By Matt
You’ve always heard me rant about Pokemon Coliseum in past articles. Maybe this time, I can clear things up about it. This game is like most Pokemon games: you catch Pokemon, and level them up high enough to become a Champion. (Well, in this game, not really a Champion…) The game starts out when you, the hero (whose default name is Wes) steals a mysterious machine from Team Snagem (the antagonists of this game) and flees (with his ATV) to an outpost in the desert. Also, this game takes place in Orre, a mysterious new region where wild Pokemon are very rare, explaining why you do not come upon them at all.
Your starters are Espeon and Umbreon, both of which are level 25. What’s new about this game (compared to others past) is that instead of Single Battles, you will always be in Double Battles. You will start out in the Desert Outpost, where you have money to buy items and battle a few trainers with your newfound starters. When you go into the next town, you will find some shady people of Team Snagem kidnapping someone. To find out who it is, you will have to battle both of them with your Eons and defeat them. Of course, this is a very simple battle, but now you can get accustomed to the standards of Double Battle.
When you beat them, they will run away, and you will find a girl who has the ability to seek out Shadow Pokemon, made that way by the mischievous Team Snagem. (She doesn’t have a default name; you have to make one up yourself.) She will then tell you which Pokemon are Shadow Pokemon when they are sent out in battle. Your goal in this game is to find out why Team Snagem is taking all these Pokemon and using them in this way, and of course, to defeat the boss behind it all. (Spoiler Alert: He’s the mayor of the first town you go into).
This game does take quite a while to get through; that’s because there are at least 10 different towns you have to go through, and capture 48 different Shadow Pokemon (coincidentally, the number of blocks this game takes up too). You can find TMs to teach your Pokemon; remember, since this isn’t Generation V, it will go away after you use it on one Pokemon. Like in the regular games, there are Key Items; all of them are important and are needed to get through the game. Throughout the game, you will get e-mails from people you know in-game; they will provide information on what they know and where to go next in the game. One of the aspects not relating to the story is Mt. Battle, which tests your strengths as you go defeat 100 trainers in a row healing your Pokemon after each battle. If you fight in-game, you can get Poke Coupons to buy hold items or TMs. I was able to use Mt. Battle to get Espeon and Umbreon to level 100; maybe you will have time in the future to do this too? Pokemon Coliseum is just another giant footstep in the Pokemon legacy.
Tags: Espeon, Nintendo DS, Umbreon