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Power Stone (DC) by Brian |
Overrall Score - 5 Fun at first, but it lacks depth. |
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Power Stone is what Ehrgeiz would have been if Squaresoft could make a
good fighting game. Unfortunately, it took Capcom, the king of the fighting game
genre, to get it right. As it says
on the back of the case, it's "the first go anywhere, grab anything fighting
game on the planet".
In
Power Stone, you run around in a small area that is anything from a city street-corner
to a pirate ship, pick up random objects to throw at or smack your opponent with,
and try to collect all three power stones to become a temporary god.
The first thing I noticed was how the game played nothing like Street Fighter.
There is no blocking, no special moves (excepting those when powered up
by the power stones), and no combos
that involve more than just smacking the same button a bunch of times.
The only game I can think to really compare it to hasn't been released
in this country yet. While you've got your basic punch, kick, and jump, most of
the time you're just picking up tables to wing at your opponent, or a handy rocket
launcher. My favorite weapon is the
handgun because it rarely misses.
The game was really designed for two-player action, which becomes obvious
when you notice that the yellow power stone almost alway materializes somewhere
that's convenient for your computer opponent.
It's not thinking, it's cheating!
The graphics weren't as good as Soul Calibur's, but then Soul Calibur didn't
have as much stuff going on. The
graphics are good though, however a bit too cartoonish for my taste.
The sound was at least as good as Soul Calibur's.
The only problem was that I can't figure out what the announcer says on
the character selection screen. I
don't know why it aggravates me so, but it does.
Personally, I think they would've done good just to have left it out.
While it is a great game for the first few days, it lacks the depth of
Street Fighter that kept you playing. With
only eight playable characters and not much variation between them, the game gets
redundant after a while. All the
game really needed was a few basic special moves for each character.
Well, hopefully they'll get that part right next time.
All in all, it's a good rental, but I wouldn't buy it. All
I can say is wait for the sequel, if ever there is one. |
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