Pokémon Colosseum is a role-playing video game developed by Genius Sonority and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the GameCube. A spin-off of the Pokémon series, it was released on November 21, 2003, in Japan, March 22, 2004, in North America and May 14, 2004, in Europe. Unlike previous titles' random encounters with Pokémon, Colosseum allows the player to steal ("snag") the Pokémon of other Pokémon Trainers. The game also features single-player and multiplayer battle modes.
Set in the desert region of Orre, the player controls Wes, a former member of Team Snagem. Throughout the game, Wes rescues "Shadow Pokémon"—Pokémon who have had their hearts darkened by Team Cipher, an antagonistic organization—via snagging. Rui, a non-player character, serves as Wes's sidekick and identifies Shadow Pokémon.
Pokémon Colosseum was exhibited at E3 2003 and featured Pokémon models ported from the Nintendo 64's Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2. North American pre-orders included a bonus disc that allows the player to download the Pokémon Jirachi on the Game Boy Advance titles Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire while Japanese bonus discs featured similar downloads for Celebi and Pikachu. Upon release, the game was a critical and commercial success, with praise directed at its graphics and music. It sold 1.15 million copies in the United States and 656,270 in Japan. Pokémon, Colosseum Sold a total of 2.41 million copies worldwide. A successor, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, released for the GameCube in 2005. Pokémon Colosseum will be made available on the Nintendo Switch 2 through the Nintendo Classics service.
Gameplay
Pokémon Colosseum is a 3D role-playing game viewed from a third-person perspective. The player, controlling a Pokémon Trainer named Wes (default name), moves through various towns and other locations (traversed using a type of one-wheeled motorcycle), battling enemy Trainers and completing quests. Items are purchased at "Pokémon Mart" locations using the game's currency, "Pokémon Dollars" (). When a battle starts, the screen switches to a turn-based interface where the player's and enemies' Pokémon fight. Most battles are of the "double battle" format, which means two Pokémon on each side at one time. However, each Trainer can carry up to six Pokémon at one time, so once a Pokémon is defeated, his or her Trainer must switch out another one unless no more are left. Battles are also conducted at "Colosseums" in several cities.
Unlike most Pokémon games, Colosseum does not feature random encounters. The player begins the game with two Pokémon. More are obtained throughout the game by "Snagging" them from other Trainers using Poké Balls of various strengths. Only specifically designated "Shadow Pokémon", whose hearts have been artificially closed, can be Snagged. This contrasts with the normal means of acquiring Pokémon by catching them from the wild in other games. Pokémon can be traded between Colosseum and the Game Boy Advance games Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen and Emerald.
Each of the player's Shadow Pokémon has a purple gauge that gradually drains through actions such as entering battle. Once the gauge is empty, the player may "Purify" the Pokémon by bringing him or her to Celebi's shrine in Agate Village, or by using a rare "Time Flute" item. Purifying Shadow Pokémon is desirable because while in that status, they will often disobey the player, they cannot gain experience points, and their moves are at first restricted to "Shadow Rush". Additionally, Shadow Pokémon will sporadically enter "Hyper Mode" state during battle, causing them to disobey the player character or attack themselves until the condition is alleviated by selecting the "Call" battle command.
Aside from the story mode, Colosseum also features several non-canonical battle modes. In the "Quick Battle" mode, the player can battle either CPU trainers or friends, using Pokémon obtained in the story mode or randomly assigned ones. Battles in this mode do not result in gain of experience points or money. In the single-player battle mode, the player competes at Colosseums—stadiums used throughout the game for Pokémon battles—and earns "Poké Coupons", another currency which can be used to buy rare items. In the "Gang Battle" mode, up to four players can compete in a tournament. The first can use Pokémon obtained in the story mode, or from the Game Boy Advance games. Players two through four, however, can only use Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance games.
Plot
Setting Pokémon Colosseum is set in the Orre region. Orre is a mostly desertous region in which no wild Pokémon can be found (although the sequel, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, adds wild Pokémon spots to the region). Orre consists of many cities, towns, and Colosseums.
Characters
The game's player protagonist is by default named , but as with most Pokémon games, the player can change his name. Wes's Starter Pokémon are Espeon and Umbreon, two fox-like Pokémon who start at level 25 and 26, respectively. Additionally, shortly after the game begins, the player meets the game's partner character, Rui; she accompanies Wes on his journey, and uses her ability to see Shadow Pokémon to help combat the efforts of the game's villains. , a criminal organization that uses "Snag Machine" technology to capture Pokémon owned by trainers as if they were wild, serves as an antagonistic entity in the game, of whom Wes is a former member. However, shortly after the game's start, is revealed to be the main antagonistic force, having partnered with Team Snagem to steal Pokémon from Trainers, corrupt them into Shadow Pokémon, and distribute them throughout Cipher and the Orre Region. The organization employs many grunt workers, as well as four administrators: disco-loving , the ill-tempered enforcer, , the idol of The Under, , and the scientist who created Shadow Pokémon, .
