Back in 1999, the N64 had Super Smash Bros., and the Dreamcast had Power Stone. But if Capcom’s Takeshi Tezuka gets his wish, the two legendary four-player fighting games will share a place on the same system.
Tezuka – not to be confused with Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka - joined Capcom in 1990 as a planner and director for Capcom’s arcade games, where Power Stone was originally released. While he later moved on from arcades to mobile game development, a recent interview with The Guardian shows that that he hasn’t quite forgotten about the gems from his past.
In the interview, Tezuka said he’d love a chance to make another game in the Power Stone series, which fans have requested from him for years.
The frenetic four-player brawler came out the same year as Nintendo’s long-running series, featuring a similar action-packed concept but a much different playstyle than its mascot-laden counterpart. Power Stone allowed players to fight in constantly-changing 3D arenas. Players could destroy the surrounding environment and use pieces of the architecture to bludgeon their opponents. They could also collect the titular stones and temporarily transform into a super-powered version of themselves - an ability reminiscent of later Smash Bros. Games’ ‘Final Smash’ feature.
Power Stone sold well enough to spawn a sequel, released in arcades and on the Dreamcast one year after the original. Power Stone 2 added an “Adventure” mode and a number of new characters and stages. While the original was a hit, the Dreamcast’s death in 2001 meant that not many copies of Power Stone 2 were sold. As a result, the second game is something of a collector’s item.
But even though the games had no shortage of fans, no new games in the series have been created since the Dreamcast’s death. An updated collection of both games that was released on the Sony PSP in 2006, but nothing else has ever seen the light of day.
The series’ disappearance hasn’t stopped fans from fondly remembering the game. The Switch has no shortage of games that can be enjoyed by multiple players on the same console, so a new Power Stone would be a welcome addition to the lineup.