Okay where do I begin on the N64 there were two games, Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2, games which allowed you to link up your game boy versions of pokemon and use them to fight in tournaments of the games such as the Poke Cup for Level 50’s, Prime Cup for Level 100’s, Petit Cup for Level 5’s, not kidding as well as gym leader castle where you fight harder versions of the gym leaders from the games as well as a mini game mode, which I will look at in the future. So does Colosseum do all that…. no. All there are three cups for level 50’s, and three for level 100’s, well that and Mt. Battle which allows the player to use their ruby and sapphire monsters to fight through 100 trainers. So is that the end of this review already, well no, as this game has something that stadium didn’t… a story mode. The first time Nintendo and Game Freak finally got round to making a 3d pokemon game, so let’s take a look.
The game is set in the new region of Orre, a mostly desert region, sort of like the Pokemon equivalent of the Arizona Desert, so yeah Unova was not the first American region. The game begins as the main character breaks into a base run by a terrorist group called Team Snagum. I’m sorry but why is every terrorist group in this series Team something. Seriously, the originals had Team Rocket, Ruby and Sapphire had Team Magma and Team Aqua, Diamond and Pearl had Team Galactic and Black and White have Team Plasma, look I know the guy in charge of naming these things has little imagination but come on already.
Anyway the hero, which I’m gonna refer to him as since the game didn’t give him and actual base name... wait it does, well what is it... Wes, you mean Wesley...
Sorry couldn't resist, anyway...
Wesley steals one of the snagem machines, an arm bound machine that allows the user to steal pokemon from trainers, though all that ever stopped you before was the trainer jumping in the way to block the ball, which also bugs me, Pokeballs can be used to store pokemon and items as well since items are found in Pokeballs all the time, so why are people immune, do these things have safety locks on them or something. Anyway Pokeballs for this thing are hard to come by since there are no wild pokemon so, nobody really has any pokeballs, so they are usually found lying around and sold in one little shop inside a broken down train in the desert, so careful how you use them.
The story revolves around freeing shadow pokemon from their cruel trainers and removing the shadows from them, essentially this evil power which is broken down over time when battling, but shadow pokemon can’t level up, but once the shadow is removed by going to Celebi's shrine, they gain all lost experience.
Anyway when you reach the first town you have to save your partner from her captors as she can see the shadow energy possessing shadow pokemon while regular people can’t, do you care to guess her name in the instruction booklet, you’ll never guess… it’s Partner. I know people often change the characters name, but some effort here, everybody changes squall’s name on Final Fantasy 8, but they bothered to name him in the beginning, I called him Elmo, cause you can’t spell Elmo without Emo.
The whole game is centered around double battles, so you start with two starters at Level 25, Espeon and Umbreon, and trust me you’ll depend on them for a long while as while Shadow Pokemon can be purified eventually, but it’s a long while before you can and eventually you’ll end up fighting one of three trainers, each one with a middle form a Johto Starter for you to catch and the other two become available at the end of the game, I’d recommend Bayleef personally as Raikou, Entei and Suicune are available in this game, and two fire or two water in your party is bad idea, plus Bayleef is the best of the Johto starters anyway, so yeah, of course that isn’t your first shadow opponent, that’s Makuhita, but the battle is easy enough.
The game doesn’t revolve around gyms in the slightest, hell there’s only one gym in the whole game and that’s optional. Hyper mode is a special power of the shadow pokemon as well as shadow rush which is a more powerful version of struggle, a move that all pokemon can use when they run out of PP for everyone of the their moves. Hyper mode increases the attack power of shadow rush, but to get the pokemon out of this status, on the menu bar instead of run as all battles are trainer battles, it’s been replaced with ‘Call Out’ which knocks them out of shadow mode which lowers their shadow bar more effectively. ‘Call Out’ can also be used to wake sleeping pokemon, which would be a cool thing to have in the main games, cause it’s always bugged me why you needed a flute to wake a pokemon instead of just shouting at it. Same with the sleeping snorlax in the way on Red and Blue, why not just catch it when it’s asleep, honestly.
