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PSP Review - 'Power Stone Collection'

by Andrew Hayward on Nov. 11, 2006 @ 5:47 a.m. PST

Power Stone Collection is a compilation including enhanced versions of Power Stone 1 and 2, originally released for the Sega Dreamcast and arcades. These fast and furious 3D brawlers put a new spin on "last man standing" as characters take each other on in frenzied match ups amidst fully interactive environments.

Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: October 31, 2006

I still remember the day that the Dream died.

It was January 31, 2001 – the day that Sega announced that production of the Dreamcast console would soon come to a halt, and that the company would regroup as a third-party developer. It was a shocking move to those of us who loved and supported the console – especially those who bought it on the first day of release. If I had known the console would be effectively shelved less than 18 months after release, I have to doubt that I would have been as excited about it as I was back in the day.

Despite its abbreviated lifespan, the Dreamcast served as a launching pad for many unique, modern classics, including Jet Grind Radio, Phantasy Star Online, and Skies of Arcadia. The first game that I bought with my Dreamcast was Power Stone, a quirky, 3D brawler in the vein of Super Smash Bros., sans the licensed characters and limited landscapes. A sequel would quietly follow nearly a year later, significantly upping the ante in terms of total gameplay and overall enjoyment. Though both first appeared in arcades, they are best-known for their Dreamcast appearances. When the system died, so apparently did the Power Stone franchise, which never spawned another sequel.

Ah, but the pursuit of dollars is a funny thing, and the last couple of years have played host to an increasing number of "classics collections." Granted, the quality of some of these compilations can be debated, but they make for big business, and Capcom is no stranger to intense franchising (dozens of Mega Man games can attest to this). Still, Power Stone? A two-game series that had been untouched in six years did not seem like the ideal candidate for a re-release, but for whatever reason, Capcom wants to introduce Power Stone to a new generation of handheld gamers.

So here it is; Power Stone Collection brings together the Dreamcast favorites with a handful of minor improvements and an appropriate price point ($29.99). How well do these aging brawlers hold up on Sony's handheld wonder?

Surprisingly well, actually. The PlayStation Portable's analog nub does a fine job of controlling the fighters in the 3D environments; while the face and shoulder buttons all do their jobs accordingly. The d-pad can be substituted for the analog nub, but a game like Power Stone benefits from the loose flexibility of analog control, even if it is a tiny nub. Most importantly, the Power Stone games are still a lot of fun, even after six or more years of existence. Fighting against one-to-three others in an open environment with weapons, power-ups, and interactive backgrounds is as frantic and bizarre as ever, even as more recent brawlers have refined the genre a bit.

For the most part, the Power Stone games still look pretty nice, maintaining the smooth, shiny look of many titles from the Dreamcast era. It can be easy to forget that the Dreamcast is from the same generation as the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, so even a seven-year-old game can still look reasonably nice. Some of the background textures are poorly rendered, though, and the character models have picked up that odd jaggedness with which many PSP games struggle. Another thing that PSP offerings tend to struggle with is loading times, and Power Stone Collection is no exception. Loading screens are displayed between the main menu and the individual games, not to mention numerous times while playing either game. Because they come in shorter bursts, the loading times do not seem as bad as in other titles, but you can bet on quite a bit of waiting.

Each game has been revamped to take advantage of the system's widescreen capabilities, and you can play them with either the standard 4:3 aspect ratio or the expanded 16:9 widescreen display. The wider view does not stretch the image at all; rather, it allows for even more of the background to be shown at any given time. Several viewing angles are available, though the Long and Original angles are not advised for use during the four-player battles. The camera will sweep out to an extreme angle, making it tough to land blows or even figure out where your character is. In a two-player showdown, any angle is usually acceptable, depending on your preference.

While still enjoyable, the original Power Stone has not aged as well as its follow-up. There is not a whole lot of meat to the experience, and it is upstaged in nearly every way by Power Stone 2. On the single-player side, it offers little more than the standard arcade-style progression through the other fighters and a boss character. Though it may serve more of a nostalgic purpose in this collection, the original Power Stone established the core gameplay that was expanded on in the sequel. Pummeling your opponent with fists, kicks, and projectiles is not the easiest way to win a battle. By collecting the three colored gems scattered around the stage, you can transform into a super-powered character with decimating special attacks.

Power Stone 2 kicks it up a notch with an expanded roster of single-player game types, including 1-on-1, 1-on-3, and an Adventure mode. Not only could you fight with three other characters in a single match, but the environments were also significantly larger and more interesting. A battle that starts on a flying airship eventually has you fighting in mid-air, and then finishing the battle on the ground. Another stage begins in a simple outside setting, but as the level catches on fire, you are forced to keep moving and progress upwards (via platforms) to another setting. An additional boss fight is inserted early in the experience, while an action-oriented stage is the preface to a later boss battle.

Power Stone 2 was really about more – more characters, more weapons, more game types, and more interactivity. For those reasons, it serves as the defining game in the series, though the original seemed to garner much more mainstream success. It is also worth noting that the new characters introduced in the sequel have been added to the original in Power Stone Collection, and new weapons have been added to both games. Even if you consider yourself a Power Stone master, it may be worth going back through both to check out the modifications.

Power Stone Collection supports ad-hoc play, as well as game sharing. Yes, ad-hoc play is absolutely better than nothing, but it is not nearly as good as either infrastructure support or playing the originals on Dreamcast. See, if you wanted a four-player throw-down in the original version of Power Stone 2, you could snag a couple of extra controllers and get on with it. With Power Stone Collection, you will need to know three other people with a PSP system.

Face the facts – PSP proliferation is not at a very high level yet. I know only a couple of people who own the system, and none live nearby. Infrastructure support would have ratcheted up the value of this game significantly, as you would be able to enter a quick brawl against anyone in the world (or at least in the U.S.) in a heartbeat. As it is, the multiplayer support is merely adequate, and certainly a bit of a disappointment.

Infrastructure support would have brought a modern sensibility to the enjoyable brawlers available in Power Stone Collection. As it is, these games are still worth checking out, but you may only get so much mileage out of the single-player modes, even with the numerous options available in Power Stone 2. Power Stone Collection is yet another capable classics contraption, but it falls just short of being a must-own for the average gamer.

Score: 7.2/10

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