Tendo City

Quote:Amidst poorly translated Japanese, and innumerable statements of "I had a lot of fun working in this game, it is very cool," we were able to gather a few new tidbits of information about Pokémon Colosseum.

The developers repeatedly stressed that this is a completely new game. Pokémon Stadium and its sequel for the Nintendo 64 were really nothing more than extensions of the Gameboy game, allowing you to battle friends with your own Pokémon in 3D. However, Pokémon Colosseum goes one step further, adding a brand new 30+ hour long RPG adventure which makes the game stand by itself as a title, instead of just acting as an add-on for Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire. One developer even went so far as to say that with the inclusion of the RPG mode, Colosseum is really two games in one, and that should help attract people who have never even played a Pokémon game before.

Battles will still work the same as they always have. The two-on-two battles from Ruby & Sapphire are back, but there are some new concepts thrown into the mix that are completely new to the Pokémon world. The major new concept, as far as battles go, is the ability to snag other trainers' Pokémon. The mechanics of this have yet to be revealed, but we can assume it works in the same way as catching a wild Pokémon. The developers also mentioned a new feature called 'purifying' although they gave no details as to exactly what it is, or how it works.

As in Pokémon Stadium, your Pokémon can be uploaded to the game from the Game Boy version. A new feature in Colosseum though, allows you to use your Game Boy Advance system as a controller. This can give you an advantage when playing against human opponents, because your commands are input on the GBA screen, and aren't visible on the main screen.

Contrary to the fact that the developers specifically mentioned the target demographic hasn't changed, they did say the RPG mode is an 'older', 'darker' Pokémon game, and even the game characters themselves are older and more sophisticated. Although the roots of the game are still intact, this new adventure will be nothing like any of the games seen on a Game Boy system. The world in the game was actually designed to mimic pictures the developers had seen of Arizona. So we can expect a mostly desert landscape. They also mentioned the CPU opponents have been made significantly more difficult.

Yeah...I want this game.

N-Philes

Nothing new there...

Me too, I guess it'll be more like the more serious pokémon stuff (like half of Mewtwo's Revenge) as opposed to the more playful stuff (like the OTHER half of Mewtwo's Revenge). I wouldn't say "darker" persay... generally because I'm getting sick of that term.

Oh yes, and it seems these folks aren't aware you can easily hide your movesets and pokemon from the opponents in the N64 games as well, simply by not using the "reveal" button. You can hit the button for a move or monster without having to show them with the reveal button, and in fact the reveal button is only there for beginners and those who haven't memorized which move is on which button on all their pokémon yet. Still, this screen means you don't HAVE to memorize anything, which is better. Just sayin' is all...

I want it now. I'm finally interested in the franchise again. Not enough to buy the GBA remakes of the original GB games (they COULD just keep producing the original GB games, everyone with a GBA can play GB games after all), but enough to buy this and possibly either Ruby or Saphire to top it off (wonder when a special "Emerald" version is coming out :D).

Official length: 30+ hours

Actual length: 15 hours max

I'll buy a home console Pokemon game as soon as Nintendo smartens up and released a full RPG.

I thought length didn't matter to you...

Depends on the game. If it's something like Mario 3 where there is just so much fun packed into a few hours, I'm happy. But if it's something like a standard RPG then I expect at least 25 hours of gameplay. Unless of course it's jam-packed with crazy fun crystals.

Still...15 hours is better than no hours.

The RPG mode is only half of the game, though. The other half is fun arena combat where you ... wait, that isn't so great...

Yeah...

Still...15 hours is better than no hours.

If it were a high-quality game, yeah. But it doesn't look too amazing. Awesome as an extra to Colosseum, though. I just wish it were more than that.

So it'll be better than Stadium, but is that saying much? :)

According to the developers the RPG mode is half the game, not just an extra, although I doubt it's something incredibly amazing.

It doesn't look that great.

Well I think it does!

Well then you're a hopeless Pokemon fan!

It just looks like they didn't put a whole lot of effort into the RPG mode.