Powerstone for Dreamcast Review

The Story

Sometime in the nineteenth century, superstitions and powerful legends run rampant. Located somewhere in the world are magic stones that can make any wish come true. These are the Powerstones.

The Gameplay

Powerstone has a 3D fighting system that is unique in that you can work with the environment to defeat your opponent. Tables, lamp posts -- it's all fair game. You can throw objects to inflict damage or use weapons like machine guns or a large sledgehammer. These appear and disappear randomly.

Also in the stages are the three Powerstones, a red, a blue, and a yellow one . When you collect them all your character turns into super-fighter with distinctive abilities related to his backstory. For instance, Falcon will turn into a missle-slinging robot; Wang Tang changes into some insanely fast martial artist capable out a thousand hits per second... or so it seems when you’re getting your butt kick by him.

The modes are standard for fighting games. Arcade pits you against the CPU characters in a story-like structure. Beat the computer and you get an ending movie. After defeating Arcade mode you get rewards. Nothing new here.

• Versus is for 2 players. Choose a stage and have at it.
• Match Play lets you choose a time limit. The health of a fighter must be zero before the time limit is up or no one wins.
• Winning and Losing is your standard best 2 out of 3 matches.
• Time Up has a time limit. But in this version if no one has dropped to zero, then whoever has the most health left wins.

The Graphics

Powerstone’s graphics are not up to par with other Dreamcast games. Lots of graininess going on here. While the gameplay is fast, there is a huge drop in frame rate when the action gets intense and this is unacceptable.

The only redeeming quality are the stage layouts. You can go anywhere which means any nook and cranny can be penetrated. With that said, some of the areas you do go into are difficult to tell where you can walk or run, and this is due to the aforementioned graininess.

The Controls

The controls are pretty simple. One punch, one kick, one punch + kick, and one jump button. Combinations of these buttons elicit combos that look pretty cool.

I think there could have been more depth if the analog stick was more involved. Since it is a run anywhere 3D game, the analog stick is focused on movement and control in the air.

Thompson’s Two Cents

This is actually a good fighter, despite the graphical issues. The Powerstones give you different strategies on winning matches and not just button-mashing. The action is fast and sometimes furious. Though after beating arcade mode with the small number of fighters available, multiplayer is where you want to go to get yourself to the next level. Capcom has done it again and will continue to do so with fighters.