If Capcom's designers had left it at that, Power Stone would be enjoyable, though flawed. With the option of throwing or firing from a distance ever-present, wily gamers would do just that - grab a few hits, then wait for the timer to expire. Fortunately, Power Stone distances itself from its distant beat 'em up kindred in two significant ways, and it does so by breaking basic fighting game laws. It's a given that a 'block' move defies all but a slow, easy to discern 'unblockable' attack, right? Secondly, it's a basic underpinning of all combat games that the characters should, more or less, be the equals of their peers at all times, yes?

Not so in this instance. Power Stone has no block move. It has a few counter-attacks that adepts can launch, but essentially it shifts the attack-defence onus to a more gratuitous attack-attack-FLEE! basis. Secondly, the introduction of the Power Stones is a masterstroke. You begin each bout with one such gem in your possession. Your opponent, naturally, has another. At a pre-defined point in the bout, a third arrives - usually after around 10 seconds or so. This prompts a mad scramble to gain control of all three. Why? Because, with the trio of stones in your pocket, your character is transformed into a hugely powerful super-fighter. For a brief (yet, for your opponent, distressingly prolonged) period, you're nigh invincible, and capable of performing unerringly devastating attacks.

It's these features that make Power Stone so highly individual, remarkably compelling and, above all, action-packed. It's not a particularly difficult game. In fact, you'll probably open all of its 15 secrets - including three VMS games and a host of additional weapons - within a fortnight of buying it. As a two-player game, though, you'll be playing it for months. On a further critical note, we're aghast to note that Power Stone is yet another dismal PAL conversion. Slower than its NTSC counterpart, the black space atop and below its squashed display is, if you'll forgive the pun, borderline blasphemy. If it weren't for the fact that Stone is the most playable of the Dreamcast's launch titles, we'd be very angry indeed. But it is, so we're not. It's probably the most universally appealing game the Future Gamer team have played in a long time, and that's just what Sega need to help establish the Dreamcast as a major-league console. Another coup for Capcom, then...