Spinoff Spotlight: Pokémon Colosseum
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Art by Daylight.
Introduction
Over its long history, Pokémon has produced many spinoff games to add to its franchise. One of the earliest of these games was Pokémon Colosseum, a title for the GameCube released in 2003 in Japan and 2004 for the rest of the world. Often praised as the first true 3D Pokémon experience, released ten years before the generation six titles, Pokémon Colosseum remains a fan favorite among spinoffs for its unique mechanics, darker tone, and far greater difficulty.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Double Battles
One of the main things that makes Pokémon Colosseum unique is that the whole main story is played in double battles instead of the single battles mainline Pokémon games are mostly made up of. This requires a different approach to teambuilding than other games, as moves such as Explosion and Earthquake can affect your partner as well. This also opens up a number of team support options that might not be seen in a single battle-oriented game, such as Yawn Quagsire or Espeon, your starter, which comes equipped with Reflect and Helping Hand. Additionally, the limited number of Pokémon available in the main story, like Misdreavus being the only obtainable Ghost-type and your Grass-type options being limited to Bayleef, Skiploom, Sunflora, and Tropius, makes considering the synergy of your team all the more important. However, you are able to catch the middle-stage Johto starters, something not doable in any main-series game at the time, as well as fully evolved pseudo-legendaries in Tyranitar and Metagross to add power to your teams.
The bosses in Pokémon Colosseum also use teams designed with double battle strategies in mind. Miror B. uses a team that has four Ludicolos with either Rain Dish or Swift Swim, all of which know Rain Dance and have moves like Mega Drain and Leech Seed. Dakim brings pairs of Pokémon that know Earthquake and Protect in order to damage both of your Pokémon while protecting his own. Venus's teams pack Attract alongside other status moves like Sweet Kiss, Stun Spore, and Will-O-Wisp to hinder your team. Evice brings a Skill Swap Slowking alongside a Slaking as well as a Scizor with Swords Dance and Baton Pass. These distinctive strategies both highlight the possibilities of the game's double battle-only format and add to the difficulty of the game by often presenting a real challenge.
Snagging Shadow Pokémon
There are no wild Pokémon in Pokémon Colosseum. Instead, most new team members are obtained by capturing the corrupted Shadow Pokémon owned by other trainers. Functionally, this is executed in the same way as catching a wild Pokémon: by lowering its HP and then throwing Poké Balls at it. Poké Balls thrown at another trainer's Pokémon will be converted into Snag Balls, which have an animation featuring a hand literally grabbing the Pokémon you're stealing, really driving home that you're basically Team Rocket to the game's NPCs. Luckily, most of these Pokémon do come at a reasonable level for the point they appear at, since they won't be able to level up for a while.
Purification
When a Shadow Pokémon is captured, it isn't that great off the bat. It only knows one move, Shadow Rush, a typeless 90-Base Power move that deals recoil damage to the user and has a higher critical hit ratio when the Pokémon enters Hyper Mode. It also won't gain any experience or friendship from battles. Instead, the Pokémon will have a heart gauge, five bars that indicate how much the door to the Pokémon's heart is still closed. This gauge can be emptied through various means, such as battling with the Pokémon, calling it when it enters Hyper Mode, or walking around with it in your party. As the heart gauge is lowered, three of the Pokémon's moves as well as its nature will be revealed. Once the gauge is emptied, the Pokémon can be purified, giving it access to its final move as well as all of the experience and friendship it gained after at least two of its heart gauge bars have been emptied. Alternatively, rare items known as Time Flutes can be used to instantly purify a Pokémon, just in case there's one that's hard to purify or that you want to use right away. However, this purification cannot take place until you get to Agate Village, which isn't reached until after you first can snag Shadow Pokémon, so they'll remain in that form for a while.
Story and Characters
Pokémon Colosseum stands out as being one of the darker and grittier entries in the Pokémon series. It begins with a literal bang as the player character, Wes, blows a hole in the side of a base belonging to the evil Team Snagem and rides off with their Snag Machine. Shortly after, you enter Phenac City to encounter two members of Cipher, the game's secondary antagonists, carrying a sack that contains a kidnapped victim, your future sidekick, Rui. After rescuing Rui, she joins up with Wes, and the player finds out that she's been targeted because she's able to see the aura that identifies Shadow Pokémon; she then reveals that these Pokémon are dangerous and even attack humans. Throughout the game, Wes and Rui come to learn that these Pokémon are created by removing their emotions and turning them into soulless fighting machines.
