At long last we have a Pokemon game on one of the latest generation consoles, which has meant fans of the previous games on the Nintendo 64 and all the versions on the Gameboy have gone into a buying frenzy. Nintendo have reported a massive surge in the number of Gamecubes sold as part of the Colosseum Pack and there are even news stories about how playing Pokemon is great for the nation's children. However, this latest incarnation of the Pokemon saga takes a different approach to the gameplay, which will leave some trainers more than a little disturbed!

For those not familiar with this craze, Pokemon roughly translates as Pocket Monsters, creatures that sit in stasis after being captured by a pokeball, until being called upon to do battle in skirmishes arranged by the trainers of said pocket monsters. In previous incarnations of the game you wandered around capturing wild Pokemon, training them up, taking on Gym Leaders and hopefully beating all other trainers in a National Championship. All this would often involve scouring a vast landscape looking for training opportunities, meeting wacky characters and getting involved in goodness knows how many bizarre plot twists; all great fun of course.

However, this latest incarnation differs significantly from this formula. First of all, the story is set in a desert region almost completely devoid of Pokemon, so there's no chance of catching any wild ones. The only Pokemon in the area are those imported by other trainers, all of whom are deeply possessive of their prized fighters. The next major difference is the introduction of the Shadow Pokemon. These are creatures that have had their hearts closed, forgetting their true natures, becoming violent, unpredictable and dangerous to humans and other Pokemon alike. No one knows where they have come from and only one human trainer is able to sense which Pokemon have turned down this dark path. You play another trainer who has recently come upon an evil machine with the capability of stealing the Pokemon from other trainers, mid-battle.

This will come as a shock to regular Pokemon fans, as stealing the Pokemon so lovingly cared for and trained from other players is anathema, considered the worst of all evil. However, as the game progresses it seems the only way to turn the Shadow Pokemon back to the path of goodness and light is to snag them from any trainers you come across using a hand-held version of the Pokemon stealing machine. Then you can use them in battle until their heart opens and they have visited a special healing area that opens up later in the game. So, it's not "Gotta catch 'em all" anymore, it's "Gotta snag 'em all!".

These Pokemon, once fully healed, can then be trained as you would a Pokemon caught in the normal way, as in the previous Gameboy titles. This gives you the opportunity to increase their strengths, teach them new moves and use them strategically in battles against wide ranging pocket monsters of varying powers. As you play, you get a feel for what your Pokemon is capable of and what type of monster it is likely to beat. Involving a Pokemon in battle successfully means they earn precious experience points to power up further and means they will respond to you better in future. Pokemon like being used but if they lose too often or aren't used at all they can come to dislike you and can even refuse to obey your commands. It is essential they listen to you, as without their obedience you'll find it harder to weaken the Shadow Pokemon you come across and you're not as likely to overcome the challenges set to progress further in the game.

For those not familiar with previous titles, the battling forms the core of the game. Originally you would pit one Pokemon against another and replace any Pokemon who have 'fainted' with another contender until you're all out of useable monsters. This has changed slightly in this version, as the battles are almost always two on two. Each Pokemon has an energy bar, a choice of four moves and a set number of times each move can be used. The moves are used in a turn-based approach and vary considerably from one monster to another. For example, Wingull has a great water cannon it can use against fire-type Pokemon, but a rock-type monster like a Geodude will easily take it down with a rock smash. However, as Wingull is airborne, the rock-type earthquake move has no effect on it. Similarly, grass-type Pokemon may be quite good against earth Pokemon, but throw a fire Pokemon into the mix, such as a Slugma, and it'll singe the grass type out of the game in one round. Besides the strikes there are also paralysis moves, poisoning techniques, powers over the weather and goodness knows what else. Learning the catalogue of Pokemon and then the potential attacks they could use is a mammoth task, but one most Pokemon fans happily throw themselves into. The winner of each battle will have earned some more experience points for his Pokemon, taken some cash as winnings and will either advance the plot or even be another notch up in the stadium events scattered throughout the game.

