Reviews from

in the past


Oh, the path we could have taken Gamefreak

an actual relic of my childhood.

gameplay wise, i give this two stars as replaying it on an emulator i realize how insanely mundane and repetitive grinding double battles were - though revolutionary for its time. extra star for the storyline/plot, as it differed from the typical protagonist storylines of other titles in the franchise. loved playing the antihero.

The focus on double battles and how generally weak most of the Pokemon you get lets you abuse some really cool strategy without it feeling too strong. It was rough around the edges even for the time and might feel dated if you've never played it, especially since most Pokemon lack good attacking moves completely.


De los juegos que más veces he jugado. Nostalgia pura.

This was the closest thing to FF VII I ever own.
Yes, it reminded me a lot of that game (or, better yet: FF VII did that effect since I played it after).

Awesome game, but some parts/exploration dragged a little more than necessary. This game doesn't have random encounters at all, only trainers fights (where you can steal Pokémons)

In an age before double battles were all that interesting, making a whole game about double battles is a bit of a loss. Especially when the battles move slow as molasses because I'm waiting 5 seconds for Pokemon to finish their recoiling-from-a-hit animation. Every single time. Remembering how slow this game moves makes me appreciate modern Pokemon's brevity a bit more.

The Shadow Pokemon mechanic is. Different, but I can't say I care for having an extremely limited pool of Pokemon during the main game for one thing. And for two thing the fever pitch mechanic makes battles move even slower because you randomly have to waste two turns, one on your Shadow Pokemon hitting a fever pitch and one calling their name out to them.

It's a shame because I do wish more Pokemon RPGs got to be about more than just 8 gym battles and then you're done, cause there's a ton of potential in breaking out of that mold once in a while, but this is just a game that bombards you with annoyances for all eternity.

A really fun, yet challenging, sequel to the Pokemon Stadium games on the N64. Like the Stadium games, this functions as a 3D battle simulator for Pokemon Ruby and Saphire, if you have the link cable for it of course, however unlike its prequels this is much more than that. It also has a unique story mode that is remembered quite fondly by the fans.

The story revolves around Wes, a former Team Snagam member who stole their Snag Machine after quitting, and Rui, a woman with the ability to see Pokemon whose hearts have been sealed away and have become what's known as "Shadow Pokemon". Together, they work to steal these Shadow Pokemon away from their captors, a different evil team known as Cipher, and try to stop this team from taking over the region of Orre.

This plot is much more simple than I let on, but the premise alone is unique, especially for a Pokemon game. What stands out more in this game however would be the battles, and not the story. Each battle is done in Doubles format, meaning you are always fighting with 2 Pokemon and are fighting against 2 Pokemon. This makes each encounter more complex since you need to account for unique strategies that can only be used in this format. On top of that, your selection of Pokemon is limited to the Shadow Pokemon that trainers have, most of them being "missable" during large sections of the main story. This makes for a very challenging, yet fun, game.

This game does have its faults though, as the Shadow Pokemon you save can be a hassle to purify. Most of them will only know the one move, Shadow Rush, until it gets purified and the move will always inflict recoil. As well, Shadow Pokemon cannot level up or gain experience until it is purified. Not that you really can grind experience, since there are also no wild Pokemon battles, only set trainer battles and they cannot be refought.

This game is hard, but if that is what you are looking for then I cannot recommend it enough. It was a fun playthrough, and I had a blast experiencing it. If you can get your hands on a copy of the game I would recommend trying it out.

its that western part that really speaks to me

To this day this is still my favorite Pokémon game. It might be a lot of nostalgia, but me and my dad played through this together and it was just awesome. Looking back, I was really a sucker for cool shit.

Story Complete, 48/48 Shadow Pokémon Snagged and Purified, Mt. Battle complete and Ho-Oh obtained.

This game has many flaws, but it's fucking wild that Nintendo even let this thing go to market at all.

One of the most difficult games of the franchise - but a fun one at that.

I really don't like this game on a replay. It was fun to run through for stream but replaying it I notice so much more garbage that makes me not like this game.

I had to replay this game because my safe file corrupted before I had a chance to purify all of the Pokemon and playing it outside of stream I noticed how much garbage is in this game.

Battles drag on for FAR TOO LONG
AI flat up cheats and acts accordingly to your move
Attacks that according to damage calcs don't do the full damage
If you have any status, it will work against you no matter what
To progress through the story you have to interact with NPCs who look exactly the same as any other NPCs
This game gets praised for being hard but the challenge isn't really fun. The challenge comes in with having 1 move to use and then wasting 2 turns on calling pokemon at the worst possible times.
This game's story mode is not fun. The only redeeming part of this game is the colosseum mode where you can play import your Pokemon and play it like Pokemon Stadium and have it act almost like a psudo-battle frontier.
Also I'm sorry, but the OST is fucking ass.
This game exists as a novelty and once the novelty wears off what you get is Nintendo's attempt at manipulating you into buying a gamecube and gba accessories for Johto Pokemon in Gen 3.

