I received a copy of the Game Cube game Pokemon Colosseum for my birthday 8 years ago. Today I finally finished it. I'd finished Story Mode way back in 2004 within a few weeks of getting the game. It was Battle Mode. There are 6 different sets of battles. Within each set, there are 8 single battles and 8 2 vs 2 battles. So you have, in ascending order of difficulty:
Phenac Stadium: Level 50 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles
Pyrite Colosseum: Level 50 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles
The Under Colosseum: Level 50 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles
Orre Colosseum: Level 50 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles
Tower Colosseum: Level 100 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles
Orre Colosseum: Level 100 cap, 8 1v1 and 8 2v2 battles (yeah, you go to Orre twice)
You have to win 8 battles in a row to clear, and only have 5 continues. If you run out, you gotta start from the beginning.
The level 50 cap fights were easy and I cleared those back in 2004. The level 100 fights are significantly harder (every trainer has multiple legendary Pokemon, with good stats, good move sets, and rather clever strategies). I remember that I could never finish them with either of my regular Ruby/Sapphire teams (Teams Psi and Chi
over here). I think it was in 2007 that I ended up making a team that was heavy on the legendaries and I was finally able to beat the Tower Colosseum and the single battle Orre level 100. I'm not sure exactly when I did this, but it was definitely years after originally getting the game. I used this team:
Bold Kyogre with Surf, Protect, Ice Beam, Thunder and a King's Rock
Impish Groudon with Flamethrower, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Solarbeam, and a Miracle Seed
Lonely Zapdos with Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Drill Peck, Light Screen and a Quick Claw
Bashful Rayquaza with Dragon Claw, Thunder Wave, Extremespeed, Hyper Beam, and a Silk Scarf
Naughty Primeape with Cross Chop, Earthquake, Taunt, Swagger, and Leftovers
Timid Gengar with Thunderbolt, Explosion, Destiny Bond, Confuse Ray, and Lum Berry
I turned out not using Rayquaza much at all, and Gengar was really useful as a kamikazee Pokemon. The trainers had some pretty tough Pokemon (the 2nd trainer in level 100 Orre has a really tough Latios). More than once I brought out Gengar and just had him keep using Destiny Bond. A few times I would team Gengar up with Kyogre, have Kyogre use Protect and Gengar use Explosion.
The last battle was pretty incredible. I had Zapdos and Kyogre up against Latios and Latias. I had Light Screen up which helped a ton and kept Zapdos alive long enough to land Thunder Wave on both of them. When Zapdos died, I switched in Groudon, who couldn't scratch either of them, but had enough Special Defense coupled with Light Screen to soak up a lot of Ice Beams and Psychics while Kyogre knocked them down with Ice Beams. It was fun. One of the most exhilirating Pokemon battles I can remember. Ended it with Kyogre having about 50 HP left and nailing Latios with Ice Beam for the win, which would not have worked if Groudon hadn't distracted them and if they weren't paralyzed.