Pokémon Colosseum

Overview

Pokémon Colosseum is a role-playing game developed by Genius Sonority and published by Nintendo. It's the first Pokémon game released for the GameCube and is also the first Pokémon RPG designed in 3D, featuring gameplay similar to the Game Boy Pokémon RPGs. Because of this the game is considered somewhat less of a successor to the Nintendo 64 Pokémon Stadium series and more of a home console adaptation of the mainline games.

While similar to the Game Boy games, Colosseum features various gameplay changes including an emphasis on double battles, no Gym Leaders to fight, and no wild Pokémon to catch.

Like the Pokémon Stadium games, Colosseum also allows players to link to the handheld versions of Pokémon to battle with Pokémon from those games in full 3D.

Story

In the region of Orre, Pokémon are being turned into heartless fighters by an evil group. You control a teenage boy, Wes, who during the opening of the game is seen destroying the evil Team Snagem's headquarters while also stealing their newest piece of technology, a portable snag machine, a device used for stealing Pokémon from their trainers. During the course of the game Wes travels around stealing Shadow Pokémon from the remaining members of Team Snagem as he discovers another growing threat in the Orre region.

Gameplay

Pokémon Colosseum features major gameplay changes compared to the Pokémon games of the past. In this title there are no random battles in the wild, meaning no Pokémon to catch by normal means. Instead you obtain new Pokémon by stealing them from other trainers that challenge you through the game. The catch to this though is you can only steal "Shadow Pokémon" which are Pokémon that had been stolen from their original trainers and been put through a painful process to become emotionless fighters. Thus there is a very limited number of obtainable Pokémon until you complete the main story where you are allowed to trade Pokémon over from the Gameboy Advance Pokémon games, Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald, and Pokémon Fire Red/Leaf Green.

Colosseum also features a more fleshed out story than previous Pokémon games with focus on clearing story points instead of going across a region collecting gym badges, as the Orre region has no gym challenge for the player to face. There is also a heavy emphasis on double battles a concept introduced in Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, with very few one on one Pokémon battles throughout the entire game. The last major addition is with the Shadow Pokémon. These Pokémon start out only knowing one attack which causes recoil damage when used. They must be purified by spending time and fighting alongside Wes in order to gain levels, learn attacks, evolve, and be traded. Other from these changes Colosseum is similar to the other Pokémon games as you spend the majority of your time traveling from area to area while fighting other trainers to level your team of six.

Obtainable Pokémon

196. Espeon

197. Umbreon

296. Makuhita

153. Bayleef

156. Quilava

159. Croconaw

164. Noctowl

180. Flaaffy

188. Skiploom

195. Quagsire

200. Misdreavus

218. Slugma

162. Furret

193. Yanma

223. Remoraid

226. Mantine

211. Qwilfish

307. Meditite

206. Dunsparce

333. Swablu

185. Sudowoodo

237. Hitmontop

255. Entei

166. Ledian

256. Suicune

207. Gligar

234. Stantler

221. Piloswine

215. Sneasel

190. Aipom

198. Murkrow

205. Forretress

329. Vibrava

168. Ariados

210. Granbull

243. Raikou

192. Sunflora

225. Delibird

214. Heracross

227. Skarmory

241. Miltank

359. Absol

229. Houndoom

357. Tropius

376. Metagross

248. Tyranitar

235. Smeargle

217. Ursaring

213. Shuckle

176. Togetic

311. Plusle - Obtainable as a gift from Duking

250. Ho-oh - Obtainable after all shadow Pokémon have been snagged

251. Celebi - Obtainable by Japanese bonus disc

025. Pikachu - Obtainable by Japanese bonus disc

385. Jirachi - Obtainable by American bonus disc

175. Togepi - Obtainable by Japanese e-card

179. Mareep - Obtainable by Japanese e-card

212. Scizor - Obtainable by Japanese e-card

Trivia

• Until the fourth generation remakes of Gold and Silver, the only way to obtain several second-generation Pokémon, including the starters from Gold and Silver, was to transfer them from this game or from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness via the GBA-GameCube transfer cable. This meant that in order to complete the Poké Dex a player needed to own a prohibitive amount of hardware.
• A pre-order bonus called the Bonus Disk was given out to anyone who reserved a copy of Pokémon Colosseum before it's release. It contains video previews as well as event Pokémon that can be transferred to Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire via the GBA-GameCube transfer cable. The disk's specific content varied by region and could only connect with GBA games from the same region.