The title more-or-less says it all. Over the last couple of days, Capcom has announced Power Stone Collection, a PSP port of the cult Dreamcast beat-'em-up series, while Namco let slip details of Tekken: Dark Resurrection, a portable take on the Tekken 5 coin-op featuring 30 characters, 19 environments, a wireless two-player combat mode and a bunch of mini-games designed to exploit the pick-up-and-play-for-five-minutes nature of handheld systems.
But lets get back to Power Stone, Capcom's mad 3D melee game where up to four characters leap around a series of pirate-themed stages smashing each others heads in with tables, chairs and anything else that comes to hand. Apparently, the PSP rendition features both Power Stone and its sequel, adding a few unlockable extras, slightly more serviceable camera angles and four-player Wi-Fi action. Hopefully, the raw fighting engine will remain untouched - I loved the fact there were no blocking moves, just attack, attack, attack, the only breaks coming when enormous special weapons appeared on screen, prompting all the fighters to run over and try to grab them. Absolute chaos most of the time, but fantastic fun.
It's interesting though, that neither game boasts entirely new material. PSP, it seems, is not a safe enough bet - as yet - to warrant the added cost of genuinely new iterations. Power Stone 3 would have been an absolute revelation...
Both titles are due in the summer.
