Ah, the Dreamcast days of old. So many original fighting games graced this system and only some are just recently being ported to other consoles. Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter 3, the Street Fighter 3 games, and of course the great Power Stone series are just a few of the classic titles being ported to modern systems. While I've always been a big fan of the Power Stone titles most of my friends back then weren't. Everyone wanted to play Tekken or Street Fighter. Blah! I dunno if it was the cutesy graphics or the fact that you couldn't block that turned them off. Not realiastic enough they'd say. I seriously doubt that if you had the ability to block someone swinging at you with a 20-foot pole or shooting ya with a flurry of missiles would make the game anymore realistic, but whadda I know?

Anyhoo, those people aren't my friends anymore 'cause they're stupid. Only a true friend would appreciate the humor, friggin' awesome level design, interactive environments, and brilliant multiplayer brawling that Power Stone brought to the Dreamcast. After all these years Capcom finally dusted off the old Power Stone games and ported them to Sony's little PSP. Let's see if they live up to the glory of the originals.

I'm a robot from the 19^th century
The Power Stone games are a refreshing change of pace from the usual fighting genre norm. This hectic, almost Smash Bros-type 3D brawler estranges itself from your dark and gritty tournament fighter with lighthearted, Miyazakian-looking opponents and many fun interactive weapons and environments. According to the US manual, the game is based in the 19^th century, which is kinda weird since the main character is an airplane pilot and some of the characters have the ability to turn into robots. I dunno. My guess is that they meant early 1900s.

The plot of the game was that all of these warriors were searching for three gems called (get this) Power Stones that had the ability to make dreams come true. If you collected these gems during a match, you were transformed into your super alter ego with the ability to unleash a flurry of pain on your opponent for a limited time. Weapons and many other objects lying around were also at your disposal. Though the levels in Power Stone were mostly boxed in, Power Stone 2 introduced insane multi-tier matches. You might start off on a flying ship (19^th century flying ship, I suppose), then freefall through the air duking it out all the way down, then smash into the ground, and conclude the fighting there. DOA4 on the Xbox 360 doesn't even come close with the depth of levels as what Power Stone 2 had.

Anybody got a PSP? Hello…
While the single player mode is fun, the greatest thing about the Power Stone titles is their multiplayer modes. Power Stone 2 even allowed up to four players to go crazy on each other. The matches can get wild, with stuff being thrown and shot from every which direction. Fun, fun, fun!

This is where the PSP version comes up short. There are no online Wi-Fi modes so the only way to play multiplayer is to find a friend with a PSP and a copy of the game. I could pretty much run outside right now and grab the first grandma that I see and I'll bet that she has a Nintendo DS in her purse. Unfortunately old ladies don't like it when ya do that and you usually hafta answer to the local authorities. Anyways, what I'm getting at is it's getting harder to find friends with PSPs and even harder to find one who owns the game as well. Most people who buy this game will never play the multiplayer modes and will miss out on what really makes Power Stone shine.

Make a wish
Capcom did a stupendous job porting both Power Stone games to the PSP. They look and play great on the little portable. There's probably nothing the developers could have done to fix the lack of PSP owners to play with. This collection would have been better suited for a home console port rather than a portable port (?). Here's hoping that this UMD drives enough interest for Capcom to make an Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3 version. Better yet maybe we'll get an all new next-gen Power Stone to play with. Let's see if these gems really do make any wish come true.

- NakedBoB