Hardest Pokemon game ever due to Rui's moonwalking hampering your movement

Mi spin off favorito de Pokémon. Sé que Mundo Misterioso tiene mejores historias y Pokémon Ranger tiene una jugabilidad extremadamente divertida, pero lo que yo he disfrutado este juego con el tema de los pokémon oscuros y los combates dobles no es ni medio normal.

Eat your heart out Scarlet and Violet. Fucking kill yourself Sword and Shield. THIS is the definitive console pokemon experience. Interesting making a pokemon game that entirely doubles but god is it slow, if I wasn't playing it on an emulator at x3 speed with a stream on my other monitor I would have for sure dropped it. But maybe that says more about me than the game. While the shadow mechanic was kinda whatever having to grind the pokemon just to make them usable, I really liked how they forced you to use a bunch of gen 2 shitmon.

very fun doubles pokemon game and has decent dificulty but feels dated in some parts.

I adore this game to pieces, but it is sloooooooowwww.

I really like the world and concept of Colosseum! Playing as an antihero definitely needs to come back... this little experimental game was a breath of fresh air for the Pokemon franchise at the time.

Similar to the issue with its predecessor Pokemon Stadium though, it can be a slog to engage in battles. The music is pretty good but... gets repetitive. Its an absolute shame that the tutorial battle music is used so rarely since it's more hyped up than the actual main battle theme, in my opinion.

Pick up this game for the novelty of it.

My first ever side game for the Pokemon franchise. Taking a break from the mainline games, I wanted to try something new for Pokemon, that being another RPG side series. While I should have started this with Stadium 1 & 2 on N64, I'll get around to playing those soon now that they're on Switch. But back to Colosseum.

Pokemon Colosseum is like the Stadium games but with a story attached to it. I never really did battle mode until the end of the game where I did this all for a single Ho-Oh...fun. But the story takes place in the Orre region as you play as Wes, an ex Team Snagem member who wants to stop team snagem's shenanigans and along the way, foils the plans of Team Cipher. While Snagem plan on stealing Pokemon, Cipher plans on closing the Pokemon's hearts and turn them into fighting machines; Shadow Pokemon.

This story was a breath of fresh air for the Pokemon games up to this point back in 2004. Since you no longer played a kid wanting to become champion of the region and to catch every Pokemon. However, while the story was alright, it kinda lost me after a bit, but we'll get to why I kinda just zoned out with the story near the end.

The gameplay is pretty much the same combat wise from the main games, only except you are in double battles ONLY. There are also no wild Pokemon to encounter in this game. So how do you get more Pokemon for your team? You have to literally steal shadow Pokemon from certain trainers to keep them in your team, and there are 48 of them in the game. One thing that you have to do to actually use the Pokemon is to purify the aura around them by either using them in fights, walking around, using the day care, or using scents to massage it. Each time the bar goes down, the Pokemon learns more of its moves and when empty, becomes available with no problems.

The Shadow Pokemon are a cool concept but they have flaws. They can only use Shadow Rush which deals some damage but always causes recoil. It sucks when you try to catch them and they faint themselves after you lower their health. But my real big problem with this game is the difficulty spike. I'm up for a challenge every now and then, but when a boss jumps up 8 levels than what I have, that's annoying. That's more time I have to spend grinding exp just to stand a chance. And that's what I basically defined as in the other half...a grindfest.

The first half of the game, I was enjoying it so much and I got why people have so much nostalgia for this game. But the moment I encounter a big jump in levels, that was when I was starting to not have fun anymore and just saw this game as a grindfest. With exp, with purification, and even with money. It dragged on so long for me. Here's hoping that XD fixes these issues when I play it next.

I really enjoyed this game. I've had it since I was a kid and decided to 100% it during Covid. A satisfying finish to get Ho-oh, and I am even more excited to play Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness at some point, which I know is an even more fleshed out game.


A MUST in the Pokemon entries.
Just solely by the idea of how the mc is basically a villain just catches the interest of anyone by the start.

used my master ball on an absol cause it was my first pokemon game and it looked cool.

One of the best Pokemon games. You get to play as an older protagonist who has defected from the evil team. All battles are double battles and are significantly more difficult than other entries in the series. The best 3d Pokemon game.