Pokémon Sword/Shield VS Pokémon Colosseum 

Looking back on this video, I must say that while I stand by most of the points I made, I also need to make some corrections/add-ons, since some points are somewhat unfair: - Pokémon do have flinching animations in Sw/Sh, just very short and unimpactful. - Flinching/dying animations are a bit too long in Colosseum, and while they can be turned off if you want to save time, a half way point between them and Sw/Sh would be the ideal duration. - Rain and sandstorms don't stay on during battle in Colosseum, they just play for a couple seconds and go away, probably due to hardware limitations. Sandstorms in Colosseum look bad too, being just an overlay like in Sw/Sh. - There oviously were less Pokémon in Colosseum than in Sw/Sh. I don't think this is an excuse though, since making so many different Pokémon throuhgout the years was their decision and they should have planned for this situation better. - I chose Colosseum over Battle Revolution since Colosseum also has a storyline outside of battles, making it more similar to Sw/Sh and, in my opinion, a fairer comparison. I chose Colosseum over XD: Gale of Darkness because I simply like it better. - Sudowoodo pretends to be a tree, but it is not a tree. It absolutely does and should move, even during idle animation. Colosseum nailed it whith it switching its arms around, making it completely frozen in time and justifying it through the Pokédex is just undefendable. - I should have also commented that the music and sound design of Colosseum is in my opinion far superior to that of Sw/Sh. - Also forgot to comment that in Colosseum Pokémon maintain their small/big size in battle, while in Sw/Sh, they are all kinda up/downscaled to be about the same size. This is obviously a problem. - Yes, many animations in Colosseum are inherited from Stadium 2, so what? Sw/Sh could have used these animations too if they wanted, but didn't. I'm comparing the quality of the animations between these two games, not judging who made them. - Also, sorry for having some typos. I should have VO'd this video but didn't have a good mic at the time to do it. The one video I made before with the laptop mic sounded pretty bad, so I decided to go this route with this one until I saved up for a microphone. In conclusion, it's just baffling to me that this comparison can even be made and that Colosseum can come out on top in even one of the points in question. This is not to say that Gamefreak are lazy as many people assume I am implying, just that through the years they have made poor decisions that have ended up putting them in a bad position were this is the best they can put out. And that is sad. I want Pokémon to be the best it can, because I have loved this franchise since I can remember. And this just ain't it.

All the Pokemon are scaled to accurate size as well in Colosseum too, unlike Sword and Shield where everyone shrinks.

What's frustrating about this is that GameFreak said they stopped making Stadium/Colosseum games because now the mainline games have gone to 3D models so there's no need for them. What was the point of going 3D when you're just gonna half-ass it?

Genius Sonority >>> Game Freak A staff count of only 22 people developed Colosseum, its sequel XD Gale of Darkness, and Battle Revolution. 3 legendary games with Pokémon models that have emotion, battle animations that make it more realistic, beautiful battle backgrounds, an amazing OST, Pokémon are actually scaled properly, and Blastoise actually shoots water out of its cannons and not its head. Game Freak cannot even touch Genius Sonority.

There is also a big factor. GS knows how to use the camera and GF doesn't.

I remember when I was a kid, I hated when my pokemon fainted in Pokemon Colosseum because it broke my heart to see them in pain

We r not just gonna talk about how Gen 6 and 7 had the Pokémon heads turn and face u for affection events but sword and shield just have them hop

What’s sad is that even the original Pokémon Stadium had more detailed reaction animations than Sword / Shield, and that game was constrained by Nintendo 64 hardware.

It's interesting seeing that Mario, Zelda and, to a lesser extent, Fire Emblem all took big leaps forward in terms of how they tackle the design of their respective series; trying new and wild things that either do away with or turn established series staples on their heads. Then you have Pokemon, which seems to be very content to rest on previous success and deliver a very standard product in its series that doesn't seem to possess even an ounce of soul. This is the biggest media franchise in the world for gods sakes, there is zero excuse for this.

Dont tell anyone but pokemon Colosseum is better.

