I’ll truthfully admit that I too once got caught up in the Pokemon plague of the 1990s. Though its popularity has seen better days and its followers have recently succumbed to puberty, Nintendo was determined to bring back the fresh “gotta catch em’ all” feel that has driven parents mad. Aside from the recently released and critically condemned Pokemon Channel, fans of the freakish-looking creatures haven’t seen a true Pokemon title outside of its Game Boy popularity since the Pokemon Stadium days on the N64. With Pokemon Colosseum, Nintendo has given fans exactly what they’re looking for – hundreds of hideously deformed animals to catch and raise, a true story mode and hours upon hours worth of battles.
Whereas the Pokemon Stadium series focused solely on the battle aspect of the franchise, Colosseum provides players with a clear-cut, often humorous (but not intentionally) story revolving around a teenage boy and girl. The teenage boy has stolen technology that allows him to catch Pokemon from their trainers during battles, while the young girl has the ability to see “Shadow Pokemon” – creatures that have no qualms about attacking people. Together, the two join forces to try and capture the Shadow Pokemon and discover who is responsible for all this fraudulence. The story is lame but anything beats the dozens of dreadful, meaningless battles in the Stadium games.
Though, as the name suggests, you will battle other trainers in a few coliseums throughout the main game, most of the battles take place on the streets, while the core gameplay remains consistent with its RPG elements. You’ll traverse through towns, purchase Pokemon-related items and gear and progress the story by speaking with townsfolk and participating in mandatory battles. The battles are given an added boost of strategy by utilizing the ability to use two Pokemon at a time; a feature first used by the Ruby and Sapphire games before it.
Marching through the wilderness and catching wild Pokemon in random battles was addicting in the previous titles, but in Colosseum, these random encounters have been removed and replaced with the severely flawed Shadow Pokemon system. The only way to increase the number of Pokemon in your possession is to snag them from trainers and transform them into good little fur-balls by using them in battle. The Shadow Pokemon only begin with a single devastating attack, which when used, will cause the Shadow Pokemon to sustain damage. The more you use the Shadow Pokemon, the more its shadow meter will drain. Not only is this a tedious task, but it certainly isn’t fun converting the game’s hundreds of Pokemon. This wouldn’t be such a problem if you could skip each and every one of the battle sequence’s cutscenes. Yes, you must, against your will, watch every single attack animation over and over again until the game’s 10 hour story mode is completed.
The Pokemon franchise has a visual flair that simply cannot be described on paper. Forget the hideously malformed Pokemon, what happened to all the townspeople? Their aesthetic features are blown way out of proportion, further separating the game’s style from its anime roots. The stiff character models look decent at best, but the Pokemon themselves received a much needed superlative makeover. The little monsters look sharper than ever and their attacks make way for some cool-looking effects. The game’s presentation is rather lacking, with bland, unattractive, generic environments that a four-year-old could design. Granted, it would have to be a pretty intelligent four-year-old, but still, where’s the originality?
The musical score is bearable and at times catchy, but the lack of voiceovers and cute Pokemon sounds causes the sound department to get pretty dull at times. I had to laugh when the self-proclaimed disco-devoted villain, Miror B, arrived, complimented with his very own salsa inspired theme song. Maybe it’s my own fault for expecting a disco theme to kick in, but this is a Pokemon game, and stranger things have happened before.
Overall, Pokemon Colosseum provides the visual upgrade needed to propel the series into the next generation and fans will generally be impressed with the game’s faithfulness to the franchise’s trademark “cuteness.” The Shadow Pokemon system is one of the game’s biggest detractors, but even so, those who are acquainted with the series may want to give this one a shot. JS
