Plain Pokemon Action with nothing really revolutionary in it.
Story: You are a mysterious Pokemon trainer who joined a gang of bad Pokmen trainers who are taking control of Pokemons by turning them into shadow Pokemons. You eventually got fed up of the gang and decided to go your own path and was dubbed a traitor. The mysterious trainer learned about a new devise the gang was developing called a Snag machine, which can turn PokeBalls into Snag balls that can be used to capture Shadow Pokemons. After successfully infiltrating the hide out and stealing the snag device you set off on an adventure to capture and free the shadow Pokemons.
Game design: As you would have noticed for the first time there is a Pokemon adventure in 3D. However this adventure isn’t really anything special. In adventure mode you will be placed on a world map and can select which places you want to go to (Although it would have been nice to drive the bike yourself), there are a series of locations to go to and each will have civilians and trainers in them. There are some trainers you can battle against either for fun or to progress through the story. Each area has its own Colosseum and you will have to work your way through to the Colosseum matches to finish an area.
There is also a multi-player mode and by using a GBA with a GBA cable you can transfer Pokemons you have collected from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire.
Graphics have improved from the N64 and the Pokemon library increased a bit. The Pokemons look a bit more detailed otherwise the figures from the previous games are exactly the same as before.
Game play: If you have played the previous games then this one probably won’t be so much different, but for those who have never played the previous games then this is all there is to know.
This game is an RPG turns based Pokemon fighting game. Up to 4 commands can be given to each Pokemons. You can also switch Pokemons mid battle but can fight with either 6 or 3 Pokemons. If you manage to KO all Pokemons from the other player you win. Pokemons also come in different elemental attributes so each will either be strong or weak against other Pokemons depending on their elemental type or level.
What is new in this game is that you can now also have 2 on 2 fights. In the story mode you will start with 2 Pokemons an can either transfer Pokemons from the GBA games Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire, or you can catch Shadow Pokemons by snagging them from other trainers, but you cannot snag normal Pokemons, luckily there is this girl who can sense Shadow Pokemons for you.
But once you capture Shadow Pokemons they are pretty useless, because first they only have 1 type of attack and that attack will damage them and can cause them to go berserk, and you will have to turn them into normal Pokemons by constantly going in battles with them, only then you can level them up and teach them new attacks. This will greatly slow the games pacing and you will probably prefer fighting with the first 2 Pokemons you got.
Sound: Unfortunately there is no voice cast. You will be reading dialogues through out the entire game, the only voice casting you will hear will be from the narrator of the colosseum battles. Pokemons also still remain very silent; they don’t mention their names during battles. The music does give a good atmosphere for battles and suits the game’s theme well, but it’s a bit to repetitive.
Pokemon Colosseum can be a good hype for fans of the series, but there isn’t really much to the game. There is not much content in the game. As to adding the story mode all other modes were removed such as mini game places or arena battles to collect badges. The story mode itself is really short, around 10 hours or less and otherwise you won’t really get any awards of sorts. You can level up Pokemons after every battle and you can evolve them in a certain place, but they cannot evolve during battle.
The only way this game can remain interesting is if you have 4 friends, each with their own GBA, GBA cables and a copy of either Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire, otherwise you should just rent this game.