Its hard to believe that its been 25 years since Sega released Power Stone 2 for the Sega Dreamcast. Power Stone 2 was a big deal when it came out because it was one of the last big Sega titles to appear on the Dreamcast console before it was officially discontinued back in 2001. Power Stone 2 was the follow up to the original installment which came out in arcade centers along with Dreamcast back in 1999. Power Stone 2 was one of those games that felt like it was ahead of its time because it felt like a fully 3D version of Super Smash Bros from 1999 minus 2D gameplay. Power Stone 2 allowed up to four players simultaneously and had up to fourteen playable characters. The stage designs in Power Stone 2 were creative and the atmosphere during most of the fights felt very chaotic. The only problem with Power Stone 2 was that none of the characters were memorable along with the fact that there was no real story. There was a seemingly endless list of weapons in Power Stone 2 that players could use during battles and animations looked impressive.

But if Sega wanted the Power Stone franchise to blow up in popularity they should have featured high profile Sega characters. The reason why Super Smash Bros became popular from ’99 onwards was because it featured characters from different Nintendo franchises. In Smash Bros there were characters like Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Kirby and many other names that causal gamers were familiar with. If the Power Stone series included popular names from IP’s like Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Streets of Rage, Shinobi and Nights Into Dreams it could have been more an attraction. While Sega had the right idea of taking the concept of Super Smash Bros and turning it into a 3D arena fighter not having any star power contributed to the commercial failure of Power Stone 2. It should also be noted that Power Stone 2 suffered from poor marketing along with the fact that Dreamcast was a commercial failure. During the past two decades hardcore Sega fans have wanted to see a Power Stone 3 but its something that seems unlikely to ever happen. A current generation reboot of Power Stone featuring popular Sega characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Joker and Hatsume Miku would sound great in theory. But there is hardly anyone in this current generation of gaming who knows what Power Stone is. A reboot of Power Stone would only appeal to a niche audience of gamers and Sega knows that.