Capcom Fighters #02: Plasma Sword, Project Justice, Power Stone, and Power Stone 2
Four Capcom fighters start with “P”, also the second batch of the Capcom fighters series
I got another batch of Capcom fighters, all titles starting with the letter “P”… and no, we’re not talking about the character “Perfect Peter” from that crappy children’s book series! All of them will be included in Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (and all of them got Dreamcast ports)! Here we go~!
The first order of business is Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein, known in Japan as Star Gladiator 2: Nightmare of Bilstein1, a 1998 3D weapon-based fighting video game for the arcades before it was ported to the Sega Dreamcast between late 1999 and early 2000. My brother and I rented the game from the now-closed Blockbuster (which used to rent games), but it didn’t have an auto-load/auto-save feature. It is the sequel to Star Gladiator. June Lin Millam, one of the playable characters, appears in Project X Zone 2 (including cameo appearances in two of the background stages in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, the Shanghai stage in Capcom vs. SNK 2, one of Hayato’s win poses in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Hawkeye’s ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as a member of the new West Coast Avengers, and Deadpool’s ending from the same game). Hayato Kanzaki, the game’s main protagonist who appeared in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (which we previously reviewed), also makes a cameo appearance in Tekkaman Blade’s ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.
The next one is Project Justice (known as Moero! Justice Gakuen2 in Japan and Project Justice: Rival Schools 2 in Europe/Australia/Latin America), released in 2000 as the sequel to Rival Schools: United By Fate (which was released in 1997). The game was released on the Sega NAOMI arcade board and Dreamcast home console initially in Japan and globally in 2001. Like its predecessor, it revolves around team battles between students of different schools and is set one year later, but teams now have three fighters instead of two, and a new move mechanic called Party-Up is introduced, and guess what… this is where Kyosuke Kagami (Kazunobu “Isshin” Chiba) originated (including Batsu Ichimonji (Nobuyuki Hiyama) and Hinata Wakaba (Tomoe Hanba))!
Toshikazu “Kaneto” Shiozawa, Hyo Iwawano’s voice actor, died in May 2000 after he fell down the stairs of his home in Tokyo (I was 10 years old at the time, and we didn’t have any smartphones or social media), which is why they killed Hyo off. Tetsuo Mizutori, Hideo Shimazu’s voice actor, died in July 2010. It is possible that Capcom decided to retire the character out of respect.
The next one up is another childhood fighting game originally released in the arcades in 1999 and later ported to the Dreamcast, like the first two, and we call it Power Stone! The game did get an anime series — which I didn’t get to see as a child — produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Kenichiro Watanabe and Takahiro Omori, which is based on that video game series — despite the fact the anime series’ character designs are different than the ones in the video games. I also owned the game with my brother!
Takeshi Aono, Kraken’s voice actor (including being known for the diabolical Dr. Wily in the Rockman/Mega Man franchise during the mid-1990s, as well as the less diabolical Colonel Roy Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid franchise), died on April 9, 2012, around twelve years after the game’s release.
Power Stone 2 was released in 2000, initially for the arcades and later for the Dreamcast, like the previous three games. Note that I didn’t own the game originally — it was borrowed from a friend who had a Dreamcast. Power Stone 2 allows up to four players to choose from multiple characters and utilize items such as tables, chairs, and rocks in battle. The game introduced changes from the original, including new character voices, the removal of the existing combo system, and a new, horizontal status bar.
That’s the second batch of Capcom fighters, and please remember that if your home or any public place (e.g., your workplace) involves stairs, take your time when using the stairs, and be sure to use handrails and stair rails. Make sure the stairs in your home have an overhead light. Don’t end up like Kaneto Shiozawa.
スターグラディエイター2 ナイトメア オブ ビルシュタイン
燃えろ!ジャスティス学園, Moero! Jasutisu Gakuen, “Burn! Justice Academy”