Ideas for a Pokemon Colosseum remaster have been swirling around in my head for years. In an attempt to exorcise this spirit, I have created this thread to enumerate them.
For those who never played the game, Pokémon Colosseum is a single player RPG set in the desert region of Orre. Orre is so desolate that wild Pokémon are nowhere to be found. Despite this, it’s a rough place full of trainers looking to scrap, and in Orre all battles are Double Battles.
If there are no wild Pokémon, how do you build a team? You steal Pokémon from other trainers of course. The nefarious organization Cipher is up to no good in the region and have been creating Shadow Pokémon by closing off Pokémon’s hearts and making them ruthless battle machines. As an ex-member of the criminal organization Team Snagem, you have access to the only Snag Machine, a device used to steal Pokémon from other trainers. Your goal in the game is to steal every Shadow Pokémon from Cipher and stop their villainous plot, purifying and saving all of the Shadow Pokémon along the way.
Pokémon Colosseum is often seen as an edgy Pokémon game at face value, I mean look at this guy:
This is the intro cutscene of the game.
While it’s certainly edgier than the mainline games, it’s not exactly Shadow the Hedgehog. What you’ll find in Colosseum is a quirky game set in a desolate region full of strange characters. The game has a lot of personality and plays much more like a traditional RPG than a typical Pokémon game.
You have an extremely limited pool of Pokémon, and they’re all bad. This combined with all Double Battles makes it a challenging and rewarding Pokémon game, where you’re forced to use Pokémon that you likely skipped over in the other games.
Did I mention that the game has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack?
Enough about the game though, what would I do with an HD remaster?
Core Gameplay Changes:
And that's it. This will never happen, but it's fun to dream sometimes. Thanks for reading, if you made it all the way here I'll reward you with some more GIFs:
For those who never played the game, Pokémon Colosseum is a single player RPG set in the desert region of Orre. Orre is so desolate that wild Pokémon are nowhere to be found. Despite this, it’s a rough place full of trainers looking to scrap, and in Orre all battles are Double Battles.
If there are no wild Pokémon, how do you build a team? You steal Pokémon from other trainers of course. The nefarious organization Cipher is up to no good in the region and have been creating Shadow Pokémon by closing off Pokémon’s hearts and making them ruthless battle machines. As an ex-member of the criminal organization Team Snagem, you have access to the only Snag Machine, a device used to steal Pokémon from other trainers. Your goal in the game is to steal every Shadow Pokémon from Cipher and stop their villainous plot, purifying and saving all of the Shadow Pokémon along the way.
Pokémon Colosseum is often seen as an edgy Pokémon game at face value, I mean look at this guy:
This is the intro cutscene of the game.
While it’s certainly edgier than the mainline games, it’s not exactly Shadow the Hedgehog. What you’ll find in Colosseum is a quirky game set in a desolate region full of strange characters. The game has a lot of personality and plays much more like a traditional RPG than a typical Pokémon game.
You have an extremely limited pool of Pokémon, and they’re all bad. This combined with all Double Battles makes it a challenging and rewarding Pokémon game, where you’re forced to use Pokémon that you likely skipped over in the other games.
Did I mention that the game has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack?
Enough about the game though, what would I do with an HD remaster?
Core Gameplay Changes:
- Updated to use Modern Pokémon Mechanics
- Considering the original game came out in 2003, there are too many changes to the core battle system of Pokemon to list here, but I will highlight two notable changes: The Physical and Special split and the Fairy Type.
- Updated to use the Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness Shadow Mechanics
- Pokémon XD introduced many more Shadow moves, and gave most Shadow Pokémon multiple Shadow moves.
- Shadow moves are super effective against non-Shadow Pokémon, and not very effective against other Shadow Pokémon.
- Upon purifying a Shadow Pokémon they learned a rare, exclusive move. These are usually pretty low impact and just for fun, but Follow Me Magmar made a bit of a splash in the competitive scene many years ago.
- Hyper Mode was changed to Reverse Mode in Pokémon XD, presumably to help balance out the buffs to Shadow Pokémon above. I could take or leave this, neither Hyper Mode or Reverse Mode were very impactful.
- Evolutions from Gen 4 onward made available
- As of Generation 8 this would add Mismagius, Yanmega, Gliscor, Weavile, Mamoswine, Wyrdeer, Ambipom, Ursaluna, and Togekiss to the game. It might throw off the balance a bit in the early game, but you could easily mitigate that with changing when Pokémon learn the necessary moves and making the evolution items available later in the game.
- Add new Shadow Pokémon
- There are several cut Pokémon referenced in the files that would be great candidates: Spoink, Psyduck, Baltoy, Mightyena, Castform, Porygon2, Breloom, Lunatone, Solrock, Roselia, Chimecho, Minun, Electrode, Snorunt, Teddiursa, Corphish, Spheal, Sandslash, Magcargo, Kecleon, Whiscash, Xatu, Wobbuffet, and Wailmer.
- There are also three Shadow Pokemon that were only available via e-Reader in Japan: Togepi, Mareep, and Scizor.
- To preserve the feel of the game I think it would be important to stick to mainly weaker Gen 2 and Gen 3 Pokémon, at least for any additions during the main storyline.
- Add some wild Pokémon in the same manner as Pokémon XD
- In my mind, this would be a side quest with Duking that plays out over the course of the game, continuing into the postgame. You would be traveling around Orre with Duking seeking out and discovering the three PokéSpots from Pokémon XD. Perhaps you could even discover a fourth, underground PokéSpot near The Under.
- Most of the wild Pokémon in the XD PokéSpots are already in the game as Shadow Pokémon, so there would have to be some substitutions.
- I would also have Duking trade you rare Pokémon for catching the rarest Pokémon in each PokéSpot, just like in XD.
- Add Gateon Port
- This is a new area in Orre introduced in Pokémon XD, I think it would be fun to visit this during the events of Colosseum. Perhaps Gateon port is a nearly abandoned ghost town before the events of Colosseum revitalize the region.
- Add the Orre Colosseum to Story Mode
- This is only available in Battle Mode in the original game, but in XD they added it as a postgame Colosseum. I think it should also be added as a postgame Colosseum for Pokémon Colosseum.
- Show the formation of Team Miror
- Simple HD remaster
- Basically upgrade the textures and we’re good to go baby.
- Preserve the original animations
- This is the least likely element to happen, but the animations in Pokemon Colosseum had a lot of personality that was lost when we got new 3D models in Pokemon XY. That’s not to say the new models and animations are bad, but preserving the old animations is also worth doing.
- BDSP had a few nods to some DPPt animations, so I’m hopeful that they wouldn’t throw all the old animations away.
And that's it. This will never happen, but it's fun to dream sometimes. Thanks for reading, if you made it all the way here I'll reward you with some more GIFs:
