Pokemon Colosseum

"The Pokemon series needed a change, and got one!"

-Introduction
If you look in the other reviews or ask a friend what they thought of this game, Pokemon Colosseum, they'll probably have some negative comments about the clear difference from the Game Boy games. In my opinion, the change was needed. During the past 10 years or so, once in a while, a new game would be released, and it would be the same thing; the professor, who was named after a tree, giving you 1 of 3 Pokemon, and you defeating 8 gym leaders, and eventually the Elite 4, and then catching them all. The only change would be around 100 new Pokemon. Then a supposedly "new" game was to be released, but it was just a clone of past games. Red and Blue had Yellow as the clone, Gold and Silver had Crystal, Ruby and Sapphire had Emerald, etc. Nintendo has a bad habit of re-releasing their games on new systems with a few extra features and game areas, as in The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past/Four Swords and The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest. But this game was different than those clones, in many ways.

-Story 9/10
You, as the main character, are a former member of the evil organization, "Team Snagem". They created a machine to steal other trainers' Pokemon. Remember wanting to do that in the other games when someone else had one you wanted but were too lazy to catch? Well, you stole the portable Snag Machine from their hideout before you "left" Team Snagem. The bad part is that you can only steal "shadow" Pokemon, so you can eventually purify them. Shadow Pokemon have had the door to their heart closed to make them stronger(and more evil) in battle, by evil organizations all over Orre, the land you'll be playing the game in. They are said to attack people as well as opponent Pokemon. They only know one move, which is called Shadow Rush. Shadow Rush is powerful, but hurts your Pokemon as well as opponent Pokemon. A main part of the game is purifying shadow Pokemon, by opening the door to their heart, therefore making them a normal Pokemon again. They regain moves as they get better. You can see a meter during battle and in the summary/stats screen out of battle. When this meter is empty, you bring the Pokemon to a relic and Celebi takes the final step in returning the shadow Pokemon to normal. You have to defeat the crime bosses, Miror B., Venus, Ein, and Dakim, and the mysterious head boss, who are in charge of creating these shadow Pokemon, to finish the game. The main Story Mode game is a little short, but the Battle Mode more than makes up for it.

-Gameplay 8/10
The best, and newest part of the game, as I mentioned above, is the purification of shadow Pokemon. There are five ways to do it: including them in your party and simply walking around, using them in battle, using cologne, which you can buy, putting them in daycare, and calling them out of hyper mode, which they can enter by using Shadow Rush during battle. Pokemon like some methods more than others. I didn't like the fact that there is a world map-style link between game areas, and you can't travel from town to town on routes like in the Game Boy games. The Pokemon Company covers this up by making Orre a desert, so there isn't much there to see anyway. Right. The battles are more exciting because every single one is a double battle, and there are more animations, and the 3D graphics help to make it more realistic. You can also see the two trainers, you and your opponent, during a battle.

-Graphics 8/10
I thought the graphics were pretty good, and I didn't notice any real flaws. Your sidekick gets stuck on obstacles and gets away from you when you're in towns and other crowded places, instead of following you. But when you enter a building or cave, she comes back.

-Music 6/10
The music in the game doesn't really stand out too much compared to the other Pokemon games, and I can't remember one tune from it, even after playing it for a long time. This might seem like laziness on my part, but I can remember all the tunes and ocarina songs from Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It tends to take the mood of a level or area, as in other RPG style games.

-Replay Value 9/10
The replay value is very good to have because of two main things: the ability to trade with Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red, and Leaf Green(if you have the cable to connect the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance, and obviously, the GBA) and Battle Mode. By trading, you can get Pokemon in the Game Boy Advance games from Gold and Silver that you couldn't get normally. Battle Mode includes Mt. Battle, which has 100 trainer battles, and colosseums, which unlock each other when you beat them. You can use your Game Boy Advance Pokemon or Story Mode(the main game that I've been talking about) Pokemon in Battle Mode. You can win special items for your Game Boy Advance games, such as King's Rock, which causes flinching in enemies, and TMs(Technical Machines) like Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam, which is one of my favorite attacks. You can also win prizes in Story Mode, with the in-game Mt. Battle or colosseums, or by using a Story Mode team in Battle Mode.

-Overall 8/10
The addition of shadow Pokemon helped the game to be more interesting and exciting, and not just a 3D clone of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, as some people thought it was going to be. The replay value is great, because the Story Mode is shorter than most people would like. The story is more like other RPGs, with the good vs. evil style, which other Pokemon games had less of.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/05