It's hard for me to look at or review Pokemon objectively because of nostalgia blindness but Genius Sonority's Pokemon Colosseum is one that deserves a proper examination. This game is, and will probably continue to be, the most creative use of the Pokemon IP to date.
The game immediately sells itself by purporting to break one of Pokemon's cardinal rules - that is, the capturing of Pokemon owned by other trainers. Rather than devolve into something that tries too hard to be edgy or provocative, it sets up a realistic and compelling scenario for the aforementioned "rule-breaking", where the Pokemon that the main character, Wes, is capturing using his trademark Snag Machine have been raised into aggressive and dangerous creatures by the villainous team, Cipher. They are no longer the Pokemon we know, but Shadow Pokemon that must be cured of their violent conditioning; and yet, even within the rule-breaking that snagging allows, we cleverly loop back to the series tenets of raising Pokemon with care in order to form a lasting bond. Colosseum does well in general to tread the line between dark and outright edgy and the result is a compelling, convincing atmosphere. The world design for the Orre region, based on the southwestern US, is nothing short of exceptional. The towns and dungeons are varied and eye-catching, yet manage to tie together the region's cohesive theme of being rough and barren, which in turn relates to its lack of wild Pokemon and the player's (as well as other trainers) dependency on Pokemon brought in from abroad or captured or "snagged" from Cipher. This fascinating world that Genius Sonority has built is given another layer of immersion when considering the great score composed by Tsukasa Tawada; a mix of jazz, prog rock and piano tracks that complement its scenes and battles perfectly. It is not only one of the most unique OSTs in a Pokemon game, but among the outright best. Years later, Tawada has done laps around Game Freak's sound team.
The character designs are quite different than Ken Sugimori's works for the mainline Pokemon series yet no doubt feel eye-catching, iconic and memorable. The flashy Miror B is remembered to this day while the main character Wes seems to perfectly capture that 2000s "Rule of Cool Above All" gaming zeitgeist in his capacity as the game's hero.
As for the gameplay and Pokemon themselves, Genius Sonority have once again knocked it out of the park. The game's focus on Pokemon from the Johto Region allowed these Pokemon to remain relevant even in the Advance Generation, even though their games (Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal) had been lost to time as Pokemon moved from the Game Boy Color to the Game Boy Advance. While this may seem unworthy of any attention today, it was massive in 2004, especially to anyone who endeavored to complete their Pokedex. The same goes for this game's decision to make Double Battles the focus of the game, something that had only been a bit-part feature in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The focus on Doubles not only sets Colosseum apart from the mainline series of games but makes full use of the previously underutilized mode, with boss characters having true synergy in their lineups. Instead of merely sending out a Pokemon for you to wail on as a punching bag, your enemies will set up a Protect while their partner uses Earthquake, or utilize Skill Swap to unlock Slaking's latent potential and turn him into a monster. Like with snagging, Colosseum has managed to not only use the feature of a doubles-oriented campaign as an excited selling point, but baked it into the gameplay in the best way possible, adding an organic sense of challenge through enemy trainers exploiting strategies specific to doubles as a medium.
The game is not perfect, of course. It lacks a true overworld or routes, limiting exploration to towns and dungeons. The amount of Pokemon you can actually obtain through snagging is quite low [around 50~], owing to the game encouraging the player to transfer Pokemon from the handheld Pokemon games on the GBA. That said, neither of these is a problem for the experience in Colosseum itself, as there are more than enough hours of gameplay and the story-recruited Shadow Pokemon are more than capable fighters, albeit these drawbacks nonetheless leave one wanting for something more.
All in all, Pokemon Colosseum is the work of a developer that didn't behold itself to any preconceived notions of Pokemon, yet had the guile to work all of their ideas into something believable under the weight of its massive name. Every instance of gameplay and concept design is integrated well into the final product to the point where it has become something that sticks in the minds of those who have played it even years later. We will never see something like it again - it's lightning in a bottle. At the same time it's a rare glimpse of what Pokemon has the potential to be, beyond it's by-the-books campaigns, simple and static battle system, and carefully-branded IP. Beyond all that is the rebel that is Pokemon Colosseum.
