Pokemon Colosseum
Short overview sentence that summarizes the review goes here.
Introduction
An explosion rocks the surrounding area. Confusion ensues from the effects of the blast. A lone figure escapes from a building through a hole in the wall with a strange machine. Several others run after this person shouting for him to return. The lone man hops onto a hovering bike and rides off into the desert, leaving the others behind. Take the role of a thief gone good as you traverse the area, battling with Shadow Pokemon in order to win their heart and bring them back to their senses.
Graphics
Pokemon Colesseum offers stupendous visuals on the Gamecube. The rich backgrounds hint at what is to come in the battles ahead. Pokemon are richly developed through the usage of spectacular detailing. Executed moves are also a plus that is present in the game. Battles are shown with great visual pictures that help to enrich the experience of the title. The scenery of the diverse areas is a testament to how well the game has been put together for a playing audience. Each Pokemon is finely detailed to the exact model of what they are supposed to look like. Edges are nice and smooth and detailing is far from shoddy. The fact that the graphics of this game are superbly done is not an understatement. One have to experience the game for their selves if they want to know the full extent at which this title stresses the visuals.
Sound
Colesseum has impressive sounds to accompany the game. This is a very important part that can’t afford to be overlooked. The team that is responsible for this has wasted no time with the sound quality. Each audio emission comes out loud and clear with the utmost emphasis stressed. Moves come to life with the brilliant quality of audio output leaping from the television. The battle music stirs the emotions of players as they participate in the events as trainers. The cries of Pokemon are the direct representation that is found on their Gameboy counterparts. Even the music for each area is geared to the atmosphere that one experiences upon entering. With the help of a little old fashion imagination, a person can really feel as if they are a part of the game with the aid of every sound and music imbued into the game. Definitely, this is worth the time to play it for veterans of the series or newcomers.
Gameplay
Colesseum has lots of gameplay to offer to the gamer. Everything from a story mode to the regular arena battles for the trainers who just want to fight it out is packed into this title. Nintendo has a title that follows in the line of its predecessors of brilliance on how they make franchises continue to flourish throughout the years. Along with stars the like of Mario and Link, Pokemon is one of the most successful franchises for Nintendo and Colesseum adds another notch to the belt.
One of the newest features to star in this type of Pokemon game is the story mode that goes along with it. The title starts you out as a thief who has left employment with Team Snagem to blaze his own trail out in the world armed with only two Pokemon. During the length of the story, our hero must take charge of the Snag Machine, a device that changes ordinary balls into Snag Balls in order to swipe Pokemon from other trainers. This is something that is a new concept for the series because it was always frowned upon to swipe other people’s Pokemon before. There is one simple catch, however. Not any Pokemon can be captured at will. Special ones with a shadow aura are the only ones that are able to be snagged. These ones are not easily seen by normal people so a special person is needed to spot these renegades out. Employing the help of a partner is a new addition as well in the series. The only job of the partner is to spot out the Pokemon with a shadow aura but it beats not being of any use at all. Also, during the story portion, a few places offer a cash prize for the winner of the battles in their arena. Along with an area that has 100 battles for our hero to go through to reach the top, the story mode offers something of a bit of time to play through. The main reason behind this portion, however, is the fact that you must capture the Pokemon and purify all of them by opening their hearts. It may sound kiddy to do that but it is an extensive process of purification.
Another feature that is present in Colesseum is the ever classic battle arena. Friends can battle each other with a preset party or their own team in a battle to see who the master of the arena is. Also, the 100 battle challenge is present in this section to see how well a person has raised their Pokemon through the art of battle. Double battles are an ever popular event to participate in for twice the action.
In the end, Colesseum has quite a bit of playtime behind it that is definitely worth the hours spend behind the controller.
Lastability
Colesseum has a bunch of areas to experience and complete which makes for some great playtime. It may unfortunately get monotonous playing the same battles over again after a long time and this may cause an extensive shelf life after completion. The game has enough pizzazz to last two weeks at minimum and then declines every week afterwards.
The only thing that would keep this title going for someone is if they wanted to complete everything that they could. That would be catching and purifying all of the shadow Pokemon. This in itself takes some time to do with each individual one. Higher level ones will take the longer time to purify so it may be best to have some coffee ready to play this game for a nice extensive session.
Overall
Colesseum has quite a bit to offer to the player. They can take the role of a person who entails the Pokemon version of a Robin Hood. Battles can be fought as part of the story or against a computer or friend. One thing that really helps the game is the fact of its future usage in the next coming months. With the release of Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green in September stateside, the Pokemon there will be able to be transferred to Colesseum just as the ones from Ruby and Sapphire are capable right now. This could see a small replay section in the next three months.
FINAL SCORE
94 %