And this is why Pokemon Colosseum will never come to Nintendo Switch. It would be an unprecedented embarrassment to the supposed "mainline series."

"Why put in the extra effort, when you can get away with less." -The Pokemon Company

When GF has pressed the B button for the evolution of the franchise.

This video deserves more views. I decided to play Pokemon Colosseum on a whim today and within 10 minutes, I realized most of this. I really do miss the models and the battle animations from Battle Revolution

halfway through the vid I'm just like "STOP STOP HE'S ALREADY DEAD"

Colosseum needs a remake. It was the game that paved the way for future 3d Pokemon games. It deserves some respect.

2003 Sudowoodo: Has bark on his skin. 2019 Sudowoo- *LOOK AT ME, IM ALL RUBBERY!*

I want to remind everyone that in PBR, you could use any pokémon you had in a diamond or pearl game. So if you had a shaymin, a mew, a whatever mon you like that was obtainable in gen 3 or 4, you could have it in the game and every single one of them had their animations.

One thing I wish that was pointed out was the originality of the Colosseum soundtrack! It really immersed you in the battles you had.

I suddenly realized why I feel more attached to the Pokémon in games like Colosseum than in SwSh... they act like living things and feel more real. Oh god. Game Freak, c'mon. Bring these things back to life!

I wish Genius Sonority was in charge of the mainline Pokemon games

I remember being so dissapointed about the animations back when pokemon X and Y were released. I was so excited when they were making a 3D Pokemon game on the go because at the time all I was used to was the fun and unique animations of battle revolution and man was I dissapointed back then... so you could imagine how dissapointed I am that they still use those lazy animations 7 years later

Over time the Pokemon company will try get away with putting less and less effort into their games and will eventually just be shitting on a plate and putting it in front of us.

This really makes me want to replay Colosseum. I love the darker touch it gave the franchise. Nowadays pokemon is just childish fluffy candy overkill.

It's honestly embarrassing what is happening to my favorite gaming franchise. There is so much potential here not being realized... Not just in visuals, but also in mechanics, multiplayer, competitive, etc.

We all know how badly people want Gen 4 remakes but I'll be honest there... I don't want a remake that is of quality similar to Sword and Shield's. There's no telling if they will be of the same quality if they end up being made by Game Freak, but come on, we know they'll be. What I want above all other Pokémon-related things is a remake of Colosseum by Genius Sonority instead, with updated models of all Pokémon up to Gen 3, maybe even up to Gen 4 (as they stopped there with Battle Revolution), updated graphics as a whole with full usage of the Switch's home-console capabilities and maybe even some extra content that wasn't in the original Colosseum. They should still be out there making games. They are the team behind Pokémon Shuffle, which released in 2015, and they also released an unrelated game in 2017. They have a website too which seems to get updated frequently but sadly I can't read Japanese.

The biggest mistake was butchering the Pokémon cries back in X and Y.

Just imagine, A Colosseum remake by literally anyone other than GF, with new textures(obviously). Sword/Shield would be thrown away completely

8:55 "The opposing Hitmontop fainted!" Someone tell that to the opposing Hitmontop, still standing and dancing around...

Colosseum did so many things right for the franchise, it’s a damn shame this wasn’t the direction Pokémon took when it started to move to bigger better consoles. I would argue, during this time Pokémon was at the pinnacle of its success and creativity. Now, it’s more worried about pumping out third party pay-to-win mobile games and half-assed core series games.

this is exactly why im so exited for the new pokemon snap game! the pokemon animations feel so alive in that trailer. in pokemon sheild i felt like the pokemon weren't proper animals and just lifeless statues.

Sword/shield even having a graphical edge is still debatable, considering that the way all the pokemon are textured is extremely flat and plastic-looking.

Id also like the add Pokemon Coloseum has a much more epic scale with Orchestral sounds and industrial environments. Each pokemon up to gen 3 had unique animations and moves actually looked like what they did it was at the time the best way to view pokemon battles made for 3d consoles. S&S just feels like a suped up 3ds game.

things get worse if you compare with pokemon stadium

Doesn’t help that colosseum was the companies first exposure to Pokémon, with none of them ever touching the franchise beforehand… that was their first time first try at making and playing with Pokémon

GameFreak went crazy with their character designs this generation, but totally forgot that the Pokemon are characters too.

