Games You Should Play - 8/25/09

Games You Should Play - Power Stone 2

So when I pick the games I'm going to do for this weekly installment here at Gamerology, I try to pick a game that has fallen by the wayside or games that people may have avoided for whatever reason. But, in going with the name of the column, you should play these games. Let's recap real quick what games I have chosen and why you SHOULD play then, and why you shouldn't.

Mirror's Edge

Good: Incredible sense of motion and speed for a first-person view. Smooth controls.

Bad: Terrible story. Real bad.

XIII

Good: Fantastic comic-book graphical style. Good voice acting, amazing soundtrack.

Bad: Terrible AI, lame overdone story. Controls are lousy.

Ok, now I'm going to to keep this database updated everytime I write one of these articles, in case you are new or want to see what I've written about in the past. But, they will be at the END of each article, not the beginning. This column is still a work in progress, but I think soon enough I will have finalized the format.

Anywho, on to this weeks game: Power Stone 2 (Dreamcast)

Now, I'm just talking about the DREAMCAST version of this game, not the arcade or PSP version that is on the Power Stone Collection (the load times are horrendous on that).

Ah, Power Stone 2. Just talking about it makes me want to bust out my Dreamcast and play it again. It is, one of the first, if not first 4-player simultaneous fighting games to ever be released. It is a fully 3D fighting game, where you can run to any point at any time (not like Tekken or Soul Calibur where you can only sidestep or dodge in 3d). Not only that, but the level design is excellent as well and they have multiple levels within the level! One level starts you fighting on a flying airship, only to break apart and then have you freefall down to another part of the level. Another level has an Indiana Jones style giant ball chasing you. The levels are also extremely interactive. Some levels have turrets or other things you can use as weapons. There are also tons of items around that you can pick up and use as a weapon. The sheer insanity of what is going on when 4 players are playing at once is awesome.

Check this video out to see a FULL playthrough of almost all the levels you see in the game:


You can also combine weapons you pick up with other weapons or items, and make NEW weapons which you can use! Where could this game go wrong?

Well, the characters are incredibly lame. The character design in this game is not really good at all, and there is no differentiation really except for the big guys (who move a little slower and can use a pole as a weapon) and the superpowers you get when you collect three gems. Otherwise, each character is basically the same. The stages, which are a HUGE part of the game and awesome in their own right....welll there are only 5 of them. And 2 boss stages. For a game where the level design is so good, the repetitive nature of the stages gets boring after a while. There is no story, well, there kind of is. You are trapped in this magical castle and you have to escape. There are no "endings" like other video games. You have no attachment to the characters. I know, stories and fighting games are usually kind of lame but at least they HAVE one and they HAVE endings that make you want to play with each character so you can see the ending. This game doesn't have that.

But don't let my negativity fool you, you SHOULD ABSOLUTELY play this game and then wonder to yourself, why haven't they released this on the XBox Live Arcade, or made a new one in GORGEOUS HD graphics? I ask myself those questions quite often.