There must be something about my office lunchroom, because most of my rare catches have occured in its cinder block walls. I wasn't even going to take my GBA into work today, I grabbed it at the last minute going out the door simply because I vaguely remembered having nothing to do during Thursday's lunch. And I don't like having nothing to do.

The Feebas hunt had left me beyond apathy. But repetitive fishing seemed better than noontime television, so I cracked open the onyx clamshell. The first thing I did was check the Dewford phrase. Still "GOING TEACHER." Being unsure if that idiot kid was going to change it on me, I reset and went straight to Fortree City to do some fishing. On that hateful river I headed north, right to the base of that skinny waterfall.

And within eight squares, I found it: a Feebas spawning ground.

I caught four of them right then and there (three females and a male.) I killed a couple too, just out of spite. I came back later in the day, but couldn't find any more... do not tell me that the magic Feebas squares reset every time you turn off the game, I may cry.

Now I can puzzle out how to raise one of them into a Milotic. I never read that far in the FAQ because I was too consumed with just catching one. Finding Feebas has renewed my interest in completing my R/S Pokedex.

Even though Pokemon Colosseum is still a month away from release, I'm already experiencing the first bitter pangs of Stadium Ennui. I'm fairly certain this is a common malady among Pokemon Trainers. Remember when the first Pokemon Stadium came out, and you were all excited about 3D pokemon, and transferring your GB team, and watching big-screen fancy-dancy battles? And then the whole game ended up as this repetitive, visually redundant snoozer so you spent most of your time playing the multi-player minigames?

And then Pokemon Stadium 2 came out, and the exact same thing happened?

Everything I read about Colosseum leads me to believe that I'll be again struck with Stadium Ennui. The interview in this month's Nintendo Power left me cold, and the preview videos on the Bonus Disc all point to the same problems that Stadium had. Again: crappy sound effects. Again: pokemon battlers never move out of a three foot radius and never actually touch each other.

I know that it's a daunting task to create interactive combat animations for over 380 characters with innumerable attacks each. I know that Colosseum would still sell a zillion copies if it was an iTunes AudioBook. But that doesn't mean they can't try, does it? Is it too much to want a full-on battle mode where you can instruct a Machamp to pick up and toss an opponent for his Vital Throw attack? Or to watch your Bulbasaur's vines actually entangle the enemy and whip him around the field?

And why oh why can't they integrate the Pokemon monster voices from the cartoon, instead of those horrible Game Boy Color-era white noise sound effects?

I'm hoping that Colosseum's RPG mode will temper these feelings, and even if the battles remain cheap then perhaps the overarching story will add incentive to play.

Failing that, there's always the minigame mode.

Time: 143:34
Badges: 8
Pokedex: 189 (seen: 195)
Party: Metagross lv66, Salamence lv50, Razorbeak (Swellow) lv64, Golduck lv50, Jirachi lv12, Feebas lv20