Gaming Target - Dreamcast: Power Stone

Written by Thomas Harding on September 22, 1999

Review: Capcom holds the 'gem' to the future of REAL 3D fighters

In the nineteenth century, superstition was king, and there were rumors around of a artifact that could make dreams come true, that artifact was the Power Stone. That's about it for storyline in Power Stone, but with this game, who needs one? Capcom's first Naomi game, although not the first free moving fighter, is obviously the best, and the most addictive. In Power Stone, you basically do your normal one on one fight in a fully 3D area while picking up weapons and trying to grab three stones. Once someone has all three stones, he or she turns into their super version, and can do super powered attacks along with their two special moves. It's basically a Capcom fighter as a bar brawler.

Power Stone has very impressive visuals. It possesses Capcom's anime-esque style of character design, and slaps it straight into the 3D realm. Each area looks beautiful in design, and each character is designed beautifully, and each character is designed uniquely head to toe. Hair moves realistically--water splashes--it's just amazing.

The controls are easy enough to pick up and just start playing. There is only once true attack button that has no other use, the other buttons are used respectively for jumping, picking up objects or grabbing things, and to use objects. L & R do some attacks, and super attacks when you collect all three stones.

The audio is pretty good. The music is excellent, and the voices are damn good. The only thing that I'm sort of ticked off about is that dude who announces the fight before the loading screen, I thought it was in Japanese at first, then I released that was just the shifting of his tone of voice. You know, I would be pretty excited about the fight, but it is taking it a little too far. It gets irritating after a while, and I eventually kept pressing start over and over again to get away from that damn screen.

I was pretty satisfied with Power Stone, considering the game was the thing that pushed me into reserving a DC in the first place, I think I was pretty impressed. This is the type of fighting game I've always wished for, and although Ehrgeiz came first, this outdoes it in every point. You may say Soul Calibur is the best fighter on DC and probably out there right now, but you can't help but say Power Stone doesn't give it a run for its money at least can you?

As for the replay, after you beat all the characters' games, there are not really any other modes to keep you playing on one player. That's where the versus mode comes in and takes over. This is mostly what this game is made for, if you think Soul Calibur inspires some arguments, you won't believe how many I've had with my bro about the cheap shots towards me and then beating my ass with a super move (which I did return back on him by the way).