Topic: Pokemon Colosseum Import Review

[Jonnyboy117]

You can use this thread to discuss and ask questions about Ben's import review of Pokemon Colosseum.  The article is found here:

http://www.planetgamecube.com/reviews.cfm?action=profile&id=473

I'll make sure Ben gets in here to respond to any questions.

[ralph98201]

what is the purpose of having that girl follow you around throughout the game?

[Pale]

Well, since i complained about getting this, I have recently got it and now I can answer questions.  The girl tells you who the shadow pokemon are....basically she is the reason the whole story begins...and your background is mysterious.

[Aussie Ben PGC]

Dammit, the only question I get, and someone answers it for me, thus taking all purpose away from me.  I saw it this morning when I got to work, too -- I just didn't have my login details or I would have answered it there.

Did you know that there are JOHTO Pokemon to get in Colosseum?

...yes, you probably did.

[Pale]

My question is this...  Why the hell don't we have any of thre great organization or pokedex info of the old stadium games?  It really really torks me off...

[ralph98201]

is the game deep/long enough to justify purchasing it? or could i get just about all it has to offer with a 5 day rental?

[Pale]

Some reviews are calling story mode only 10 hours long....  Now i'm a pokefreak....so I spend time leveling up...but I'm on 14 hours right now and I don't think I'm quite half way through the story mode because I have only caught 18 shadow pokemon and there are supposedly like 40.  As for the actual Colosseum part of it....Its uhmm kind of lacking.  I was seriously looking forward to be able to store all of my pokemon on this cart and then have quick access to them in the colosseum.... that isn't the case at all.  You only get 3 boxes in story mode, and in order to use them in Colosseum you have to register them anyway.  I dunno.  So, to sum up my early feelings...  Story mode is definately a riot and a nice new spin on pokemon....  Colosseum mode is QUITE lacking.....

[ralph98201]

hmm... methinks a rental would be prudent... only 40 pkmn? BAH!!! nintendo better not be shoving this off as the pkmn rpg everyone's been waiting for... i refuse to accept it!!!!:-)

[Ian Sane]

"Why the hell don't we have any of thre great organization or pokedex info of the old stadium games?"

Because in Japan they released a seperate "game" called Pokemon Box that handled those features because they wanted to, you know, rip everyone off.

"nintendo better not be shoving this off as the pkmn rpg everyone's been waiting for... i refuse to accept it!!!"

I'm sure they are.  I've noticed that when the fans request something that Nintendo isn't really interested in they half ass it and then act like they fulfilled our request.  For examples see their lame attempts to provide sports games, mature games, and LAN play.  They likely don't want to actually make a 3D Pokemon RPG (for reasons I don't get) so they're giving us this mediocre half-assed approach that is nothing like what we've asked for (we want to catch Pokemon and collect badges like in the GB games) to shut us up.  Now they don't have to give us a 3D Pokemon RPG because they "technically" already have.

Or maybe Nintendo just grossly misinterpreted what the fans wanted.  Either way it ticks me off.  Any retard could design the basic gameplay of a 3D Pokemon RPG.  

[Jale]

I think that if Nintendo really want to make a 3D Pokemon that will sell really well then they will wait for the N5 and then make one that is a MMORPG with all 3 lands and all the pokemon. That would be sweet.

[Mario]

I think having a "full" 3D Pokemon RPG on a console would hurt sales of the Gameboy games, which is something Nintendo does not want to risk, and i understand that.

[Ian Sane]

"I think having a 'full' 3D Pokemon RPG on a console would hurt sales of the Gameboy games, which is something Nintendo does not want to risk, and i understand that."

I can understand not wanting to hurt Gameboy Pokemon sales but Nintendo has be pretty dumb to think that people wouldn't buy BOTH games.  Did Metroid Fusion cut into Metroid Prime sales?  Of course not.  All the Pokemon fans are already buying the Stadium games so they're obviously willing to buy two games.  Though maybe that's the whole reasoning: the fans will buy it anyway so why put in the effort.

Most of the time Nintendo tends to treat its games as art but with Pokemon they seem to treat it primarily as product.

[Pale]

Don't put down the story mode in Colosseum... You're right, it isn't what you are looking for, but it is definately different and fun, and if you are a pokemon fan, I think its a must own.  If you want to try out pokemon for the first time, I would go gameboy in a heart beat.  I think Ben said something similar.

[odifiend]

I am severely disappointed in the colloseum mode also.  In the 64 incrarnations, all you had to do was make sure you had an item on your game cart to equip it to pokemon before battle, you could rummage through your boxes to get pokemon to enter, and yes you could store a hell of a lot of pokemon and items.  This game part of the game makes me livid.  Not only is it slower moving because you have to register everything before you battle and link your GBA to register, but it offers less than the 64 versions IMO.  Also the fact that you can register only one team is a slap in the face, where the hell are those 48 blocks of memory going to?
Also after playing MGS:TTS where there is so much dialogue, it doesn't even feel right that everything is in silence except background music.  Gosh I miss that announcer.
And if this is supposed to be a pokemon for an older crowd I should not have to read rubbish like,"I heard if the door to a pokemon's heart closes..."  I think it should be from now on illegal for Nintendo to use metaphors in Pokemon games.  However other than that salient lameness, I have enjoyed the story mode but it is not worth the price of the game (so far, I too am about halfway through).

