Whoever Said Sticks and Power(Stones) cant break my bones?

When I first played this game down in the local arcade, I was hooked. Capcom has been known for making some of the best fighting games of all time (Examples such as Street Fighter 2 and the many subsequent variations thereof such as Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition, Darkstalkers, Marvel vs Capcom, etc, etc etc...) This is just one of those games I would put in 50-75% of my alloted amount every time I walked into the arcade just because I loved playing this game that much!

So when I heard it was gonna drop on the Dreamcast, I was overly enthuastic and for good reason! What you have on the Dreamcast was a 100% perfect arcade port that did the arcade full justice!

What makes this game so great is the uniqueness of the whole 3d fighting that goes down. Here's why I like the game and what makes it so GOOD!

#1. Graphics - Obviously, graphics can often make or break a game, but this game had excellent graphics straight from the getgo and were as I said above, ARCADE Perfect! Great Textures, Great Shadow effects, and espicially over the top Special Effects especially on the Power Stone SUPERMOVES put me in awe more than once and Graphics add to this game in multiple ways, as this leads me to the main feature of this game which is its......????

#2.GAMEPLAY This is what seperates from all the wannabe fighters out there. It was the unique fight anywhere do anything action that got me hooked on this game. From swinging off a light post to picking up anything from a flamethrower, guns, tables, flaming vodkas, You could do nearly anything you want in this game. Add to the fact, none of my friends could touch me in this game as I would smoke them every match every time we would play some heated Power Stone matches just makes it that much more great. It truly is the unique feel of the Fight Anywhere, Do Anything Aspect that really gives this genre a fresh breath of creativity which it obviously was lacking. What pushes this game to the top though is the Power Stone aspect. The key in this game is to become the first one to beat the opponent Period Point Blank, but with the addition of the power stones throws a huge equation into the mix. See if you get all 3 Power stones, for a short period of time, your character turns into a super hero so to speak capable of Super Fusion Moves and very powerful attacks that can easily end the match. So the strategy soon becomes, do you go for the Power Stones or go for the kill? It's this blend of on the fly action and strategy that really pulls this game into the rank of CLASSIC at least in my mind.

#3. Sound - What's to say? This game has great sound and good tracks to help compliment the action, but since fighting games are never really known for their sounds, it could be a neglible point. Suffice to say, the sounds and tracks are well balanced with the overall tone of this game.

OVERALL VERDICT
If you want a game that really is something original and not something "Copycat", and offers a new and unique spin on the fighting genre, I highly recommend you take a hard look at PowerStone and or the newly released POWERSTONE 2