Power Stone Collection-Review

November 9th, 2006, 00:31 Posted By: HellsPlumber

POWER STONE COLLECTION


The origional Power Stone and Power Stone 2 games where some of the most remembered games ever to
hit the Dreamcast.Now,like many of Capcoms games,it has been ported over to the PSP so PSP owners can enjoy the same thrill
of Power Stone on the go.

The graphics and sounds are exactly the same quallity as the originals,so theres no improvement there.
One of the things that playing this game brought to my attention was the similarity between the PSP's control layout
and the Dreamcast's control layout. Because the buttons are in almost the exact same positions,the
game plays just like the original. One of the new features is the abbility to change the screen ratio. This means you can play the game full screen,zoomed,or original,depending on which you prefare. One of the things that the original game was
lacking was the abbility to switch camera mode,which sometimes made gameplay harder. Thankfully,
different camera modes have been added in the PSP version.

The AI is the same as the original game. The players are hard to beat at first,but once you
know all of the moves,they seem really easy to beat,making playing the game a few times feel repetative and boring.
Playing as differnt characters gives you different moves which can also make the game easyier or harder to
beat. But if you get sick of fighting the NPC's then you can have a 2-player game against a freind with the
"gameshare" function,which allows you to send a playable demo to a freinds PSP to have a 2-player battle with them.
Sadly there is only a gameshare option of Power Stone 2 and not Power Stone.

There are many items that can be used in Power Stone and Power Stone 2 to help you or the enemy
such as swords,bombs and petrol bombs. In Power Stone,new items can be unlocked everytime you
complete a 1 player game. Some of the un-lockable items are completely new to the PSP port,such as
Footballs,giant boots and Twin Potion. There are alot more items available in Power Stone 2 thanks
to its "mix" feature,which allows you to combine 2 items you collected in the game to make one,or
sometimes two,new items. Aswell as unlockable items, Power Stone also has unlockable character. By beating the single player game,you can unlock the character from Power Stone 2. This was not on the original game.
Another unlockable in the original games was the mini-games that you could download to the Dreamcast's VMU(Visual Memory Unit)and play on the go. This has also been ported and allows you to play unlocked mini-games on a on-screen VMU.


Overall,this is a great port for previous Power Stone fans or new players thanks to it being a pick-up-and-play game.It has 2 games and a VMU game mode so is great value for money and it has plenty of unlockables giving this game an extended lifespan.
The single player game mode on Power Stone 1 can get repetative. The Gameshare option on Power Stone 2 is a great addition but there should be one for Power Stone too.

A great game for all ages.
9/10

By HellsPlumber
Please visit my site:
www.geocities.com/HellsPlumber

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