[Aussie Ben PGC]

The whole shadow concept is definitely a cool idea, but seeing as it was all in Japanese for me, I didn't get any of that delightful Engrish.  Ah well.  As mentioned in the review, depending on your skill, Colosseum's story mode will be short to medium -- depending on how quickly you burn through it and if you bother capturing and "purifying" all the Shadow Pokemon.  Apparently, Pokemon gender is random except for Espeon and Umbreon (and some others that are male only, like Hitmontop), so if you're the kind of Poke-fan who doesn't mind constantly resetting the game so that they can get female Pokemon, you can probably get a few more Pokemon through breeding and evolution.

Of course, if you have Leaf Green or Fire Red, you could always transfer a Ditto across and breed whatever the heck you want.    I've just managed to transfer a Meowth from Leaf Green over to my copy of Ruby without any problems.

As for the reason the boxes are so small and the like, yeah, it's due to the existance of Pokemon Box, the stupidest piece of software ever.  The GB Emulation, Pokemon storage and extended Pokedex have ALL been moved over there, making the cooler features of Stadium absent in Colosseum.  I was really hoping that Nintendo would merge Box and Colosseum for the English versions, but with the announcement of Box in Europe, and the small box sizes already mentioned for the English version, it's obvious that Nintendo's planning to release Box as well and make us pay more money.

[mouse_clicker]

Quote
Because in Japan they released a seperate "game" called Pokemon Box that handled those features because they wanted to, you know, rip everyone off.

The scary thing is people actually buy it. O_O Although I guess the simple fact that Pokemon still sells amazingly well despite Nintendo milking the franchise with 2 seperate versions every time should have conditioned me by now.

[odifiend]

Any chance that capatilist Nintendo would allow us to somehow register our Pokemon Colloseum and give us Pokemon Box?  I can't justify actually buying it unless it interacts heavily with Colloseum.  Aussie Ben, do you know how much memory Box takes up by the way?

[Pale]

Well, i registerred Colosseum and got some cool icons!!!

=)

[joshnickerson]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"we want to catch Pokemon and collect badges like in the GB games"

I kinda disagree with you on that point, Ian. As much as I love the GBA games, the "8 Badges and the Elite Four" system was kinda getting stale, so I'm kind of enjoying this little diversion from the usual formula. Think of it as the "Majora's Mask" of the Pokemon series. Perhaps we can expect a return back to the usual format on the N5.

As for the game itself, the only thing I have a beef with at this point is the sound. While I love the music, I'm annoyed there was no voices whatsoever (I woulda gladly accepted "Zelda-ish" grunts and cries) and that they're STILL using the 8-bit Pokemon cries from the Gameboy. C'mon, you have a whole stable of Pokemon voices from the anime to use, you just used them in Pokemon Channel and Smash Bros, USE THEM! While I was playing the game last night, I actually caught myself doing the Pokemon voices myself. Who knew I could do a perfect rendition of Bayleef?

[Ian Sane]

"I kinda disagree with you on that point, Ian. As much as I love the GBA games, the '8 Badges and the Elite Four' system was kinda getting stale, so I'm kind of enjoying this little diversion from the usual formula."

Even if it is getting kind of stale we've never played that formula in full 3D.  People talk about how they want a Pokemon MMORPG and all this stuff but all I want is to play a Red/Blue style Pokemon game in full 3D.  Sure it's not really that innovative but it would just be so cool and we've never had a chance to experience it before.  That's one thing that really bugs me about Colosseum.  The game comes across as an attempt to innovate and take the Pokemon in a new direction.  That's great in theory but the problem is that Pokemon still has tons more potential in it's current state so they should finish with that format before switching to a new one.  If they want to try something new do it on the Gameboy where we've already had three Pokemon RPGs.  We've NEVER had a 3D Pokemon RPG so why pick the FIRST one to change the whole formula?  Nintendo is thinking of this game as the fourth Pokemon RPG when they should be thinking of it as the first 3D Pokemon RPG.

My brother, who is a HUGE Pokemon fan, has been playing Colosseum for the last few days and here is his main complaint: "the problem with this game is that it plays like a regular RPG.  Everything that makes Pokemon appealing over other RPGs has been removed."

[Pale]

I'd have to agree with your brother on that point.  It was made by a "regular rpg" maker anyway.  It does feel very similar to a final fantasy game only with the characters I love.  Again, compared to pokemon gameboy games, of course you are gonna have complaints, but it is still a crap load of fun.

[ralph98201]

"Even if it is getting kind of stale we've never played that formula in full 3D. People talk about how they want a Pokemon MMORPG and all this stuff but all I want is to play a Red/Blue style Pokemon game in full 3D."

AMEN!

[Bill Aurion]

I second that...And hopefully we'll get one eventually...

[joshnickerson]

I can see your points, Ian, and I DO honestly hope we get a traditional Pokemon game on the Cube or the next system in the future, but I'm still enjoying Colosseum, despite it's issues. I'm just trying to think positive, I guess

[Ian Sane]

I'm not saying Pokemon Colosseum is a bad game it just doesn't live up to its potential.  It's like Super Mario Sunshine or Street Fighter III.