Overall 9 Graphics 8 Sound 6 Addictive 8 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
8
Power Stone (DreamCast Port) Freezie43110
Usually you only see fighting games and shmups ported from arcade to console, so a platforming psuedo-fighter is a bit out of the ordinary. During the time this came out, a lot of people only knew Capcom for Street Fighter and Megaman. Biohazard may have been catching on soon, but Capcom was still open to doing some odd things.
Power Stone is a simple 1vs1 3D beat-em-up of sorts. Matches are short and frantic brawls with no blocking and minimal HP recovery; whittle down your opponent as fast as possible, and then move on to the next one. Different characters have slightly different nuances to their hitboxes, damage, and attack speeds, but ultimately the same strategies will work for all of them. The titular Power Stones will drop during combat, and collecting them gives you a huge advantage. You can also use the environment by chucking stage objects, climbing poles, launching your opponent into hazards, picking up weapons, etc. Battles do tend to just degrade into nabbing all three stones, using your super form's special attacks to whittle down your enemy's HP, and then finish them off with one of your form-ending attacks. The penultimate boss and final boss do require a slightly more defensive play style due to having massive priority and a tendency to no-sell throws, but they're otherwise squashed like any other character.
The game's cartoonish graphics are just fine for their time, and they don't seem to have degraded through the port from arcade. Every character has a quickly recognizable design and amusing animations to match their varied personalities and fighting styles. Some animations do look a bit awkward, though, and the fire effects from various special attacks and weapons looks a bit bad.
The music and sound effects are nice. Each stage has its own music that helps set the theme, but most aren't overly catchy. Impacts from attacks sound nice and firm, letting you know that you or your opponent just did something decisive. This being early Capcom, there's also some amusing Engrish to behold.
There isn't much plot going on. The opening announcer explains in his best Engrish that adventurers want the Power Stone, so pick one and go treasure hunting. This being an arcade game, you came here to goof off, not see an epic drama.
Overall it's a fun distraction to make an arcade mode run or do a few matches with friends, but you'll probably get bored after a few too many rounds or a run with each character.
Graphics 8 Sound 6 Addictive 8 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 2/5
Submitted: 09-16-17
Review Replies: 2
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