Everyone else is making excellent points so i'm just gonna add in here that there's nO ORANGE HAIR COLOUR OPTION!!! In pokemon X/Y (2013), there were ONLY 5 hair colour choices, one of them being orange. When Sun/Moon came out, there were 9 hair colour choices, and they REMOVED ORANGE??? It is the only hair colour to EVER be removed!! And it was replaced by a new shade of brown, two new shades of blonde, and an unnatural colour. In Sw/Sh, there are THIRTEEN hair colour options!!! FIVE of the thirteen options are unnatural hair colours!!! BUT THERE'S STILL NO ORANGE??? Why the fuck have they purposefully removed a natural hair colour from the game when there has NEVER been ANY other hair colour that has ever been removed??? AND WHY IS SONYA IN THE GAME??? SHE HAS ORANGE HAIR, WHY CAN'T I??? They added Sonya in just to rub it in my face. Why can't my character look like me?? Why have they REMOVED gingers from existence???

Pokémon being more spread out and further away from each other was so much better, just like you said it made the stadium and space feel sooo much bigger

I've seen some people go as far as to say the old animation just took too long and would slow down the pace of battle, which I always reply with, "You can turn off battle animations." Like there's an option to speed up the game by getting rid of the long animations, but what's the point when the Pokemon aren't even doing long animations in the first place? In generation 4 I turn off animations often because they take a very long time, that was a time when the option actually made sense, but nowadays it cuts what like 5 seconds from each battle? And if you don't turn it off then you get 5 extra seconds of tiny flinches and models hopping around like action figures. It just baffles me how little the Pokemon move in these new games

Everyone say it with me now.... Ahem... *H I G H Q U A L I T Y A N I M A T I O N S*

They at least should have made backgrounds instead of those “voids”

Kinda surprising you left out wailord

Damn even sudowoodo had so much life into it in Colosseum...

Okay so The Pokémon Company definitely isn’t as concerned about quality as its parent. Not anymore, at least.

Not to mention colosseum and XD had better music for each fight that moved you to to fight harder. Also better story plots that don't need you to use a high tier legendary to save the region.

I remember playing battle revolution after my uncle got I for me and my bro and being so amazed by the Pokemon. I can see why people are so upset with sword and shield.

You can thank satoru iwata for those animations, which were taken largely from Pokemon Stadium that he had a huge role in programming

Gamefreak could only dream about making a character like Wes

They seriously didn't try with SWSH, and you know why? It's because they know they didn't have to. They know that even if their game is a steaming hot turd, there is still going to be entire armies of people that will hand them money for it.

This means one thing: They *REALLY* need a Stadium/Colosseum/XD remake for the Switch.

They put a B Team in charge of Pokémon and put the bulk of their staff on a side project called Little Town Hero. LTH ended as a failure.

Its evolving, but backwards.

Something you forgot about that I noticed during your demonstration of the colosseum backgrounds was the trainer animations: upon introduction and defeat, opposing trainers had a lot personality put into their animations in Colosseum, while SwSh just had a close up of the trainer's face most of the time, then straight to the battle; you only got unique animations among the "important" trainers. SwSh trainer animations were just a slog, while Colosseum animations may have been locked to character models, they certainly let you know what kind of trainer you were up against.

I personally prefer the weather effects in sword and shield, less distracting, but the gamecube games had a style all their own. Genious sonority were great. But that's a point I need to raise, Genious Sonority are the company who did all of the great stuff you mentioned, not Gamefreak. Gamefreak are handheld developers, those are their limits. I say we bring Genious Sonority back, they are far more experienced with the standards of a home console.

Psychic, Surf, Earthquake, Rain Dance, Fire Blast are just some of the many moves that you really feel the impact of in Colosseum. Genius Sonority really made damage look genuine.

