Power Stone Collection review

It's been a while. It's easy to remember the first time I played, Power Stone as it was launch day of the Dreamcast and what a way to start a console. Admittedly after that Sega seemed determined to prove that you can pack a console with great ideas and great games and it can still fail.

And now, seven years later Power Stone is back. In one of those quirks of gaming history, the PSP is often thought to be a portable PS2, but with less buttons and a bit less processing power it has a lot more in common with a portable Dreamcast. Which means Power Stone works perfectly in terms on control and it is probably still the best truly 3D beat 'em up. Rather than Tekken-style circling you get the option to roam and interact with the scenery properly. From Tom and Jerry: Fists of Fury on the N64 up to Kung Fu Chaos on the Xbox plenty have tried to best it, but none quite managed.

Power Stone

The one big reason Power Stone works is because it is simple. Spend some time with it and you'll discover plenty of extra little techniques and tactics but you'll learn lots on your first fight and that makes quite a level playing field between players. The broad idea is that as well as punching and kicking people you can throw every object on the level at them too. As well as that random weapons appear, from bombs to mini-guns, to blast your opponent. And on top of all that there are three gems to collect and once you get them all you'll transform. That gives you a limited amount of time with access to a range of special moves (all accessed by single button presses) that rival the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

As much as there is a single player mode, a simple arcade mode that is nothing more than playing through battling a characters in order and unlocking some extra weapons, it wasn't what Power Stone was created for. Power Stone was created to be a multiplayer game. It was the first time you ever really felt you have been in a bar-room brawl with your opponent rather than messing around on a videogame. There might be flame throwers and rocket launchers, but it still ends up feeling like a brawl. In short, it just works. Bad news about this bit later, though.

Power Stone 2

Capcom really went for a "bigger is better" approach to Power Stone 2, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. By far the biggest change is the shift from two to four person battles. Playing with 4 is always better than 2, but it did cause a few problems although nothing too serious, just things like the camera being zoomed a bit further out, making the weapons a bit hard to make out on the PSP screen. The biggest annoyance is "GO!" appearing on the screen during levels, forcing you to move on through scripted level changes. Fun once, but soon annoying - Power Stone is for fighting, not running between areas.

On the plus side, little changed in the gameplay (a few more gems appear as there are 4 characters running around) and new characters were mostly good inclusions (they've been included in the original on this collection too, assuming you're happy to complete it a few times). It's an intensely personal thing, but Power Stone 2 always felt like a let down. The confident bar room brawl feel of the predecessor is gone with an air of chaos added instead. Not that the original was anything less than chaotic, but it felt like ordered, understandable chaos and that was better.

Power Stone Collection

Conversion news is mostly good news, literally nothing is worse than the Dreamcast originals. The visuals have aged a bit in the time since they were first seen, but they're really not that bad. The wider screen works well and the PSP still isn't comfortable but there are no actual problems with the controls. As with many PSP games the loading times are terrible. From loading up the game to actually fighting takes weeks. It's almost quicker to walk to go into your attic, find the Dreamcast and set it up than it is to start a game of Power Stone 2. Use sleep mode when it finally has loaded or you'll be going through it all again.

Little things like the VMU games being included, new weapons and the Power Stone 2 characters appearing in the original are all you get in terms of extras. Power Stone 2 supports Gameshare so there is a bit of a chance of getting to play it multiplayer, but Power Stone doesn't. Online play would have been lovely, but it clearly wasn't worth the effort. It feels like a gaming time capsule, reminding you of how things used to be. Power Stone deserves to be played again, so this is still recommended. Once it loads up, at least.