| Graphics: |   3 |
| SFX: |  3.5 |
| Music: | 4 |
| Gameplay: | 4 |
| Challenge: | 4 |
| Replay: | 3 |
| Overall: | 3.5 |
| Genre: | Fighting |
| Reading ability: | U.S. Release |
| Company: | Atlus |
Background:
My first exposure to the Power Instinct series was playing the coin-op Power Instinct 2 at a place called Laser Quest, a Laser Tag type of place. It's great fun to shoot your friends. Alas, I am getting sidetracked. I was compelled to play the game when I saw it's anime style graphics, and my friend and I spent several quarters on it. We also noticed another game called Gunbird there, a unique shooter also by Atlus.
The Game:
This game is a typical Street Fighter II clone, but it's a bit unique. The "storyline" or setting isn't really much to talk about, but the different characters are intriguing, not to mention a bit bizarre. The focus of the game is on an old lady named Otane who must defend her title as champion. She's not a typical old lady: she can fight, and she can also transform into a beutiful young lady by absorbing her opponents' fighting spirit. Weird. The rest of the cast of characters you can choose are unique variety of interesting fighters, with their own different style of fighting (i.e. there are no character clones such as Ken and Ryu in SFII). Many fighting games are guilty of sporting boring characters to choose from, and it's good to see that this game is not one of these.
Secrets:
Play as Young Otane
The Good:
What really stands out about this game is its music. It's rather catchy, and much of it is traditional Japanese music. And again, the characters are unique and interesting.
The Bad:
There are only eight characters in the game. But, this is forgivable since this was the standard number of characters for fighting games when this game was released.
The Weird:
This game has a very weird cast of characters. When Otane does a throw move, she kisses her opponent several times and changes into a young girl with perky, bouncy breasts for ten seconds, and then changes back into her old woman body. Not as bouncy as Mai in King Of Fighters, but her victory pose is enough to notice. Saizo is some weird ninja guy who makes weird noises, Angela is some scary, burlesque, she-hulk of a woman, Chin Nen looks like a character from Dragonball Z, and White Buffalo is the stereotypical Indian/Native American. The music on his stage is very cliched "Indian" music. And speaking of music, the mode select screen has some weird music that almost sounds like it's saying, "Heil Hitler." And to top it all off, it has a bizarre KARAOKE mode, which was left out of the domestic version. Weird!
Overall:
While this game isn't as eye-catching as its sequel, it is still a fun game. Power Instinct 2 is available for the Sony Playstation via import. Also in the series is Groove On Fight for the Sega Saturn, with its infamous cover art.
Power Instinct FAQ which was unfortunately written for another gaming system (possibly the Neo Geo), but still shows you the characters' moves.
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