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The fighting is limited to a single attack button, whereas most of the battles consist of shooting nukes, flames, or throwing other insane stuff found in the arenas at the enemy. The meat of the game still has to do with the famous Power Stones: the first to get a hold of all three of them -six in four-player mode- will morph into a devastating creature, increasingly lowering his opponents’ chances to survive. But this is where the game severely denies what it inherited from its predecessor: not only are the environments interactive and multi-level, they’re also surprisingly large while the screen is in constant motion. Power Stone is, in effect, a hybrid: half party game, half platformer, half beat them up (I couldn’t care less if it makes more than one).

Power Stone 2’s most attractive feature is, without a doubt, the irreplaceable possibility to gather four players around your Dreamcast for some good old-fashioned fun. Only then does this title become really fun, as your friends incessantly fall from the arena or die buried under a rock you’ve just dropped on them. Very much like Super Smash Brothers, PS2 is solely based on the notion of total battle, which I’ll admit is definitely unwinding, but also naturally creates a regrettable feel of chaos and confusion. Moreover, where Power Stone was balanced, PS2 gives an unfair stamina bonus that is not made up for by their slowness to the bigger characters.

There’s no such thing as strategy in this game. No such thing as skill. Mashing the buttons –thank god the controls are perfect- and using anything that can be used as a weapon is almost the only way to survive in this fun but simplistic world. Great for casual gamers, but undoubtedly tedious for the most experienced players, Power Stone 2’s gameplay is double-edged.

The graphics however have what it takes to please everyone out there, from the six-years old brat who claims to be your foreign cousin to your aging grandmother who sees in PS2 an artistic representation of the moral values involved in World War II. The arenas are very detailed and originally designed -the oriental house and the submarine come to mind- although they could have done with more animations.

On the other hand, the characters are cute and charming in spite of their disarmingly simplistic designs. This can be immensely felt through a description of the sole four new characters: Pete the dorky kid, Julia the Princess Peach clone, Accel the hyper cowboy and Gourmand the overweight chef. So cliche, yet so charming. Despite the non-stop mayhem, the engine never slows down, showcasing the underestimated capacities of Sega’s last piece of hardware.

The music is uninspired and reeks of laziness, but it’s extremely well hidden behind first-rate sound effects, limiting its effect on the general quality of the game. The voices (actually, screams seems infinitely more appropriate here) are flawless like the games download full version and capture the peculiar feel of the character design, except for the announcer, who made me feel guilty for playing this game at my advanced age with his tone taken straight from an episode of Barney or Pokemon. Power Stone 2 is a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, as is obviously reflected by the awkward yet technically lamentable soundtrack.