"It's like evolution, but backwards."

Sword and shield rain: a drizzle Colosseum: *Nothing like dancing to sA LSAAA in a Category 5 Hurricane*

This video highlights why I hope yearly pokemon releases stop soon. I really want them to spend as much time to get the quality of the games back up. I'd really like them to work on say the gen 4 remake over the life span of sw/sh, getting dlcs out instead of new titles, so that the remakes won't have to adhere or be limited by sw/sh. Nintendo's strength has always been nostalgia, so I don't think fans would ever mind waiting as long as it takes for their favourite games to have new life breathed into them for a more captivating experience to capture their love for the franchise again.

5:11 THE FREAKING SUNFLORA LMAO IM DEAD

I think another nice touch from colosseum was the crowd cheering after you send out a pokemon. Really made it feel like it was a hugely popular battle and that your character has some fame

Colosseum are fabulous ! My favorite Pokémon game !

And now I want to dig out my copies of Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, and play them back to back. Goddamn... I feel old.

We peaked at Gen 5

So sad when they are too lazy to even think of a convincing lie.

Don't ignore the massive impact Colosseum's sound design has, too.

That animation of Zamazenta spinning in place, while walking in place, never ceases to disappoint me.

this was really great of you to put together. I've been playing some Colosseum recently and didn't even think to compare the two like this. you made good points throughout and it was well put together, great job

I'm glad you made mention to the flinching animation as well. One of my favorite things that made me immersed in the battle was the flinching animation, it made me really feel like my pokemon were *battling.* The way sword and shield animated the flinching made me feel meh. Like it didn't even matter.

Funny how those small simple things can make huge differences. Wish that kind of care and attention was put into modern Pokemon games or just games in general these days.

I really REALLY want a Colosseum and Gale of Darkness remaster. :(

Worse yet, even XY had a unique fully rendered background for most generic trainer/wild battles

till this day pokemon colosseum is my fav. plus the music is good. They could make the ultimate pokemon game if they truly wanted.

Great video!! It's incredible how Pokémon Colosseum from 2003 has surpassed by far Pokémon Shield and Sword the latest games launched by gamefreak, 16 years apart and still Pokémon Colosesum continues to be the king.

Colosseum and XD ARE the best pokemon console games to date. such care into everything, with a unique region that even BOTHERED to explain why you couldn't catch wild pokemon . So much attention to detail was given to those games, and it hurts me to see the franchise regress in such a way. It honestly seems that GF cant pull off the whole pokemon console experience, or that they just lack the passion to put their all into it. id honestly love to see Genius Sorority return and take the helm of creating the games...

Heck we can even look back at a game like black 2 and white 2, while not having animations to the level of XD, the Pokémon felt alive and not boring dull and sitting there doing nothing

I love the aesthetic to the Colosseum games - it almost looks like something out of Star Wars.

The Attacks in Colosseum feel so heavy... they feel like, they all have a huge impact in the battle !!! And the Attacks in Sword and Shield are just... there... and reduce some HP. This is literaly unexcusable :(

There’s no reason anyone should be defending gamefreak and their laziness

I love how in colosseum the opening sendouts for both teams line up with the music. It’s so rad

That Zamazenta U-turn gets me every time, like who the f said "ye that will do it". They probably runned out of time, the whole game feels rushed, some animations are very good some are terrible and the endgame feels mega rushed. Most Pokemons looks nice at least that's the strengh of the game.

And people can't even say "OH BUT COLOSSEUM IS JUST A BATTLE GAME NOT A STORY-BASED GAME" because it has a great story line. I'm so lucky I grew up playing this game :')

Colluseum is so full of life! The sandstorm effects on Pokemon are awesome!

Only players who turn off battle animations in the main games because they want a faster battle experience would hate Colisseum/Gale of Darkness

Dude I just noticed your channel is new. I love your videos so far, they're super high-quality and well paced. Subscribed and looking forward to more content!

