An interesting twist to the main Pokemon games. If you're new to Pokemon, you might try one of the main games first.
After trying Colloseum at my local gamestore, I was even more dissapointed with the third generation. I really thought that Colloseum was a sequel to Pokemon Stadium 2, but it turned out to be a 3D sidequest to the main games. Months passed and I did'nt play Pokemon during those months, but I decided to give Colloseum a chance during a boring period of the summer vacation that year (2004). I grew more and more excited by the story and the wierd characters (especially Miror B). The other good feature that really hit me by surprise was the music. I've always been into music and always liked games with a good soundtrack. Coloseum surprised me with it's soundtrack, but it's flaws became clearer the longer I played. But the game's story kept me going.
The consept of the game is to fight against a criminal gang named Cipher. They have made Pokemon that have their hearts artificially closed so they become more powerful in battle. These are called Shadow Pokemon. Because these Pokemon are stronger than normal Pokemon, Cipher wants to use their powers to seek world domination.
The game starts off when the main character, a former member of team Snagem, a gang of thugs in league with Cipher, blows up the team Snagem hideout and steals the prototype of a snag machine that can actually steal Pokemon from trainers. Something that is not possible othervise. You later team up with a girl that can se Pokemon with a black/purple aura (Shadow Pokemon). Other people can't see the differanse between a normal Pokemon and a Shadow Pokemon. With her as your partner, you travel around the land of Orre battling Cipher and stealing their Shadow Pokemon to heal them back to normal.
Besides the story mode, you can battle in different modes and link your GBA and use your Pokemon from GBA games in Coloseum. After beating the final boss, you can trade your healed Shadow Pokemon to a GBA Pokemon game.
The game is very uneven, graphically. The characters are not very well designed and details are a bit blury at times, and you see it better on certain characters than others. But background designs are really good. So are the first and second generation of Pokemon, but the third generation Pokemon in this game are a bit "cartoony" designed, and it's easy to see that they are different in design because of the shiny coloring. Why Genius Sonority decided to do that, I don't know, but it looks like they don't belong in the game. To put it simply, the third generation Pokemon does'nt look as real as the first and second generation Pokemon does. They look kind of "artificial".
When it comes to content the game has a lot of things for you to do. 48 Pokemon are available in the game, and even after you defeat the final boss, you still have a lot to do. You can even get HO-OH in this game!
There are things about this game you should know, if you don't allready know. The game is not made by Game Freak that make the main games, but by Genius Sonority. It's not a part of the main games in the series, but made to make second generation Pokemon obtainable and transfer them to the main games on the GBA, because in Ruby and Sapphire, not all second generation Pokemon are'nt available. That is the reason this game excists, even so it's a good variation from the main games because it's quite different from the main series and makes it possible to battle third generation Pokemon in 3D.
To sum up, Pokemon Coloseum is a good game, overall, with a great story and probably the best bad guys in the series. It has a fantastic soundtrack, despite that the Pokemon cries are dull, a 20+ hour story mode, different battle modes and the ability to trade with GBA games. However, players new to Pokemon games should'nt start with this game. They should start with one of the main games (Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum).
Summary:
Score: 8.0
Graphics: 6
Gameplay: 8
Music: 9
Sound: 6
Value: 8
Tilt: 8
The good: Lots of battles, 3D, great storyline and interesting characters, surprisingly good soundtrack, trading capabilities.
The bad: Uneven graphical design, no speach, sound effects are bad, no wild Pokemon, not ideal starting game for novice Pokemon players.