As of the FEA one I posted yesterday, that gives me a grand total of two. Maybe I'll write more later...]
Released in 2003 by developer Genius Sonority for Nintendo's Gamecube, Pokemon Colosseum was the first Pokemon title to offer a single-player storyline game on a 3D home console. Today on my first-ever internet game review, I'll be taking a look at this little-known piece of the Pokemon franchise's history! There are so many things you can talk about on a video game for what makes it good or bad, but for this review (and likely any future reviews I write) I'll be sticking to three basic categories: Story, Gameplay, and aesthetic elements (graphics + sound).
~ Today, Banryu Reviews Pokemon Colosseum! ~
NUMBER #1NE. TEH STORYYYY
Colosseum broke the mold of the usual Pokemon titles by straying away from traditional plot elements and focusing on creating more story-driven gameplay. Set in a never-before-seen region called Orre, the story followed a skilled young trainer named Wes (or Leo in the Japanese version) in his investigation to uncover the nefarious schemes of the criminal organization Cipher, and their diabolical transformation of Pokemon into dangerous bio-weapons, dubbed 'Shadow Pokemon'.
Right from the start of the game Colosseum changed the way we approached Pokemon, showing us an edgier, more mature protagonist who was part of a grittier, more dangerous world than the world of Pokemon has ever seen-- it quickly established that your goal was no longer to be a strong trainer, because Wes was already very strong (packing a level 25+ pair of Espeon and Umbreon, as opposed to the usual single starter). Instead of collecting badges and catching Wild Pokemon, the focus was chiefly on stopping Cipher. As a result, Cipher is more noticeably organized, prominent, and deep-rooted than any of the other criminal teams to to its role as a more primarily antagonistic entity, giving the game a darker atmosphere, and your quest a feeling of greater significance than the self-serving goal of 'to be the best that ever waaaaaas!'
One of the key elements that makes Colosseum so interesting is the protagonist himself. A skilled trainer with a criminal background and a specialty in STEALING OTHER TRAINERS' POKEMON, immediately we're not sure how to feel about this guy... Until perhaps he signs in his explosive resignation and swipes his old gang's only means of Pokemon-thieving, at which point we realize that he is in fact, a complete badass. As Wes travels throughout Orre using the aforementioned device to steal Shadow Pokemon back from Cipher's agents, the game seems to convey an underlying theme of redemption-- Wes seems to care deeply about Pokemon, as evidenced by his Espeon and Umbreon (who can only evolve from Eevee with a high level of friendship) and his doggedness in taking down Cipher speaks of his need to absolve himself, and his passion to this cause. Unfortunately, the game's writers felt the need to stick with the tradtional silent protagonist, so everything we know about Wes is uncovered via dialogue from other characters. I feel that there's a lot of missed potential for a deeper, even more interesting backstory that they could have had for Wes. On that note, a LOT of the characters, both main and antagonistic, seem to suffer from occasional severe lapses in basic intelligence that lead to some strange and occasionally severe plot holes... But hey, this is Pokemon we're talking about. ~___~ I suppose there's only so much one can expect. Overall, it's not exactly Pulitzer material, but it is one of the more interesting plotlines in the Pokemon franchise.
NUMBAH #2WO. GAEMPLEAY
Even though most Pokemon fans don't consider Colosseum and XD to be part of the main series of games, they did in fact use the same 3rd Gen battle mechanics as Ruby and Sapphire, and even had trading cross-compatability with them. However, there WERE many differences that distinguished Colosseum from all the other Pokemon games of the time, (until XD) and even of the current day. For one, the entirety of Colosseum's single-player mode is played in the then-new Doubles (2v2) format of battling, which required a very different approach to battles than most seasoned Pokemon players were accustomed to. Another big change was the complete lack of Wild Pokemon in the barren landscape of Orre. In fact, there were no routes at all, only towns that could be quickly traveled between via motorcycle (in cutscene segments a la HM Fly from the handheld games). I actually think this was a great design choice; it cut out tedious route travel and cave segments from the game, and put a much greater focus on the trainer-to-trainer battles, which in my opinion are the Pokemon series' biggest strength, and easily its most fun aspect. On the flipside of that wonderful convenience, Colosseum does not feature the anywhere-save function that the handheld games feature, and instead players can save only at the PCs in towns and Pokemon centers. This wouldn't be such a problem, except that there are frequently long segments in the game that require you to battle many trainers back-to-back, several of whom will often be packing Shadow Pokemon (who I'll get to in a bit).