Story The game begins with a cold open in which Wes infiltrates Team Snagem's hideout and steals their portable Snag Machine before leaving the organization, blowing up their hideout as he escapes. Passing through the Outskirt Stand, a dilapidated train engine in the middle of the desert that has been converted into a shop, Wes proceeds to the oasis-like Phenac City and sees two men named Folly and Trudly dragging a sack. After defeating them in battle, Wes opens the sack to find Rui, a girl who was kidnapped because she witnessed an unusually violent Pokémon that exuded a black aura visible only to her. They meet the mayor, Es Cade, and report the incident, and while Es Cade expresses skepticism over Rui's claim, he promises to launch an investigation. Upon leaving Es Cade's, Team Snagem grunts find Wes and Rui and reveal to Rui that Wes once worked for Team Snagem as a snagger, a specialist in Pokémon thievery. Shortly after defeating one of the grunts, Wes and Rui encounter Folly and Trudly in Es Cade's house and meets their boss, Miror B., who quickly leaves. Trudly battles Wes with the unusual Pokémon Rui saw before. Rui urges Wes to snag it from Trudly, and after he does so, she asks him to join forces with her in finding and snagging the remaining Pokémon with black auras (later named Shadow Pokémon), which he continues to do throughout their journey.
After leaving Phenac, Wes visits Pyrite Town, where Rui was kidnapped. In Pyrite, Wes and Rui find that Shadow Pokémon are being openly distributed to winners of the town's Colosseum tournament by Miror B., who is part of a secret criminal organization known as Cipher. The local police force is powerless to stop the practice, so Wes and Rui see Duking, an influential man in Pyrite who runs the Colosseum. However, Miror B. has kidnapped Duking's Pokémon as a hostage, so Duking asks Wes to enter the next tournament and infiltrate Miror B.'s operation. Wes enters the Colosseum challenge and wins, but he is recognized once he is escorted inside Cipher's Pyrite building. Wes and Rui then battle their way through the building and the maze-like Pyrite Cave set in the cliff face behind it. Eventually, they battle and defeat Miror B. and free Duking's Pokémon, ousting Miror B. from Pyrite. A team of kids working in Duking's house introduce themselves as members of an anti-Cipher news network, known as the Kids Grid, who pledge their help to Wes and Rui.
Leaving Pyrite, Wes and Rui travel to Agate Village, a mountain village home to many retired trainers, including Rui's grandparents. After being introduced to Rui's grandfather Eagun, Wes stops a group of Cipher agents from destroying the Relic Stone, a shrine protected by Celebi that can purify Shadow Pokémon and return them to their former state. Shortly after, Wes receives an e-mail from Duking saying that Mt. Battle, a battling facility built above a volcano, is under attack by Cipher, so Wes and Rui leave to resolve the crisis. After defeating the Cipher admin Dakim, who raided Mt. Battle to steal an item related to the Relic Stone, Wes and Rui returned to Pyrite Town after being e-mailed about the capture of two of Miror B.'s henchmen. Using a key lifted from the henchmen, Wes and Rui gain access to The Under, an underground city beneath Pyrite.
The heroes find that The Under is controlled by another Cipher admin, Venus, who uses TV broadcasts to spread pro-Cipher propaganda throughout the city. They also find more members of the Kids Grid, who have been cut off from the others because Venus is jamming their signal. Venus tried to thwart Wes and Rui by turning The Under's residents against them, but eventually Wes And Rui reach Venus' TV studio and confront her there. Venus attempts to flee to the Shadow Pokémon Lab, a covert facility in the desert where Pokémon are transformed into Shadow Pokémon, via an underground train. Venus escapes, but Wes and Rui pick up a dropped key and infiltrate the lab from the main entrance. Eventually, they find and defeat the head researcher Ein, another Cipher admin and the one who invented the process of creating Shadow Pokémon. Wes and Rui also shut down the lab, cutting off Cipher's ability to create more Shadow Pokémon, and retrieve a data file containing information on existing Shadow Pokémon, which is delivered to and decrypted by the Kids Grid.
Wes and Rui then travel to Cipher's headquarters, the recently-constructed Realgam Tower. Wes battles each of the Cipher admins again to receive keys to the Colosseum at the top of the building, where he battles the apparent head of Cipher, Nascour. After being defeated, the enraged Nascour threatens Wes but is interrupted by Es Cade, who reveals that he is Evice, the true head of Cipher, and battles Wes. When Wes defeats him, Evice attempts to escape using a helicopter, but the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh suddenly appears and destroys the vehicle with a fireball. Evice and Nascour are then taken into custody as Pyrite Town's police arrive.
Following the end of the main story, Wes and Rui continue snagging the remaining Shadow Pokémon that Cipher created and using Agate Village's Relic Stone to purify them. They also raid Team Snagem's destroyed hideout to defeat their boss Gonzap, pursue the Cipher admins to the Deep Colosseum in The Under, and thwart the plans of a master of disguise working for Cipher who attacked civilians with a Shadow Pokémon while disguised as Wes to defame him.
Development and release Pokémon Colosseum was developed by the Japanese game developer Genius Sonority, and published by Nintendo. Just as Nintendo 64 predecessors Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2 had served as home console counterparts to the first- and second-generation handheld titles, Colosseum had a similar role for the third generation.