Pokémon Colosseum is an interesting game that has a lot going for it. This is the third game to be fully 3-D behind Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 and the first of two games to fully force the player to play double battles as well as explore the Orre Region and the concept of Shadow Pokémon.

First, the positives. The tone of the game is really damn unique with how the characters design and the setting looks. It's so grimy and rustic, yet its still charming which helps stand the Orre Region out from other games. The forced use of double battles makes the battle more dynamic and tense since there is a lot more options and strategies to think of. The 3-D animations are still great though the looks of some of Pokémon do look blocky due to gen 1 and 2 models being ported over from the Stadium games. Music is straight up complete banger with all the songs being catchy, yet cool at the same time. Finally, I like the idea of restricting Pokémon to force players to use other Pokémon they would never use in another game. It makes building a team a lot more meaningful.

However, there are a few negatives that really do drag the game down. First, while I said I like the game was pretty restricted, the actual choices of Shadow Pokémon available are kind of a mixbag. Some a good to great, some are dogwater, and some are really great, but you get them way too late in the journey. It's probably my preference to how I perceive specific Pokémon, but I felt the choices were lacking due to the amount of the Shadow Pokémon being filled with a lot of Gen 2 mons. Second, the story kind of hypes itself up way too much in the opening to the point people have an inflated perception of the game's story. Make no mistake, it still is a Pokémon game where you still stop an evil organization - just without the gym badges nor the goal of becoming Champion. Third, the process of stealing Shadow Pokémon is cool, but the process to catching them while not accidentally defeating them is a pain to deal with. It doesn't help that some Shadows only have one chance to show up in the game. Finally, my biggest gripe of the game is the bad level scaling between generic enemy trainers and the Cypher Boss Admins, and the final boss. While the generic trainers are manageable, the Cypher Admins and the final boss are way too drastic difficulty spikes to the point of needing to really grind to actually enjoy them as a challenge. Since there is no random encounters, you either need to refight some weak trainers or train in Mt. Battle, which are still going to be pace killers. If it wasn't for the bad level scaling in difficult, the game would probably be about 15 hours at bare minimum and I would've been more gracious with it. However, the excessive amounts of grinding killed the pacing the game and thus ruin what could've been a pretty amazing game.

Despite my problems with the difficulty curve, I still enjoyed the game and its many unique features. I do think it's a bit too overrated though the ideas from this game still could be used for any future games when GameFreak decides to come back to it. Otherwise, solid game that is ultimately hurt by the level curve and the pacing of excessive grinding. 3.5/5.

The biggest positive is that Pokemon Colosseum forces you to use Pokemon you wouldn't consider otherwise and this can lead to some interesting strategies and generally forces you to learn how to game Pokemon's systems (i.e. get good). The strange grimy atmosphere the game establishes is a great change from your typical Pokemon game. On the other hand, aside from following the story from point a to point b, there isn't a whole lot to do. It makes Pokemon Colosseum feel like a proof of concept for the subsequent Pokemon XD.

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.

Possibly one of the most 2000's games ever made, and I mean that in a good way. I can't imagine any other timeframe this game coming out than in the early 2000s, entirely due to the game's outwardly edgy aesthetic.

The vibes and soundtrack of Colosseum in general are excellent, but it's sadly counteracted by the egregiously slow combat, alongside the horribly grindy shadow purification mechanics. And without an interesting enough story like most other JRPGs from this era have, it's really all atmosphere and not much else. I really want to like this game - and there's a lot I do like about it - but it just wasn't very fun.

Pokémon Colosseum offers a unique and grittier take on the beloved Pokémon formula. Set in a desert region, the game focuses on "Shadow Pokémon" – creatures corrupted for nefarious purposes. You play as a former villain aiming to snag and purify these Pokémon, battling mostly in dynamic double battles. While the limited roster of obtainable Pokémon and the somewhat repetitive environments can hold it back, Colosseum boasts a surprisingly engaging story, excellent visuals for its era, and challenging battles that offer a refreshing twist for Pokémon fans.

Pokemon Colosseum is really interesting, it puts a spin on the mechanics of the mainline series while still managing to feel like a pokemon game. The double battles are a nice change of pace, and the heavier focus on characters and more difficult battles over exploration and collection is a good fit for a console entry in my opinion. However, the game is absolutely bogged down by how slow it can be. There's too much dialogue, and the animations for some moves, especially the multihit ones (looking at you surf) are egregiously long. Other than that, good game.

It's too Slow!!! That was the general feeling I had while playing through this game. Battle after battle after battle, there are way too many mandatory fights in this game and when they all take forever cause the 3d battle animations are so slow this game starts to become a slog. Now this isn't to say I didn't enjoy plenty of the fights, they certainly made me use aspects of the pokemon battle system I never engaged with before and that's a plus in my books.

Aside from this aspect of the gameplay, I generally felt like the setting wasn't all too engaging, much less so compared to the mainline games. I did enjoy the locations, but it was all very surface level, not much world building to delve into. The general plot was even more nonsensical then mainline, this was truly an "evil org wants to take over the world and we must stop them" moment.

Music was a major plus in this game, minus The Under theme (ears bleeding). I enjoyed every battle theme and almost every location theme. The only critique I'd have is one of the battle themes seems like it got used way too much?? Maybe having 1 more b.theme could have really added some variety to the music.

The game was good, I enjoyed my time. May replay in the future, we'll see (this is actually my 2nd attempt playing, so it had enough for me too come back to). Something about old jrpgs (does this count as a jrpg?) that I can infinitely replay no matter how iffy I feel about em (looking at you SMT1). 6.5/10 this out of 5 rating system is too limiting.

Creo que es uno de los Pokémon más infravalorados de la historia.
En su momento, para mí fue un salto gráfico bestial. Un protagonista más mayor con un diseño muy guapo, una historia muchísimo más tétrica de lo habitual y una OST genial. También el hecho de ir acompañado todo el tiempo con la compañera me gustó bastante, le daba un toque especial. Si bien era limitado en cuanto a mapa, combates y Pokémon, yo lo disfruté muchísimo. Y si ya tenías el conector de GBA para pasar los Pokémon a tus ediciones Zafiro, Rubí, Esmeralda, Rojo Fuego y Verde Hoja (como era mi caso), era la única manera de poder acceder a los Pokémon de Johto, para mí era un subidón de adrenalina increíble. Los combates dobles al principio chocan, pero luego te acostumbras (con esa entrada tan chula con Espeon y Umbreon, se perdona).