides to escape his life of crime and steal a snag machine which enables him to snag the shadow Pokemon, which are Pokemon whose hearts were closed off to turn them into fighting machines. After snagging them, which is a fancy term for stealing them from their trainers, you must purify them which is aggravating as heck. Only after beating the final boss in the short RPG are you enabled to trade to and from the R/S/FR/LG series. All in all a poor effort spawned from a great idea.

Story Rating: 4/10

Game play: As I said, I got excited when I discovered there was a story mode, but that was the problem. There was too much story and not enough game play. Whatever happened to exploring a cave for a level 48 Golbat or fishing in a lake for a level 5 Magikarp? The real excitement in all Pokemon games was in finding a new area in which to catch different Pokemon. I understand the need to get out a new product, but even if they didn't want to make this vast world, how hard would it have been to at least put a little grass in each different area in which to look for Pokemon other than the very limited 48 shadow Pokemon you were unfortunately given to catch. Hopefully in the next installment, even if they don't want to think of a new world, they will maybe just recreate Kanto in 3D and let you play through just like in the Advance games.

Outside of Story Mode you have what the original Stadium was designed for; sending your Pokemon out to battle in 3D. And very little disappointed me. First off, unless you had your own game pak or Colosseum save file, you were forced to fight with someone else's Pokemon. I don't understand the logic in not having an opportunity to enjoy the game with Pokemon created by the designers of the game. Other then that it is a quite enjoyable experience, especially in multi player games.

Game play Rating: 7/10

Graphics: I got nothing less than what I expected and desired. I only wanted the game to see my team in all its 3D glory and was amazed at how much the graphics have improved since the Stadium days. I didn't particularly like the fact that during battles in Story Mode as the camera moved around during the battles, it didn't seem to capture everything you had just witnessed prior to starting the battle. Example: you might have just opened one of the red cases but during the battle it magically disappeared. But overall my expectations were exceeded.

Graphics Rating: 9/10

Sound: A little irritating with a pinch of forgiveness, as it wasn't entirely avoidable. The music was downright horrid at times. The twangy song at the beginning and in Agate was ok but didn't offer any kind of feeling to the game. The music for each area was pretty much appropriate but very disturbingly repetitive and redundant. No, I wasn't expecting them to come out with a halo-type soundtrack but something, anything a little less Hank Williams.

Also there was no environmentally-produced sounds at all. In The Under in one place there was some purple stuff dripping but I never got the dripping noise I craved. Oh, and the stupid bubbles. No, not the moves, the message bubbles. The occasional voice over would have been lovely. Shoot, I would have done one of the characters myself for next to nothing if it meant adding some realism and excitement to the game.

A decent effort nonetheless.

Sound Rating: 6/10

Replayability: Very little in terms of adding to a Pokedex and becoming a Pokemon Master. Pokemon Colosseum really left you wanting more once you beat the RPG. It really needed more depth. Hopefully in the near future we will get a Zelda type game that allows exploration and endurance to get to another city, not just using a map to get to the next destination.

The Colosseum Battles are always worth coming back for. Yes, the animations get to be annoyingly repetitive but they also do on your Advance system as well. At least it is more visually appeasing.

Replayability Rating: 7/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/05