It's very sad that everytime I try a new Pokémon game I can't help compare it to Colloseum

The particle effects and animations in XD and Colosseum look pretty damn good even today. I love the jagged and painful looking Ice Beam, the glassy Reflect/LS/Protect with the shiny reflective glass building around the user or "bullets" bouncing off them. Earthquake too! Slaking using it in time with his yawn and stretch really drives home (as well as the sound and animation of EQ itself) that it has a REAL KICK TO IT vs Modern games where they rattle the camera awkwardly then get hit some while later. The weather affects I wish would've lasted in the older games but I understand why they didn't.

I really miss Coliseum and Gale of Darkness. Those stick out in my childhood especially.

Honestly I'm convinced that the greatest difference is that third-party developers *understand the weight of the Pokemon series.* Every third-party (Genius Sonority, HAL/Pax Softnica, Tecmo Koei, etc.) that has every worked on a Pokemon game seems aware that Pokemon is the one of if not the most recognizable video game brands out there and put in both time and quality to live up to its high reputation. While I get that previous GF directors fear they've lost inspiration or simply burnt themselves out, rather than making excuses or empty promises, they should at least look at previous spinoffs to remind themselves the Pokemon doesn't need to be built on linear thinking and that change is okay. Even though GF has proven its ridiculous stubbornness to support its game quality (with a mere 148 employees), The Pokemon Company became the biggest problem itself once it began to favor profits over everything else and nothing will seem to change unless otherwise. Sorry for the rant, great video and here's hoping that GF and TPC wake up from their delusions as the ones carrying the "Pokemon name."

I kinda had a experience with this back when I was younger. I had been exposed to the series mostly through vhs complications of the first anime and the first three movies. It wasn't till a relative of mine leaf green from a friend that I was exposed to the game series. And even then, it wasn't till he bought collusium and xd gale of darkness that I was finally able to complete one for myself. I couldn't really get into the series much, due to finances, but I liked the ideas and such. Then sun and moon came around, and I honestly had a blast getting everything done in the game. Trading for national dex, the hunt for shiny pokemon. Heck, I even went above and beyond and got gender differences and alternative forms of pokemon. It was neat, and I liked what it offered (even if it was somewhat diminished through the ultra games) But now, I'm just so dissapointed in what I've seen in the new game. I did the research, and I didn't want to believe it to be laziness. But alas, I had to accept that gamefreak hasn't changed the franchise in years, and that sword and shield are just lack luster and unfulfilled promises.

Pokemon Colosseum > Sword/Shield

A few things you missed: *In Sw/Sh (and since Generation 6), Hitmontop has been shown STANDING UP, whereas Colosseum (and Stadium 2, and Battle Revolution) properly showed him balancing upside down on his head spike like the Sugimori art and older game sprites. *In Colosseum (and both Stadiums, and PBR), Blastoise has a special "double water" animation for Hydro Pump that shows the water coming out of both of its shell cannons like it's supposed to. Since Generation 6, there's only been one stream of water coming from its mouth. *In Colosseum, some birds were shown grounded, such as Skarmory. In Sw/Sh, almost all birds are shown flying, a leftover of Generation 6's "Sky Battle" mechanic, and in Skarmory's case, the flying animation is awkward.

I always loved in xd how whenever your pokemon gets hit, your character is like "you okay?"

I've been saying how absolutely CLAUSTROPHOBIC the Sword and Shield arenas make me when there's plenty of space on the battlefield and they're clustered up like that. Also the music kind of sucks. They should bring back music like Pokemon Battle Revolution. The Stargazer Colosseum music was GRAND.

In 16 years, Colosseum and XD aged like fine cheese. In 6 years, SwSh aged like fine milk.

I appreciate the comparisons. Thank you.

Love these videos man.

Hey man, I am actually writing up a video right now on how Colosseum out does Sword and Shield. Would you mind me using your video as footage, appropriate credit will be given of course and links in the description to your channel and this video.

The best animations are from Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii. Pokemon actually WALK UP to the opposing Pokemon and hit.

Anyone else always love the way Umbreon resets its footing when it gets done recoiling from damage? I always loved that little bit of animation.

You made a lot of good points in your video. Nice job.