When you're on a completion run and trying to nab all of the Shadow Pokemon, having to run back and forth from the beginning of a lab or industrial complex over and over is extremely repetitive and often frustrating-- especially because the game WANTS you to catch all the Shadow Pokemon. Making this a goal, but then disallowing anywhere-saves is highly contradictory and definitely a problem with the gameplay.
Now, onto Shadow Pokemon. For all the things that Colosseum changed about the Pokemon formula, this tends to be the one that keeps people from liking Colosseum the most.
Shadow Pokemon are a new mechanic introduced in Colosseum, and are essentially Pokemon that were made artificially evil by Cipher. They cannot level up, cannot learn new moves (though occasionally come with powerful TM attacks), and universally know the powerful Shadow Rush attack, which is essentially a clone of Take Down that deals neutral damage to all types. Many high-ranking Cipher trainers possess a Shadow Pokemon in their roster that Wes must catch or 'snag' (via the same methods as the main games as assisted by an illegal 'Snag machine'), and consequently purify in order to make the Pokemon normal again. The addition of these Shadow Pokemon adds sort of a higher level of urgency to the captures, as there is only one of each Shadow Pokemon available to catch out of a possible 48. Once Shadow Pokemon are caught, they know only Shadow Rush, and must have their three other moves unlocked by using them in battle and gaining their friendship. When their Shadow meter (which takes the place of the experience bar) is empty, they can be turned normal again. What's so bad about this, you may ask? Well...
The primary complaint most players had was that Shadow Pokemon are tedious to raise. Despite Cipher's claims that Shadow Pokemon are the strongest, ultimately this is just untrue (for one because of the power of friendship and biz), but also because THEY CAN'T LEVEL UP. THEY CAN'T LEARN NEW MOVES. Early on this isn't a problem, but after a certain point it just becomes tedious and impractical to raise Pokemon that can't learn better moves and can't increase their stats to match up to the growing level of your opponents. What's more is that out of the limited cast of Shadow Pokemon available to catch, only a select handful are actually useful in the rather difficult course of the game, where the majority suffer from poor stats and absolutely NO effective moves available (via TM or otherwise). (Yanma, Sneasel, I'm looking at you.) The fact that only a few Pokemon are worth using-- and even fewer of them are actually quick and easy to purify-- greatly reduces the replayability of Colosseum compared to other Pokemon games. To the developers' credit, the game actually DOES give you several means of rapidly accomplishing purification: Two Light Flutes to purify some of the strongest Pokemon in the game (Entei/Suicune/Raikou) immediately as the aforementioned Legendaries become available, which was definitely a smart design choice. Another available resource is Mount Battle, a Battle Tower-esque installation packed with weak teams early on that become ideal for purifying those weak Shadow Pokemon (if you want to purify'em'all). Though it's extremely tedious and boring to go through Mount Battle, the game actually rewards you for going this route, as you build up coupon points that can to toward buying the game's most useful TMs. (Other Pokemon games' Battle Towers and Frontiers could learn something from actually having a reasonable payoff for getting through the set amount of trainers.)
I don't completely hate the Shadow Pokemon idea, though ultimately I do agree with the majority of this game's detractors that purifying them isn't particularly enjoyable and somewhat takes away from the fun of the battles. In the end, it's just impractical-- in the main games, you can catch Pokemon right away and then just use them. In Colosseum, catching Shadow Pokemon is ALREADY a chore, and then it's a whole 'nother ordeal to make them usable. If you ARE going to go that route, I think the Shadow Pokemon should have been treated like the items in Zelda or the partners in Paper Mario. Since Pokemon are a limited resource in this game, give them set natures and powerful, but situational moves that make them worth using in the segments they're obtained in. Maybe allowing full access to all their moves upon obtaining them wouldn't have been a bad idea either.