In the Pokemon Centre in the first town, there’s a trade centre in the basement, so you can transfer your pokemon to your ruby and sapphire games, so can we use it straight away… NO! Not until you’ve beaten the game, so here’s a question… WHY IS IT AT THE START OF THE GAME THEN! Seriously, have it near the end for the love of chesse. The next town is Pyrite Town, a town filled with criminals as well as a stadium which uses similar rules to the colosseum mode, except the level limits. Inside the police station you find some criminals locked up as well as a tm in a cell, just a question about the pokeballs again, if they can store matter in these small orbs, why not the prisoners, there wouldn’t be any riots would there, and then the people say oh it’s cruel, ok, then why are your monster friends sealed in balls, I’m sorry, but it’s a wasted resource here. Eventually you end up in battles with the other terrorist group of the game, Team Cipher, the people behind the shadow pokemon, yes two evil teams, sort of like say, I dunno Ruby and Sapphire. And the first admin of Team Cipher you meet is Miror B. A dude with a pokeball afro who dances to disco with a legion of Ludicolo and a shadow Sudowoodo.
Good god you could hide a hummer in that giant fro, actually is it a fro or an electrode that's latched onto his head and did I mention his theme song.
After beating the Ciphers you’ll find yourself in Agate Village, a forest like town filled with the elderly and the shrine to the pokemon celebi, a pokemon that can heal the shadow energy from your pokemon when their shadow bars are empty, unless you have a time flute which allows you to do it filled, but there’s only three on the game, so save those, for say I dunno, the three legendaries. Oh and you can’t catch Celebi after you’ve healed all the shadow pokemon sadly unless your japanese. Just a question WHY TAKE THE TIME AND EFFORT TO REMOVE THAT FROM THE FUCKING GAME YOU SELF CENTRERED C~#}S!
Your quest takes you across the whole region in the underground city of the Under, the legendary MT. Battle from Colosseum mode, the laboratory responsible for shadow pokemon, the snagem hideout and the Cipher hideout itself, in the shape of a massive futuristic stadium. This game has a great story but it sadly very short, but what do you expect for a mode stuck to a stadium game. Of course this game was made so Johto pokemon could be available, cause you know putting them on Fire Red and Leaf Green was too simple, including Espeon and Umbreon even though Eevee is available, cause Game Freak forgot to put the clock in those games so time based evolutions could no longer work, well done backpeddling Game Freak, good job making the 3rd generation games, the 3rd worst generation, oh trust me Ruby and Sapphire will get it's time under fire. There is around 48 Shadow Pokemon, not all Johto Pokemon, but are mostly Johto. The problem with this game is that even though story mode is good, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like filling in the cracks of the fuck ups generated by Ruby and Sapphire not being able to connect to Gold and Silver, but like I said those game's time will come.
Ho-oh is available on this game unlike Lugia for beating MT. Battle in colosseum mode which isn’t a simple task. So where’s Lugia, well that’s on the sequal, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, where shadow pokemon return and the big monster on the game is Shadow Lugia, unlike Colosseum’s shadow Tyranitar which is used by the final boss of the game. However I haven’t played Pokemon XD for one simple reason, cause it’s expensive as fuck, I’m not kidding the last time I saw a copy was for £100, for a gamecube game. This is bad as Twilight Princess on cube for £100, and that was preorder only originally, that’s acceptable, but £100 for a basic game, not even Final Fantasy crystal chronicles pulls that stunt and that game is hard to come by as well. Colosseum on the other hand sells around £30 right now.
The other downsides is that this game has basically no sidequests that aren't battling and you can't save whenever, you have to run to a pc to do this, so basically save points like a Final Fantasy game and because there are no wild pokemon, it does damage your choices making multiple playthroughs very limited.
So is this game bad… well no, colosseum mode is crap, but story mode is pretty good, if lacking in length, so I do recommend hunting down a copy for yourselves if you’re a Pokemon fan. It's the first 3d pokemon game and while it does have major problems it is still a good look at the shadier side of the Pokemon world and is worth picking up, I'm The Joel MH signing off and...
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