Pokemon Colosseum

Written by Jeremy Siegel  on February 13, 2004

Final Glimpse: The Pokemon Empire Strikes Back?

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There's a niche of gamers that I don't think gets enough attention. I am one of those gamers. You know, one of the people that thought Pokemon was pretty cool when it first came out, maybe bought a small Pokemon toy or two (yes, I have a plush Psyduck...that doesn't make me less of a man), and played the heck out of Pokemon Blue, Red, or Yellow, but lost interest when the Poke-universe kept expanding larger and larger. I was all good when there were 150 (or 151) Pokemon to know about, but I've simply stopped trying to learn them all. Well, for those of you who, like me, enjoy Pokemon but are a little intimidated by the masses of Pocket Monsters there are now, rest assured. Pokemon Colosseum promises to be a cool experience, even for those not quite up-to-date with the goings-on of Ash these days.

Pokemon Stadium for the N64 was an interesting experiment. The idea of seeing Pokemon battles in glorious 3D animation was very appealing, as was the ability to upload Pokemon from the Red, Blue, or

Yellow games into Stadium. But where it fell short was that it didn't feel like a separate game; it just felt like an extension of the Game Boy color. Gamers and Poke-fans worldwide felt that Stadium was on the verge of being something really great, but in the end left them feeling incomplete.

Colosseum seems to not only make up for the short-comings of Stadium, but to also go beyond what gamers were hoping for. The new RPG game in Colosseum seems to be everything you would want from a GB/GBA Pokemon game with the enhanced graphics of the Cube. The player models and animations are nice, but the effects are nothing short of awesome. The electric and fire attacks look incredible; you have to see them to believe them. Also, there's a neat futuristic motorcycle-thingy that you can use to travel throughout the expansive world, so no more of the tedious walking found in the handheld Pokemon adventures.

In addition to the typical Pokemon in the battles, there are new Shadow Pokemon that you have to take from other trainers in the game and rehabilitate towards goodness in the RPG. Of course, until they are rid of their evil ways, they can be unruly and uncooperative during battle. This seems like just the kind of new twist that could make the gaming experience that much fresher and different from the myriads of Pokemon games before. Plus, the whole game has a darker edge...and as everybody knows, giving something a darker feel makes it that much better (yes, I'm saying, albeit not too subtly, that Empire Strikes Back was and always will be the superior Star Wars movie. Hey, everything's better with a SW reference in it).

I know what you're thinking: "What about multiplayer?" Well, get your GBA's and link cables ready, because the game supports 4 players in multiplayer, one using the Cube controller, the other three using GBA's. It looks like you have to go one-on-one or two-on-two - no three-person battles. Although I'm not sure how a three-person battle would work out, so it's no biggie. Your Pokemon from the Ruby and Sapphire games can be used in multiplayer, although it appears that you can't bring them into the RPG, which is about what I would expect. It isn't fun to start an RPG with your characters all maxed out. Another neat thing is that you can take the Pokemon you collect during the RPG quest and pit them against your Pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire on the GBA.

The e-reader is going to be utilized as well, and I'm sure Nintendo will release all sorts of collectible e-reader cards with rare Pokemon and such. What other connectivity there will be remains to be seen. And no, there is no online connectivity planned for Colosseum.