The game immediately sells itself by purporting to break one of Pokemon's cardinal rules - that is, the capturing of Pokemon owned by other trainers. Rather than devolve into something that tries too hard to be edgy or provocative, it sets up a realistic and compelling scenario for the aforementioned "rule-breaking", where the Pokemon that the main character, Wes, is capturing using his trademark Snag Machine have been raised into aggressive and dangerous creatures by the villainous team, Cipher. They are no longer the Pokemon we know, but Shadow Pokemon that must be cured of their violent conditioning; and yet, even within the rule-breaking that snagging allows, we cleverly loop back to the series tenets of raising Pokemon with care in order to form a lasting bond. Colosseum does well in general to tread the line between dark and outright edgy and the result is a compelling, convincing atmosphere. The world design for the Orre region, based on the southwestern US, is nothing short of exceptional. The towns and dungeons are varied and eye-catching, yet manage to tie together the region's cohesive theme of being rough and barren, which in turn relates to its lack of wild Pokemon and the player's (as well as other trainers) dependency on Pokemon brought in from abroad or captured or "snagged" from Cipher. This fascinating world that Genius Sonority has built is given another layer of immersion when considering the great score composed by Tsukasa Tawada; a mix of jazz, prog rock and piano tracks that complement its scenes and battles perfectly. It is not only one of the most unique OSTs in a Pokemon game, but among the outright best. Years later, Tawada has done laps around Game Freak's sound team.
The character designs are quite different than Ken Sugimori's works for the mainline Pokemon series yet no doubt feel eye-catching, iconic and memorable. The flashy Miror B is remembered to this day while the main character Wes seems to perfectly capture that 2000s "Rule of Cool Above All" gaming zeitgeist in his capacity as the game's hero.
As for the gameplay and Pokemon themselves, Genius Sonority have once again knocked it out of the park. The game's focus on Pokemon from the Johto Region allowed these Pokemon to remain relevant even in the Advance Generation, even though their games (Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal) had been lost to time as Pokemon moved from the Game Boy Color to the Game Boy Advance. While this may seem unworthy of any attention today, it was massive in 2004, especially to anyone who endeavored to complete their Pokedex. The same goes for this game's decision to make Double Battles the focus of the game, something that had only been a bit-part feature in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The focus on Doubles not only sets Colosseum apart from the mainline series of games but makes full use of the previously underutilized mode, with boss characters having true synergy in their lineups. Instead of merely sending out a Pokemon for you to wail on as a punching bag, your enemies will set up a Protect while their partner uses Earthquake, or utilize Skill Swap to unlock Slaking's latent potential and turn him into a monster. Like with snagging, Colosseum has managed to not only use the feature of a doubles-oriented campaign as an excited selling point, but baked it into the gameplay in the best way possible, adding an organic sense of challenge through enemy trainers exploiting strategies specific to doubles as a medium.
The game is not perfect, of course. It lacks a true overworld or routes, limiting exploration to towns and dungeons. The amount of Pokemon you can actually obtain through snagging is quite low [around 50~], owing to the game encouraging the player to transfer Pokemon from the handheld Pokemon games on the GBA. That said, neither of these is a problem for the experience in Colosseum itself, as there are more than enough hours of gameplay and the story-recruited Shadow Pokemon are more than capable fighters, albeit these drawbacks nonetheless leave one wanting for something more.
All in all, Pokemon Colosseum is the work of a developer that didn't behold itself to any preconceived notions of Pokemon, yet had the guile to work all of their ideas into something believable under the weight of its massive name. Every instance of gameplay and concept design is integrated well into the final product to the point where it has become something that sticks in the minds of those who have played it even years later. We will never see something like it again - it's lightning in a bottle. At the same time it's a rare glimpse of what Pokemon has the potential to be, beyond it's by-the-books campaigns, simple and static battle system, and carefully-branded IP. Beyond all that is the rebel that is Pokemon Colosseum.