The Power Stone series was a much loved two game set for the Sega Dreamcast. Although the game lacked online multiplayer, you could have up to four players on screen and anything that was available onscreen could be used as a weapon. I still have fond memories of the original and the sequel.

The drawback with having such fond memories of a game is that when you go back to play it, you are looking to get that same thrill from all those years ago…and when you do not get it, it is much more of a letdown than just having a hum-drum game. Unfortunately that’s the feeling with the Power Stone Collection.

The good news is that both games are on one UMD, which is great. Both games resemble the original Dreamcast games and will give you fond memories. The drawback is that the games haven’t changed much in the seven plus years since the game was originally released, and that means no online multiplayer.

When you look at the back of the box, ad-hoc multiplayer is available and so is Game Sharing. However, this is an unusual version of game sharing, in that you are just allowing your friend to download a demo of the game – there is no multiplayer.

Getting back to the actual game itself – in the original, you are in an arcade fighting 1v1 battle. It’s not like Street Fighter – this is a 3D environment so you can move left and right, back and forth. You don’t have to only use punch and kicks; you can also grab items that are left around the arena and use those items as weapons. The gimmick in the game are the Power Stones – collect all three of these stones and you morph into an uber-character that has incredible abilities for a short period of time. In the sequel, you can play 1v3 or 1v1, which can be a lot more fun.

What’s new in this collection? Well there are some mini games and a store to buy stuff, there’s nothing there to compel me to keep playing. There’s also a training mode for the new players which is nice, but if you’ve played the game before, it’s not necessary.

The Power Stone 2 game is the better one because you can have up to 4 players in that game – it also makes obtaining the power stones much more difficult. There is still sadistic enjoyment in just picking up anything and throwing it at your opponents, however the computer is just not that smart of an opponent.

Many PSP fighting games have had control issues (Tekken was probably the best controlled PSP game), and this one does have some issues. While moving around the arena was pretty easy, trying to move and attack was difficult. Often I was punching air or throwing items away from my opponent.

The worst thing about the game is the load times. You’ll be very intimately familiar with the “Now Loading” screens. You’ll see it when you choose a game. You’ll get two different now loading screens when the game is loading—that’s how long the loading takes. After the two screens, you’ll then have a logo of the game while it continues to load! When you choose a battle, it loads again! After you choose a character and a stage….guess what…more loading. Enough loading!!!

Thankfully once you get into a game, there’s no loading or stuttering…the action is fast and furious. After the game ends, of course there’s more loading but at least the gameplay mechanics are fine. The actual game action is a lot of fun and does bring me back to the Dreamcast. The computer controlled characters do go for the power stones and if they have all three, be very careful!