Apart from their stealing and corrupting of innocent pocket monsters, Cipher also holds an iron grip over most of the areas in Orre and terrorizes those not under its control. Three of Cipher's admins control these areas through various means, such as holding a beloved Pokémon of Pyrite Town's mayor hostage. They then use the colosseums in these areas to distribute the dangerous Shadow Pokémon to trainers strong enough to win challenges for them. This seems to be an effective plan, considering how much they're able to spread these Pokémon across the Orre region, especially as Cipher has teamed up with Team Snagem, using the thieves as their muscle to gather Pokémon to corrupt. In fact, since it's mentioned that most people, apart from Rui, can't see the auras that distinguish Shadow Pokémon, it's likely that if Rui had been successfully captured, there would have been no way to stop Cipher's plan.
Accompanying the story is a cast of equally interesting characters. Wes has a uniquely cool protagonist backstory as a former member of the evil Team Snagem, and there is ambiguity around what his intentions were when he stole the Snag Machine, as it's not indicated he was aware of Cipher's Shadow Pokémon plot until after he met Rui. Had he not come across her being kidnapped, he may very well have become a villain in his own right, since the Snag Machine is not designed exclusively for Shadow Pokémon. Rui serves as Wes's sidekick and character foil as well as the voice of reason. Fittingly, she is also the granddaughter of Eagun, the trainer in Agate Village who teaches you about the purification process. Besides Wes and Rui, the player will encounter the mad scientist Ein in the form of a main story boss, who is the brains behind the Shadow Pokémon plot; the Kids Grid, a group of children who become Wes's primary source of information on the location of Shadow Pokémon; and fan-favorite Cipher Admin Miror B., a man in a gold disco suit with a huge afro wielding four Ludicolos accompanied by some of the funkiest music the Pokémon series has to offer.
Colosseums and Mt. Battle
Basically, the only form of side and post-game content comes in the form of the titular colosseums. There are five different colosseums available in Orre and a sixth one exclusive to the game's Battle Mode. These consist of several rounds of back-to-back battles and reward the player with money and TMs for successfully completing their challenges. Additionally, the Deep Colosseum in The Under will allow the player to face the Cipher Admins again in order to obtain any of their Shadow Pokémon if they failed to catch them during the main story, as well as a final boss who possesses a Shadow Shuckle. In Story Mode colosseums, you can play with your in-game party with Shadow Pokémon and no level restrictions. Battle Mode, on the other hand, has level caps and restrictions on what Pokémon you can bring and also offers a greater challenge.
Mt. Battle serves a similar function to the colosseums, but it is more akin to the main series's Battle Towers, except instead of a tower, it's an active volcano, and the final trainer is fought on a platform over the mouth of said volcano. It consists of ten areas of ten battles each, which get more difficult as you ascend in Story Mode or are set at level 50 or 100 in Battle Mode. Also, unlike the main series Battle Towers, your Pokémon will gain experience in Mt. Battle, and the challenge ends after the 100th floor, with each area able to be challenged again at any time. Clearing each area will reward the player with Poké Coupons, used to purchase TMs, rare Berries, and held items for their Pokémon. Beating all 100 floors in Story Mode will give you a Time Flute, which is absolutely useless if you've already purified all of the Pokémon possible. Beating all 100 floors in Battle Mode after you've purified all possible Pokémon, however, will reward you with a level 70 Ho-Oh.
Conclusion
Although Pokémon Colosseum has its problems, namely how linear and battle heavy it is, as well as the restricted teambuilding options due to the limited number of Pokémon available, the game is undoubtedly a novel entry into the Pokémon library. Its characters, dark story, and unique mechanics make it stand out among other side games, and it would go on to get a sequel in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness a year after its release. It's a great game for Pokémon fans looking for something different from the usual main-series games atmospherically or who are looking for a challenge. Despite its flaws and its age, nearly 20 years old at the time of writing, it's not hard to see why Pokémon Colosseum has remained a fan favorite to this day.
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