Sequel Bait - Pokémon Colosseum

Like a lot of kids, Pokémon was one of my absolute favorite things growing up. The original Gold and Silver versions were the second games I ever owned for myself. Since then, I’ve played pretty much every game in the series. However, over the past few years, I have grown tired of the franchise and its refusal to innovate. Sword and Shield were colossal failures in my eyes and though Legends: Arceus was a step in the right direction, I remain cautiously optimistic over the upcoming releases.

Pokémon has always been at its best when it steps outside of the formula of the main series. As a result, my favorite game in the franchise has always been the 2004 Gamecube spinoff, Pokémon Colosseum. Although this game did receive a direct sequel in XD: Gale of Darkness the following year, the franchise has not been revisited since then. Most likely this series will never see a revival. However, that’s what this article series is for: shedding a spotlight on forgotten games and speculating over potential revivals.

Pokémon Colosseum was developed by Genius Sonority rather than GameFreak. The studio was responsible for the 2007 release Pokemon: Battle Revolution and its latest release was the 2020 game, Pokémon: Café Mix. Battle Revolution was no doubt the reason for the abandonment of 3D Pokémon games on major Nintendo consoles between 2007 and 2018. The game was a mess in terms of quality, with dull animations and a distinct lack of any content outside of multiplayer and gimmicks using the Nintendo DS. I remember being extremely disappointed in the game after playing it a friend’s house. The critical reception at the time agreed as IGN stated that, “Pokémon: Battle Revolution is neither a full-fledged RPG on the Wii nor a fully realized stadium effort” in their review.

In contrast, Pokémon Colosseum is a fully fleshed-out RPG with a solid multiplayer mode that manages to capture the essence of what made the original two Pokémon Stadium games great. The story takes place in the Orre region, a relatively desolate region that is clearly inspired by the American West. The Protagonist of the game is an ex-member of the villainous organization known as Team Snagem. Through experimentation, Snagem has created a new sub-variant of Pokémon and has dispersed them throughout the region for reasons unknown. Dubbed, Shadow Pokémon these creatures are more aggressive and ruthless than their normal counterparts. It’s the player’s job to adventure through the region and catch all the Shadow Pokémon to stop them from hurting innocents.

Gameplay is relatively similar to your typical Pokémon experience with a few unique adjustments. You face trainers in typical turn-based combat. However, unlike the typical Pokémon games, every battle in Colosseum is a double battle. Furthermore, there are no wild Pokémon in the Orre region. Instead, you can only add Pokémon to your team by stealing them from other trainers using a device called the Snag Machine.

Every Pokémon you add to your team is also infected with the shadow status which changes the way they play in battle. Every Shadow Pokémon has the unique move Shadow Rush and can randomly enter a state known as Hyper mode where they will attack others on your team or disobey your orders. Shadow Pokémon also cannot gain experience or learn new moves until they have been cleansed.

I love how the gameplay here complements the objectives of the story as it builds your immersion with the narrative. I also enjoy the darker tone and unique characters of this game. The region has so much personality even without much in it and I like that developers place you into the shoes of a different kind of hero.

The world of Pokémon has a lot of potential for different kinds of stories. Sadly, the majority of games still focus on the same narrative with the excuse that it needs to be simple for the target audience. I have a lot of issues with dumbing down stories and gameplay for kids. It’s just a lazy excuse because I know I always appreciated a more complex narrative as a kid.

It is these elements of complexity and maturity that I would like to preserve in a potential revival of this game series. I think these aspects are important to set this series apart from the mainline games. For this new story, I’m doubling down on the darker tones and themes. Give me a story where the characters and Pokémon can get seriously hurt or even die. Give me characters that behave like real human beings rather than overly positive robots and villains that are more than mustache-twirling goofballs with plans of world domination.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the game has to be overly serious and grim. That could create a little too much tonal dissonance from the main series. I love some of the comedic aspects of the original games, such as the disco dancing Mirror B who is lowkey one of the best characters Pokémon has ever made. I just would like to see a more in-depth complex narrative from the franchise akin to other JRPGs such as Final Fantasy. Another option could be to take some inspiration from the Digimon: Story series as I believe it to be very successful in crafting a more mature narrative in the monster-catching genre while still retaining the elements of charm that appeal to a younger audience.

In terms of gameplay additions and changes the first thing that comes to my mind is some adjustments to Shadow Pokémon. Pokémon XD fixed a majority of problems with these creatures by adding additional moves, increasing their effectiveness, and introducing both physical and special shadow moves. However, I still have some minor tweaks that I want to see. The first would be an even more expansive move pool.

I like the distribution of moves present in XD but a few more would be nice given the wide variety of Pokémon now available to choose from. Secondly, I would make every shadow move cause a slight bit of recoil damage to the Pokémon that uses it but increase the power of every move to ensure the continued effectiveness against non-shadow Pokémon. I think this helps to build on the idea that Shadow Pokémon are unnatural and cause harm to everything they encounter, including themselves.

The next big gameplay change would be in the battle system itself. I think this game series needs to carve out a different identity for itself now that advancements in multiplayer and graphical quality have been made. There is no longer a need for the Stadium series in this day in age seeing as how mainline games have moved to a home console. So with this in mind, I want to abolish turn-based battles going forward.

Instead, I propose that the Colosseum series should have a combat system more akin to an action RPG. I’m picturing something akin to the Tales of X/Y series, where you enter a small arena and take full control over your Pokémon and utilize the iconic moves found throughout the series to execute combos and basic attacks. This would make for a more intense and fast-paced battle experience that is wholly unique.

The last major addition I would like to see in a potential sequel is a greater focus on satisfying RPG progression systems. I have always wanted the ability to freely choose which stats to increase as I level up my team rather than leaving stat increases to chance or going out of my way to strengthen EVs and IVs. It would be nice to have the option to create a variety of builds that drastically alter the more action-focused gameplay. Imagine if you could create an exceptionally fast or strong Pokémon that is unique amongst others of the same type by dumping all your stats into one ability score. This would add a lot of replay value to the game as you search for the most broken ways to exploit your team of monsters.

I would also like to see more interesting items and treasures. While held items have been a part of the series for a long time, I have always thought that Gamefreak missed the mark with the concept. I would love to see the Orre region introduce a gear system where you can outfit your Pokémon with various cosmetic armors that power up various abilities or provide additional defense. The concept of “armored forms” has often been the subject of various fake leaks amongst the Pokémon community, but I feel this is the place to finally implement it. The game is subtitled, “Colosseum” after all so what better way to emphasize this element than giving your Pokémon the look of gladiators battling it out in an arena.

Although this series is likely never returning, I’m hoping that these ideas can come to the Pokémon franchise in some way over the next few years. Maybe the next, Pokémon: Legends entry will surprise me just as much as the latest game did. Or maybe I’m expecting too much out of the franchise and am desperately trying to cope with the fact that the series could stay the same for another 20 years. Regardless, at least I still have my original Gamecube copy of Colosseum that I can replay to revisit the good old days when innovation was the standard and not the exception.