Pokémon Colosseum | Nintendo GameCube

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A rescue mission in the Orre region

Pokémon Colosseum brings a story-driven adventure and a separate arena battle mode to GameCube. The campaign follows a young trainer travelling through Orre with Umbreon and Espeon, investigating an organization that has turned Pokémon into dangerous Shadow Pokémon. A companion who can recognize their hidden auras helps identify the creatures that need rescuing. The hero's Snag Machine gives him a way to capture those Pokémon from opposing trainers during battle. That ability ties the story directly to building a team: an important opponent can also be holding a Pokémon you want to save.

Two Pokémon, two decisions each turn

The campaign uses double battles, placing two of your Pokémon against the opposing pair. Commands still determine each creature's actions, but the second active partner gives a turn more possibilities. One Pokémon can support the other while its teammate attacks, or both can focus their efforts on a particular threat. Thinking about the pair matters as much as considering either creature alone. The question is not simply which move is strongest in isolation, but what your two choices accomplish together and how they leave the team positioned for the opponent's response.

Team preparation also includes items that can be used during battles, supplies for use between encounters and items held by individual Pokémon. Those choices give you ways to support a plan beyond the attack menu. A held item becomes part of how a particular team member works, while a usable supply can answer a problem that develops during an encounter. Because the campaign repeatedly tests pairs of Pokémon, the practical value of a resource depends partly on the partner beside its user. Building a useful team means considering those relationships across successive battles.

Snagging and helping Shadow Pokémon

Orre's campaign does not use wandering wild-Pokémon encounters as its regular collection method. New Shadow Pokémon instead appear in trainer battles, where your companion identifies them and the Snag Machine allows a capture attempt with a Poké Ball. That changes the purpose of an encounter containing one: defeating the opposing team is only part of what you may want to achieve. Paying attention to which creature can be rescued matters before finishing the fight. The collection is woven through the campaign's opponents, giving particular trainer encounters a significance beyond their immediate battle rewards.

A rescued Shadow Pokémon still needs help opening its heart. Using it in battle contributes to reducing its shadow gauge, with purification restoring it from the condition imposed on it. Shadow Pokémon can also enter Hyper Mode, bringing a risk of disobeying commands; the Call command brings them back out of that state. These mechanics make recovery an ongoing responsibility after the capture. Deciding when to bring a newly rescued creature into the active pair becomes part of both team management and the rescue mission, rather than treating a successful Snag as the end of its story.

Following the campaign and entering the arenas

Between battles, you explore towns, speak with characters and follow the investigation into the people responsible for the Shadow Pokémon. Travel between the main locations uses a map and short transitions, keeping the journey focused on the destinations and their encounters. The campaign supplies a continuing reason to meet the next trainers and examine the next town. You are building a usable group while pursuing the organization behind the crisis, so the story's forward movement and the team's development take place together, with new opponents testing the choices made along the way.

The separate Battle mode concentrates on competition in the game's arenas. It supports matches against the computer and local battles with other players, including four-player contests arranged as two teams of two. Each participant controls their own Pokémon in that team format. The story's trainer can enter Battle mode, and compatible teams from Pokémon Ruby or Pokémon Sapphire can also be used. This gives the arena side a different purpose from following the campaign: it is a place to test a prepared group, choose battle rules and see how a partnership works against another team.

Using a Ruby or Sapphire team requires the corresponding Game Boy Advance game, a compatible Game Boy Advance system and a Nintendo GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable. Multiplayer arrangements using several handhelds need the appropriate game and cable for each participating system. The connection brings those trained Pokémon onto the television for Colosseum battles, extending the use of a team developed on the handheld. These linked options are additional to the GameCube story adventure; the handheld hardware and games serve the connectivity features and should be planned for separately when arranging that kind of session.

Rewards and a larger view of the battles

Certain battles award Pokécoupons that can be exchanged for useful items, including Technical Machines and held items. Those rewards provide another reason to keep improving a team and entering challenges. On screen, three-dimensional Pokémon models, arena settings and animated attacks give the command-based encounters a larger presentation than their handheld counterparts. The tactical decisions remain about the creatures, their moves and their partners, while the camera and effects show the results on the television. Together, the rescue campaign and configurable battles give those developing teams several different goals to work toward.