All in all, the gameplay's good for what it is; advancements in mobility and basic gameplay are exactly what I'd expect from a 3D Pokemon game, and the Doubles format and powerful Pokemon available make for an interesting challenge-- It's just too bad there wasn't more thought put into some areas of gameplay, chiefly things relating to the Shadow Pokemon.
NUMMBR #3REE. ESSTHATTICS
Pokemon Colosseum isn't the most graphically-impressive game, even for the Gamecube, but for what it was-- a Pokemon game with fully-rendered, 3D environments-- I'd say it's pretty hard to complain. Graphics are easily the least important aspect of a game's design in my eyes, I honestly don't care what the polygon count is or anything as long as they made an effort with what they had. And Colosseum looks pretty good. As part of Pokemon Colosseum's function outside of its story mode was for players to battle against each other in 3D, the Pokemon look great and battle animations are smooth and fluid (even if the pace of battles is.... sloooowwwww. Though not as mind-numbingly slow as PBR). It's also cool to see the human characters rendered in 3D (something that not even the Stadium games gave us) and walking around in it, and some of the designs for the characters are pretty interesting and unique for the series too.
In terms of both the main games and the colosseums, the environments are moderately diverse and visually very interesting, and the fact that the world is in 3D is fully taken advantage of both in terms of gameplay and in visuals and cutscenes, allowing more free travel and movement across its environments and different camera angles than most 2D Pokemon games allow. I admit it's a bit disappointing that the environments don't have more interactable elements, like ledges to jump off and whatnot, and it's clear that the developers weren't interested in animating much more than idle poses, walk cycles, and victory/defeat expressions for each character... But ehh, it's good enough for me.
As far as sound goes, the music is pretty memorable, and does a great job of working off of the environments to create a real sense of atmosphere... From the seedy alleyways of Pyrite Town to the civilized classy oasis of Phenac City to the rural, at-home-with-nature hills of Agate Village to the triumphant cloudy peaks of Mount Battle, every single town and area has a distinct style and atmosphere to go with it (which is something I missed from some recent Pokemon games, particularly the Sinnoh region). And though the happy relaxing tunes are nice and all, the dark and ominous music in the more criminal-themed segments of the game are really what stand out, in addition to its cool battle music (including Miror B's, which is probably one of the best boss battle themes of all time for sheer comedic value, amplified by how out-of-place it is in the darker region of Orre).
In short, the graphics and music do an excellent job taking advantage of Pokemon's first transition to 3D, and fit nicely with the story elements and gameplay.
IN CONCLUSIONATING
Though it's not without its flaws, Pokemon Colosseum definitely deserves some recognition for the new direction it tried to take in a franchise ridden with the same exact tired formula that continues to persist throughout its main series. Colosseum took a big risk in elevating the Pokemon world to a darker and more mature level, and for those that are able to appreciate it for what it is, it pays off... to a certain extent. Unfortunately I think I'd have to say that its single biggest problem IS the Shadow Pokemon system that Colosseum introduced, and while it makes the game difficult and definitely impacts replay value, it's not enough to completely ruin the game.
Though I hear Pokemon XD (which sadly I haven't played) fixed many of the criticisms against Colosseum's Shadow Pokemon (such as greater diversity of Pokemon available and a wider variety of Shadow moves), in my mind Colosseum deserves the recognition for being bold enough to go there in the first place, and make the biggest change the series has had since Gold and Silver. Honestly I couldn't care one way or another about Shadow Pokemon (if they can do it better, I don't see why not bring them back), but I'd absolutely love to see another game set in Orre, or even just one inspired by it. The Pokemon franchise is woefully underrepresented on home consoles, and I pray that one of these years Nintendo wakes up and sees that Colosseum had the makings of something better with a little improvement.
With its complex interpretation of the 3rd Gen mechanics and high difficulty curve, it's not the best introduction to the franchise for new players, though Pokemasters might find it a new and interesting test of skills. If you haven't seen or played it before, love Pokemon, and don't mind something a little different, I'd say check it out and see for yourself.
All in all I give it a DENATTADENNNN
...nah, not really. <3 Game Grumps though.
Shoutout to them for encouraging me to push the boundaries of the way I think about games.
Final Score: 7 / 10