"Colosseum changed up the formula in an interesting way and keeps getting forgotten"

So hear me out, I keep seeing so many people commenting about pokemon doing the same formula everytime and not differentiating. While Colosseum isn't a main entry, it genuinely changed up the formula in a way I think needs to be noted and remembered more, which I wanna make in a five points.Umbreon and Espeon are perfect.The game hands you the utmost perfect duo you need at the start. Umbreon and Espeon. Espeon is a speedy powerhouse. It can hit before many pokemon and hit hard, but Umbreon is tanky and doesn't do much damage. This is so fucking perfect for your goal. When you need to defeat opponents then Espeon is key, but Umbreon helps with those small bits of damage when catching shadow pokemon. Umbreon can edge them down the opponents to the health to catch them. These two are exactly the tools you need, but do not guarantee victory. Umbreon isn't always going to outdamage past their tankiness and Espeon can't take much damage, and in a double battle Espeon can't take out both at once.You can beat the game but not win. The challenge is optional.You can faint every shadow pokemon and not catch a thing the whole game, just uber grind your starters. That is doable, but if you want to win you can catch and purify the shadow pokemon which presents a whole new challenge! To purify them gives you a constantly rotating team. You have to adapt to your shadow pokemon at hand and use them to purify them in a reasonable time! They don't start with a full moveset and gotta be purified to get their attacks. To actually win is a whole different but interesting game. You have to want to do that.Shadow Pokemon are not easy to catchEven all these years later and catching so many, I still feel a shot of dopamine whenever I get one of these guys in a ball. Shadow pokemon have high capture rates and you will usually spend a few pokeballs trying to get them. It's amazingly tense because they can knock themselves out. Their main move shadow rush does recoil and if they faint you either gotta wait till the end game or save scum back to a computer. Later in the game the final challenge of the main story will have you running against 6 trainers in a row, each with shadow pokemon, no time between for breaks to heal or save. You keep those shadow pokemon, but damn are they not easy to catch nor are the fights. Fit with two pseudos to catch, I only caught the Metagross as of recent, never did as a kid.Double Battles, Double StrategiesLame title I know, but still. The double battles are absolutely the perfect necessary format. When you're up against a shadow pokemon you can both through a pokeball and damage it further if need be. You aren't slowed down by turns, you multitask. You can do more in a round, but your opponents use this too! I love the admin fights, they take advantage of the format and use strategies, such as earthquake and protect or rain and thunder. Your bosses have strategies and will really put you in tough spots so often. They aren't throwaway fights.Limited Pokemon Works BetterThis one could be argued, but I like the limited pokemon. In the normal games it can be so easy to formulate a team to win because you have so many options. It's easy to figure out how to win when you have so many options, but when you only have so many you gotta think. You gotta plot, and grinding is much more difficult because Shadow Pokemon don't level. You could grind at Battle Mountain to deal with matters, but that is a whole lot of time wasted. It's not as easy in this one.TL:DR Pokemon Colosseum challenged players and changed the formula, we need to remember that Pokemon did give us something different. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/3ezmmDh