Pokémon Colosseum

Moby ID: 13261
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Description official descriptions

Pokémon Colosseum for the Nintendo GameCube is a follow-up to the popular Pokémon Stadium series on the N64. Connect your Game Boy Advance to your GameCube in order to battle with over 200 detailed 3D versions of Pokémon from the Ruby and Sapphire GBA games. As well as uploading characters into Colosseum, players are able to load exclusive Pokémon from the GameCube game and take them on the go with the Game Boy Advance. In addition to the tournament battle mode, Colosseum boasts a full adventure mode with a storyline. In this mode, players follow the trail of a mysterious organization that has been turning Pokémon into Shadow Pokémon.

Spellings

  • ポケモンコロシアム - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (GameCube version)

189 People (159 developers, 30 thanks) · View all

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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 34 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 26 ratings with 2 reviews)

Putting on a dark coat of paint on the same old game

The Good
Pokemon Colosseum's biggest perk is its dark story (in terms of cute little monsters making each other 'faint' its rather dark). You are a trainer who used to be a part of an evil organization and now you are just trying to get by as a Pokemon trainer. However, your former employer doesn't take to kind to deserters and you eventually start to have deadly encounters with them. The story is a welcome change to people who have always wanted something different from pokemon.

The gameplay mechanics are tweaked to help Pokemon maintain some freshness while still being familiar to those who haven't played since the Game Boy games. Battles are now 2-on-2 and there even more items to equip to your Pocket Monsters. During special encounters, you run into Pokemon who have "black hearts" or something like that which makes them 'evil Pokemon'. Once you beat the hell out of them-- I mean 'free' them-- they become yours. Although I personally would have preferred the old method of just catching wild Pokemon, this works just fine (and it doesn't hurt that the controls are very straight forward). And for people who have a Game Boy Advance and some link cables you can upload data from Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen.

The Bad
While it puts some interesting new ideas in the PokeMon universe, the ideas quickly end up becoming window dressing and still don't change the fact this is the same PokeMon you have been playing for years. You still have to save at PokeMon Centers, buy items from PokeMarts (haven't these people heard of Discount Cards?), and collect Gym Badges.

On top of that, the graphics don't do the game any justice. While the frame rate is good, the color scheme is just as dull as any other generic future games. The Pokemon creatures have no shading, texturing, and battle animations as limited as they were in the Nintendo 64.

The Bottom Line
Overall, if you are still a rabid fan of Pokemon, this is a game you could easily play and you like it as much as the other games. If you arn't much of a Pokemon fan or were a Pokemon fan who has gone on to other media, this game won't bring you back into the fold.

GameCube · by Lawnmower Man (137) · 2008

A very watered-down Pokemon game.

The Good
Finally, a console Pokemon game with a story not based on the TV series! Is it what we've been waiting for? Well... not really.

The gameplay seems mostly like the normal Pokemon games, so Pokemon fans won't have too much trouble figuring it out. This time, however, you have a goal deeper than "catching 'em all". You must find a special set of Pokemon turned evil by a... well, EVIL corporation! No, it isn't Team Rocket this time (I think).... EEEVILLLL!!!!!!

The graphics are good. Not great, but good. To be honest, the Pokemon animations look like Pokemon Stadium's animations only with a higher poly count or something. I can let this slide, though. As for the characters, they aren't bad. Some just look plain goofy, though. You know. Bo-bo-bobo-bo's long lost Pokemon addicted brother twice removed and just came back from the 70's. Yeah. That guy.

The music isn't too terrible either. Not nearly at great as other installment's music, though. But, what can you do?

By now, your probably wondering why the title of this review says it's "watered-down". Sounds normal so far, right? Well, this game suffers from one itsy-bitsy tiny problem...

The Bad
YOU. CAN'T. CATCH. THEM. ALL!!!

I'm not kidding! A Pokemon game that limits the Pokemon you can catch. What kind of bull is that?!?!

Well, remember when I said you had to catch EVIL Pokemon? Yeaaah... that's the ONLY Pokemon you can catch. No wild Pokemon. Nothing besides EVILLL Pokemon. I can understand other people's Pokemon can't be caught, but NO WILD ONES? How hard is it to make a console Pokemon?

On a minor note, it just gets boring after a while to me since YOU CAN ONLY CATCH 40 SOMETHING POKEMON! Also, in the Quick Battle thing, you STILL can't choose your own Pokemon. What the hell?

The Bottom Line
This is NOT how Pokemon should be enjoyed! If you want a more enjoyable Pokemon game for the console, buy Pokemon Puzzle League or Pokemon Stadium or even Hey You, Pikachu! All three of those games are far more enjoyable than this!

GameCube · by Deleted (197) · 2010

Discussion

Subject By Date
New game group needed Lampbane (19968) Jan 6, 2009

Trivia

Pre-Order Bonus Disc

In the United States, Canada, and Japan, pre-ordered copies of the game came with an exclusive bonus disc. In addition to game and movie previews, the disc contained one or more Pokémon that could be downloaded to Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, depending on region. The Japanese disc contained Pikachu and Celebi, while the US and Canadian disc contained Jirachi.

Only participating stores carried the pre-order release with the bonus disc. In the United States, these were Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, GameStop, Game Crazy, Kay Bee, Toys 'R' Us, Kmart, Media Play, and Fred Meyer. The participating stores in Canada were Toys 'R' Us, Future Shop, Best Buy, Microplay, and Electronics Boutique.

E-Reader Shadow Pokémon

In Japan, a set of E-Cards was released with Pokémon Colosseum compatibility, allowing players to challenge special trainers in Phenac Colosseum. Scanning all 24 of these cards and defeating all the associated trainers would grant access to a bonus Shadow Pokémon depending on the chosen difficulty for these trainer battles. Three Shadow Pokémon were granted in total, those being Togepi, Mareep, and Scizor.

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Colosseum
Released 2008 on Xbox 360
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Pokémon BATTRIO
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Pokémon Quest
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tiago Jacques.

Additional contributors: gamewarrior, Harmony♡.

Game added May 18, 2004. Last modified April 20, 2023.