Of course, that's not all there is to the gameplay or story. A great tale of darkness and deceit unfolds as you explore the rather large Orre region. Each city has its own theme, such as beautiful tinkling waterfalls, abandoned freight trains turned into bars, crumbling regions of poverty and disrepair and affluent areas where trainers go to shop. The story weaves through these towns and exploration and conversation with the inhabitants is a must if you wish to move the plot along. It has a very arcade adventure feel on some occasions and while the puzzles can frustrate you for a time it's not long before a thorough search of a particular area, a chance conversation or key battle moves you right along. Besides the usual in-game collectibles like keys, machine parts and items that the characters you meet request you to retrieve, you also get the opportunity to buy products for your Pokemon. These include candies that improve their condition, zinc, protein and the like for their performance, first aid kits, burn and paralyse healing potions and other bits and bobs for the dedicated trainer. So not only do you have to get to grips with the foibles of your particular Pokemon, you also have to learn what they like to eat or what weaknesses need to be worked on.

However, I sometimes feel that the game takes itself too seriously. Previous incarnations have just been a good, old-fashioned, fun RPG romps with a load of battling, but this one tries to raise the bar, what with the edgy Shadow Pokemon and the sometimes cruel story of the evil gang trying to take over the world with dangerous monsters. It sits uncomfortably between the childish fun of the original Pokemon and some kind of naff coming-of-age teenage suspense novel. Also, some of the playability and enjoyment is lost by not being able to capture normal Pokemon just by running through tall grass or water, as you did in the previous outings. Having to wade through large battles just to come out with one Pokemon can get a little tiresome and the game, while still entertaining, suffers a little because of this.

This uneasy truce between childish fun and edgy teenager stuff is reflected in the graphics of the game. While Pokemon titles have always been fairly outlandish, they've strayed away from the manga look of the cartoons this time and have tried to make the protagonists look the wrong side of teenage, hip and trendy. The graphical style often includes clothes right out of Adam and the Ants and faces that are even more freakish and bug-eyed than before. You're not going to see Ash and his buddies wandering around, which is a shame as it's what many Pokemon fans would have wanted. Our protagonists certainly don't look that human; more like the 'greys' you might have encountered in an episode of The X-Files. That said, the close-ups are very well done and the third person perspective as you explore each area works well. The landscapes seem drawn from a harsher environment than any previous pocket monster romp, which again could be an attempt to raise the maturity of the game. They are well drawn, be it the shanty huts of a run-down town on it's way out, or the streaming waterfalls of their more affluent neighbour, but again they lose the fun and innocence of even the more recent Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire games on the Gameboy Advance.

Something that will please the fans and may make newcomers to the game sit up and take notice are the fantastic 3D representations of the Pokemon themselves. No longer are they the paltry two dimensions we've come to know on the Gameboy - instead they are full colour 360-degree wonders. They are very well animated indeed and come with a wide range of facial expressions, from concentrating when pulling off a move to being stunned when they take a hit and the final passing out when they faint from the exhaustion of the battle. Their fight moves are many and varied also, whether it's the furious digging of the Sandscratch, the psy-beam of your Espeon or the deadly flame attacks of Groudon himself! To finally see your favourite Pokemon 'in the flesh', is great and there are even plenty of new ones to snag too. Regulars to this franchise will love them and newcomers should be pleased with the bizarre hallucinatory quality of the technicolour creatures and their battles.

IF all this wasn't enough, due to the often under-utilised ability to link the Gameboy Advance to the Gamecube, you can also upload your favourite trained characters into a battle arena outside of the main game. This gives you the opportunity to pit your creatures against those of any friends who also have been playing Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire. After all your hard work training them up on your portable console, it's great to see them in all their polygonic glory on the big screen.

Unfortunately there is a bit of a big downside and that is the sound. While the rest of the title is fairly well polished, even if the theme doesn't always sit well with the gameplay, the audio side of things does let the game down. The speech as you interact with each character is subtitled, the music doesn't really seem to fit the scene and the sound effects for the battles seem puny in comparison to the graphical presentation. One of the first bosses appears to love disco but it's more of a Latin rumba that is played, putting the visuals at odds with the character. Similarly, while there are the obligatory rises and falls in tempo, they don't always seem linked to any on screen action. I was very disappointed with the Pokemon noises, expecting the game to sound like a veritable menagerie. However, besides the odd squawk, rumble and whoosh of the fighting effects, the monsters seem remarkably quiet.

So while the Pokemon franchise rumbles on and Pokemon Colosseum largely retains its sense of fun, I can't help playing it with a sense of disquiet. It's as if the producers stopped halfway through making it, decided to give it a different spin and forgot to bolster the audio department in the process. Obviously the game is a must have for Pokemon fans but I think gamers joining the craze for the first time may be a bit bemused by it all. In fact, for the first timers I would recommend investing in a Gameboy Advance SP and the superb Pokemon Ruby before getting your teeth into this.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).