Colosseum is the “idea guy” Pokémon game; it’s made up of a ton of really cool concepts that tragically are just not executed well at all. On paper, this should be everything I’ve ever wanted out of Pokémon: trainers employing creative tactics, a focus on double battles, a real sense of investment in the Pokémon you choose to raise, and a darker tone with some creative worldbuilding, but it’s all just so slapdash and half-assed in its execution that the whole thing just comes crashing down under its own weight.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to get into Monster Hunter but has always struggled to, I recommend you start here. Rise was not my first Monster Hunter game – if we get really technical, it wasn’t even my second – but it was the first one that really clicked with me, and it enabled me to appreciate and enjoy the series as a whole. I know more than one other person who’s had a similar experience, and all of us ended up huge Monster Hunter fans when all was said and done.

To call The Big Catch: Tacklebox a demo is to do it a grave disservice. Despite being free, it feels more complete than many full price games, and in my opinion it deserves to be evaluated as a standalone work – it more than holds up under such a lens, and in light of the fact that its content is fully separate from that of the full game I’ve decided to review it as such.