Patapon – A review for the rhythm impaired.
You basically control an army of little circles called Patapons; this tribe of little circles was once a mighty empire which conquered any foe, no matter how big. Those glory days are now over and it’s up to you to lead their army to victory once again, you are going to achieve this by hitting the buttons to a four beat tempo. As you progress along the game you are going to acquire songs that consist of four beats, this songs help you give commands to your army. There is a song to advance (pata-pata-pata-pon) another to attack (pon-pon-pat-pon) amongst others. The difficulty lies in keeping the tempo going and not missing a beat, after you input the song you want, your Patapons sing out the same song and execute the orders. So basically it works like this you input your song then the Patapons sing and carry out the orders all this is developing over 8 beats, four for you and four for the Patapons. While they are carrying out your command you have to think ahead to issue new orders in the next cycle, if you miss a beat the Patapons stop and your actions get interrupted. If you manage to make 10 cycles in a row your Patapons get into fever mode, this is like a frantic state in which they attack harder, faster and are able to access special abilities like rain miracles, earthquakes and gushing winds. You can also achieve fever by hitting the notes on a cycle perfectly.
As you see the game is much more complex than just hitting buttons to a rhythm even more so when you add the managing of your troops to the mix. The Patapons are divided into different unit types and within each unit type you can develop different types of Patapons. Then you can assign different weapons, shields and helmets all of these weapons have different abilities and values and of course there are special divine weapons to unlock. You can unlock all these things playing different mini games and revisiting bosses you’ve killed. Summarizing everything you can plainly see that Patapon is not just a cute rhythm based game.
The graphics and backgrounds are very good for a 2d scrolling game, the colors are intense and the levels and bosses are very well design. The sounds and music is really off the chart, even though you will end up hearing different variations of the same command songs. I guarantee that you will be hearing pata-pata-pata-pon everywhere you go.
As I said this is a review for the rhythm impaired. Patapon is an innovative game that mixes two genres into an addictive and hard blend. Patapon is all about rhythm, if you lack it then I must warn you this game is probably going to make you want to hurl your PSP into a wall or just stop playing the game. I nearly stop playing the game because of the high difficulty level and just because I am not good at rhythm games. I am not afraid to admit it my wife had to take care of “crossing the desert stage”, it is HARD. But if you manage to stick with it and be patient you are going to enjoy this game is easily a must get for any PSP owner.
