Power Stone



Power Stone is a Mascot Fighter video game series created by Capcom. Beginning with the first game in 1999, Power Stone received only one sequel, Power Stone 2, the following year. The two games were released for the arcade and ported to the Sega Dreamcast, and later to the Play Station Portable. It also received a 26-episode anime adaptation.

Gameplay in the Power Stone series is unconventional, at least compared to the many other fighting games by Capcom itself. For starters, fights take place in 3-D arenas. Items appear throughout the levels, such as weapons and the titular power-ups-slash-MacGuffins power stones. When a fighter collects three of these, he or she transforms into a powered form for a limited time.

Not to be confused with a certain weapon from Mega Man 5.

This series contains examples of:

 * Adaptation Dye Job: Rouge's top was re-colored from blue in the games to white in the anime.
 * The Anime of the Game: A 26-episode series was aired in 1999.
 * Belly Dancer: As if dressing like and being said to be a belly dancer weren't sexy enough, Rouge uses a fighting style that is based on her belly dancing.
 * Capcom vs. Whatever: One of only two Capcom franchises to have never appeared in a Capcom vs. Whatever proper (the other being the Breath of Fire series). Made even more bizarre that this is the sole fighting game series by Capcom that has never appeared in a Capcom vs. Whatever involving their own intellectual property.
 * Falcon does get a few cameos, though; he appears in a stage for Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium, and in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 he is a collectible card.
 * Falcon, Rouge, Wang Tang, Ryoma and Ayame also appeared in the first two Card Fighters Clash.
 * Captain Ersatz: Wang Tang is a fairly blatant Homage to a certain Shonen anime hero.
 * Chef of Iron: Wangtang and Gourmand.
 * Confusion Fu: Jack.
 * Dance Battler: Rouge.
 * Death Cry Echo
 * Dub Name Change: His name is "Fokker" in Japanese and "Falcon" in English. Guess why.
 * It's averted in the anime, but they gave him an excuse: Fokker is his family name. His real name is Edward.
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: Julia from PS2 is a brightly-colored variant
 * Excuse Plot/Left Hanging: The second game has a plot that's All There in the Manual about how each character is looking into their own personal quest/mystery. None of them are ever alluded to in the actual game, let alone resolved.
 * Fire-Breathing Diner: One of Rouge's Power Drive attacks.
 * And Gourmand is a Fire Breathing chef. Go figure.
 * Four Man Band
 * The Hero: Falcon
 * The Lancer / The Big Guy: Ryoma
 * The Chicks: Rouge and Ayame
 * Free-Floor Fighting
 * Gang Up On the Human: Power Stone 2's adventure mode. Interestingly, other modes involving multiple coms do NOT engage in this behavior, suggesting the devs put it in adventure mode on purpose.
 * Gosh Hornet: The beehive item.
 * High Altitude Battle
 * Humongous Mecha: The Pharaoh Walker boss in the second game.
 * Interesting Situation Duel
 * Istanbul Not Constantinople: Not only old place names, but misspelled names as well ("Londo", "Mahdad"). Either that or it's just a twisted case of Bland-Name Product.
 * Item Crafting: In Power Stone 2, combining weapons and items unlocks new ones. Some require in-game guides and/or sheer luck.
 * Joke Character: In Power Stone 2, it is possible to play as Mel the shopkeeper. Why you would want to, however...
 * Because her super mode is AWESOME.
 * Magical Native American: Galuda
 * Macross Missile Massacre: One of Falcon's transformed-state attacks fits this to a tee.
 * Mascot Fighter
 * Monster Clown: Jack, apparently.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Rouge, in case you hadn't figured that out already.
 * National Stereotypes: Almost every single character in this game is a walking, talking, fighting stereotype. Not even justified, it makes early 90's Street Fighter games look culturally sensitive.
 * Ninja: Ayame
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Kraken the cyborg pirate.
 * And Accel the shapeshifting robot cowboy.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: A knife-wielding maniac named 'Jack' who likes to rip things? Nah, me neither...
 * Power Makeover
 * Retraux: The intro.
 * Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: In Power Stone 2, if the players take too long to kill each other, meteors rain down and reduces everyone's health to 1 and sudden death starts. Taking too long to kill each other in sudden death will have even more meteors rain down and finish everyone off, ending in a draw.
 * Samurai: Ryoma.
 * Screw the Rules I Have Plot: You need three power stones to transform. Not in the anime, apparently.
 * Shamu Fu: The Frozen Tuna weapon.
 * Shout-Out: Some of the transformations look awfully familiar, like Wang-Tang's, Ryoma's, Galuda's, and Gunrock's.
 * The Mega Buster is a craftable and usable weapon in the second game.
 * Capcom's first arcade title is called Vulgus. The final boss of Power Stone is called Valgas, and the two names are identical in Japanese. Hmm...
 * SNK Boss: Valgas. Aside from the fact that beating him may require several tries with difficulty set to 1 (with a maximum of eight), what makes him so cheap is that not only his grab can make you lose two Power Stones at once, but said stones also tend to bounce out of your reach and right next to him, with him usually entering his Super Mode while you're still getting back up. The fact his One-Winged Angel is actually weaker than him (with obvious results: "Final Valgas" can be easily beaten at the first try) shouldn't surprise anyone.
 * Stripperiffic: If you thought Rouge's default Belly Dancer outfit was cute, wait until you see her transformed.
 * Sword Beam: Powered-up Ryoma has several variants of this.
 * Transformation Sequence
 * Transformation Trinket: The power stones.
 * Winged Humanoid: Mel's powered-up form is one of these.