Gamecube Pokémon Colosseum

[Guel Jeturk]

Set in the desert region of Orre, the player controls Wes, a former member of Team Snagem. Throughout the game, Wes rescues "Shadow Pokémon" Pokémon who have had their hearts darkened by Team Cipher, an antagonistic organization via snagging. Rui, a non-player character, serves as Wes's sidekick and identifies Shadow Pokémon.

Pokémon Colosseum is a RPG developed by Genius Sonority and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the GameCube.

Unlike previous titles' random encounters with Pokémon, Colosseum allows the player to steal ("snag") the Pokémon of other Pokémon Trainers. The game also features single-player and multiplayer battle modes.

Pokémon Colosseum was exhibited at E3 2003 and featured Pokémon models ported from the Nintendo 64's Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2. North American pre-orders included a bonus disc that allows the player to download the Pokémon Jirachi on the Game Boy Advance titles Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire while Japanese bonus discs featured similar downloads for Celebi and Pikachu.

Upon release, the game was a critical and commercial success, with praise directed at its graphics and music. It sold 1.15 million copies in the United States and 656,270 in Japan. Pokémon, Colosseum Sold a total of 2.41 million copies worldwide. A successor, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, released for the GameCube in 2005.

 

[DunkeyKong]

One of the greatest Pokemon games, even the visuals are ahead of it's time

It's just a really great one, underrated characters too

 

[Mr. SyS]

I still love Colosseum today because it dared to do something that the main series never had the balls to do and that was grow with its audience.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

I rented it and bought XD: Gale of Darkness in the early 2000's, though I liked XD: Gale of Darkness more.

 

[starseeker300]

anyone else do the mt battle challenge in battle mode to get Ho-oh. I marathoned it in one setting because I though you had to do it in one sitting, turns out you dont ?

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

This game blew me away when it came out. Unfortunately it made me not as impressed when the main pokemon games became 3D. Colosseum and XD had excellent battle animations and a lot of the regular pokemon games....didn't.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

I missed out on this all together, but I imagine I'd like it. Is it as hard as I've heard it is?

 

[starseeker300]

I missed out on this all together, but I imagine I'd like it. Is it as hard as I've heard it is?

its a lot harder then other official pokemon games, mostly due to limited pokemon selection, 43 before the final boss and an additional 9 in the postgame. but by no means is it as hard as some of the difficulty hacks that exist nowadays, its not like a kaizo or anything, nor does it require an intimate knowledge of competitive pokemon battling

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

its a lot harder then other official pokemon games, mostly due to limited pokemon selection, 43 before the final boss and an additional 9 in the postgame. but by no means is it as hard as some of the difficulty hacks that exist nowadays, its not like a kaizo or anything, nor does it require an intimate knowledge of competitive pokemon battling

I'm definitely interested in trying it, as well as XD. I've heard XD is really good too, actually... but maybe even harder?

 

[starseeker300]

nah xd is easier, but only by a little bit, and has a lot more pokemon options as well

 

[Renirambus]

It's hard, but I love it!

That Latin America inspired theme for Colosseum's version of Miror B. is amazing!

 

[uminekojiru]

Great to see this thread, as I'm about to finish the main story in Colosseum. As a teenager, I enjoyed this so much. I replayed a few times even. However, now that I'm a bit older, I feel like I can look at it with a bit less rose tinted glasses.

This is definitely a charming game, way more charming than I remember. Characters, locations, and music stick out to me. Not to mention some story moments as well (the opening is still very fun even today). The shortcomings I have with this game are definitely softened by the charm of the game.

Unfortunately, there is one annoying thorn on the rose. A lot of the moves they give Pokemon are a bit odd, to put it politely. I know generation three is a bit notorious for shallow move pools, but sometimes it seems a bit harsh. Qwilfish is a great example. The only poison move it gets is Poison Sting until the post game where you can get the TM for Sludge Bomb. To me, this decision limits the creativity of what teams you can make as some Pokemon are seemingly designed to not be usable. Combine that with the very steep level curves and it gets a bit frustrating. The challenge feels a bit artificial. It just doesn't feel fair when you've only got Poison Sting and the opponent has a Pokemon that would go down in one hit if only you had a better move.

