[Playing…] Pokémon Colosseum

It has recently been 20 years since the launch of Pokémon, a saga of games that served to revitalize the veteran Game Boy, increase sales of Cable Link and show that, no matter how many sacred cows you have under your belt, you can always create a new franchise that will give you mountains of money.

Pokémon Red-Green-Blue (and the special version designed for people who had the misfortune of learning about this saga through the animated series, Pokémon Yellow) were about a boy who began an adventure in a world where capturing, collecting and competing with Pokémon was the favorite pastime of the entire population.

The capture was a tense but rewarding moment.Who didn't press the button thinking that this would make it more difficult for the Pokémon on duty to escape from the Pokéball?? Collecting forced us to meet other people with whom to exchange Pokémon that did not appear in our version of the game. As for the fights, they were the cornerstone of the game, because despite taking the basis of typical RPG games (experience points, turn-based fights, attacks with limited use and the possibility of changing some for others) it knew how to give it an effect by using the rock-paper-scissors technique, or what is the same, each Pokémon was of an indicated type and its type was extremely strong against another specific type and very vulnerable against a different one. Obviously there were variants of this premise, such as “normal” type Pokémon, others that despite being of a specific type were capable of learning attacks from a different type, or some that were of several types.

After the first generation of Pokémon came Gold-Silver-Crystal, where the same premise of the child coach was still used, a story that continued to be repeated generation after generation, adding some variants here and there but never going off that path.

It is true that there were games with different approaches (there you go Pokémon Snap) but no one can deny that the basis of the first Pokémon It has remained almost intact in the “normal” games. Another unwritten rule of those games was that they appeared only for portable consoles. Who didn't wonder at the time why they didn't release a Pokémon like the Game Boy ones but on Nintendo 64?

Well, those two sacred rules were broken on Gamecube, when a game of Pokémon similar in style to the Game Boy but for a home console and whose story was not about a boy who wanted to be a coach and collector.

The story of Pokémon Colosseum starts when a villain blows up his colleagues' lair after stealing their trap-ball, a poké ball capable of stealing other trainers' pokémon in the middle of battle. That nameless guy (well, he will be called whatever we want), accompanied by his two Pokémon (Espeon and Umbreon), will be our protagonist main thing, which is an improvement over the puberty boy with a bandana or cap.

As it could not be otherwise, it turns out to be not as bad as it seems and after saving a girl who was going to be kidnapped by the evil organization on duty, he decides to use his Pokémon thief ability to do justice in his own way. Apparently, that organization It's turning Pokémon into dark Pokémon., much more aggressive and lethal than normal (no joke, they can even attack trainers mid-fight).

After learning some more stories from the inhabitants of the area (which has a Steampunk feel and must represent some type of marginal and desert area of ​​the particular world of this franchise) our hero and his companion begin their journey to overthrow the evil ones on duty, discovering little by little how far the influence of the organization reaches and who is behind the dark Pokémon's plan, in addition to having to face from time to time the consequences of our hero being a villain in the past.

So, Our character's mission is not to capture wild Pokémon, but to steal those from the enemies that you face, either in specific areas of the game or in the tournaments that take place in the various cities (and that in a way replace the Gyms). In other words, despite there being a great variety of Pokémon in the game, we can only use those that are given to us and those that we steal. The risk of not capturing a wild Pokémon now becomes the risk of not being able to steal a Pokémon during a battle (imagine that you accidentally kill a Pokémon that you want to steal or that the battle situation is so bad that you prefer to kill your rival's dark Pokémon instead of wasting time weakening it, putting it to sleep and trying to capture it). Fortunately, the game is very generous and once completed, the story extends a little longer to give you a second chance to catch the dark Pokémon you are missing.

Considering that, most of our pokémon will be dark, which means that despite being very powerful, they cannot level up if they have not been purified. To purify them we will have to face them in battles, and when they enter their dark aura mode we will have to use the special command that allows us to call the Pokémon in question, so that it will calm down and continue acting like a normal Pokémon. If we don't do it, several things can happen, on the one hand, it becomes a fighting machine and does more damage than expected and on the other, it decides to attack us (something that doesn't happen very often, but it can happen). After each battle, the dark Pokémon will purify its soul and when that happens, it will receive the experience accumulated from the battles and will be a normal Pokémon. Some items can purify Pokémon automatically (Celebi has something to do with this) but generally, if you want to do it, you'll have to fight.

Of course, during the story we will find different abilities and special items to use, Pokémon Centers to heal, stores to buy, we can place and save the extra ones in boxes and everything you can expect from a game of Pokémon.

It is worth clarifying that Pokémon Colosseum It also has some peculiarities, such as that the combats are usually 2 against 2 or that to move from one area of ​​the game to another, instead of moving through the intermediate areas between city and city, we will use a map and our protagonist will automatically move on his motorcycle to the indicated place.

At this point, I suppose that more than one will think that this game, despite its new features, does not seem like a very interesting game, mainly because of not being able to capture wild Pokémon or having to fill out a Pokédex, but remember that our protagonist is a thief, not a child collector who aspires to be the best trainer in the world. Why should I waste my time doing that?

If what you want is to play with more Pokémon, you will be pleased to know that Pokémon Colosseum It also has another game mode focused on combat (something similar to what was seen in Pokémon Stadium) donde podemos competir hasta a cuatro jugadores en batallas, ya sea usando los que nos da el juego o los que hayamos pasado de nuestro cartucho de Pokémon Rubí either Zafiro de Game Boy Advance a nuestra Gamecube. Lo único malo de este modo, es que si queréis disfrutarlo en multijugador necesitareis varias Game Boy Advance y los cables que las conectan a Gamecube, algo que considero que fue una que fue nefasta decisión de Nintendo.

Recuerdo que cuando vi este juego en su lanzamiento en 2004 no le presté demasiada atención, pues estaba un tanto cansado de esta franquicia y Gamecube contaba con juegos muy superiores a los que dedicar mi tiempo y mi dinero. Hace unos años tuve la suerte de encontrar este juego y su secuela (Pokémon XD: Tempestad Oscura) a bajo precio y fue entonces cuando descubrí que Pokémon Colosseum era bastante interesante, al menos para los jugadores que estábamos cansados del estándar de esta serie. Es cierto que si comparáis este juego con otros RPGs de Gamecube queda muy por detrás, no solo a nivel de historia, sino también en gráficos (que son aceptables y poco más) y apartado sonoro (apenas hay voces y los pokémon ni siquiera dicen su nombre, hacen un ruido similar a lo visto en Gameboy). Pero dentro de lo que es Pokémon, es un juego innovador y con muchas horas de entretenimiento gracias a su modo principal (de unas 40 horas) y su modo Coliseo.

Debido a su particular historia y haber pasado sin pena ni gloria (comparado con otros juegos de la franquicia) veo difícil que algún día se vuelva a lanzar este juego para otras plataformas. Afortunadamente es un juego bastante fácil de encontrar de segunda mano y en caso de no tener una Gamecube podéis usar una Wii para disfrutar de esta aventura.