I've heard that the game was rushed and that there was content cut, so maybe that explains some things. But to me, the seeming lack of forethought of movesets is Pokemon Colosseum's biggest flaw. I could easily see a situation where they were going through each Shadow Pokemon's moves and just couldn't get to them all in time. Or maybe they were shuffled around at the last second? Who knows. From what I remember, this was not nearly as annoying in XD: Gale of Darkness so maybe they realised it was a mistake.

Either way, I've been having fun despite a few moments of annoyance. I hope everyone else has fond memories of it too. Has anyone here done the Mt. Battle challenge and gotten the Ho-Oh? I'm planning on doing it for the first time myself after I'm done with the story.

 

[starseeker300]

Great to see this thread, as I'm about to finish the main story in Colosseum. As a teenager, I enjoyed this so much. I replayed a few times even. However, now that I'm a bit older, I feel like I can look at it with a bit less rose tinted glasses.

This is definitely a charming game, way more charming than I remember. Characters, locations, and music stick out to me. Not to mention some story moments as well (the opening is still very fun even today). The shortcomings I have with this game are definitely softened by the charm of the game.

Unfortunately, there is one annoying thorn on the rose. A lot of the moves they give Pokemon are a bit odd, to put it politely. I know generation three is a bit notorious for shallow move pools, but sometimes it seems a bit harsh. Qwilfish is a great example. The only poison move it gets is Poison Sting until the post game where you can get the TM for Sludge Bomb. To me, this decision limits the creativity of what teams you can make as some Pokemon are seemingly designed to not be usable. Combine that with the very steep level curves and it gets a bit frustrating. The challenge feels a bit artificial. It just doesn't feel fair when you've only got Poison Sting and the opponent has a Pokemon that would go down in one hit if only you had a better move.

I've heard that the game was rushed and that there was content cut, so maybe that explains some things. But to me, the seeming lack of forethought of movesets is Pokemon Colosseum's biggest flaw. I could easily see a situation where they were going through each Shadow Pokemon's moves and just couldn't get to them all in time. Or maybe they were shuffled around at the last second? Who knows. From what I remember, this was not nearly as annoying in XD: Gale of Darkness so maybe they realised it was a mistake.

Either way, I've been having fun despite a few moments of annoyance. I hope everyone else has fond memories of it too. Has anyone here done the Mt. Battle challenge and gotten the Ho-Oh? I'm planning on doing it for the first time myself after I'm done with the story.

I have gotten Ho-oh. it was great. The moveset thing is a problem shared by all gen 1-3 games and not just colosseum, honestly even continuing into gen 4 for certain pokemon

 

[uminekojiru]

I have gotten Ho-oh. it was great.

Very nice. May I ask how long it took you? I've heard 8-10 hours is what to expect.

The moveset thing is a problem shared by all gen 1-3 games and not just colosseum, honestly even continuing into gen 4 for certain pokemon

That checks out from what I've heard and experienced. I still think they could have helped it a bit. I was looking at Ariados that I caught and it had Sludge Bomb. That's why I theorized that they maybe were short on time to give each Pokemon the attention it needed in the moveset department.

 

[starseeker300]

Very nice. May I ask how long it took you? I've heard 8-10 hours is what to expect.

i really dont remember how long it took my to get Ho-oh after i beat the game. a while though, its the 100% completion reward in that game, you have to purify all the shadow pokemon and then complete mt battle in battle mode with a registered team form story mode without changing that team of 6, suppossedly you can take breaks but i did the whole thing in 1 1/2 hour long session ?

 

[uminekojiru]

i really dont remember how long it took my to get Ho-oh after i beat the game. a while though, its the 100% completion reward in that game, you have to purify all the shadow pokemon and then complete mt battle in battle mode with a registered team form story mode without changing that team of 6, suppossedly you can take breaks but i did the whole thing in 1 1/2 hour long session ?

Ah, okay. Thanks. I'm going to do it in one session too.