Zito

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.

Soon after the release of the original game the powers that be decided an expansion set was needed to further enhance the addiction of millions of people and so they came out with Star Craft Brood War. Then the craziness begun, even more user created content was spawning all over the web, fan fiction, campaigns, battle net… you name it. 10 years after it all started it is still going strong, that just doesn’t stop amazing me.

What Brood Wars brings to the table is the continuing story of our heroes and their crippled factions, at the end of Star Craft there were no clear winners. The Zerg Broods were left without a leader and going rampant, the perfect setting for the expansion pack and its new units and campaigns. There is not much more to tell that hasn’t already been told, this is truly an expansion pack since the gameplay hasn’t change much, with brood wars there were minor improvements to the gameplay and AI. The difficulty level was hiked up a lot since Brood war is not an easy game, this game is for people who are experts or use cheat codes. 

Graphically the game as not changed it’s still pretty much the same, except that the game now assigns a variety of colors for your troops when in missions; you no longer use the perennial blue color when playing as the Terrans. The music is the same, not that there is anything bad with it, after 5 hours of gameplay it still is excellent.

There is only one flaw I can see in Brood War, and that is that it came after the original, Yes it sounds illogic. Hear me out, when Star Craft came out it made such an impact that I believe the expansion set just cant match, even though it is basically the same game but with improvements. Bottom line is if you haven’t played Star Craft you have to get it and if you have it, then also get Brood War.

Why is it so boring? There is a ton of content here 175 events to be exact plus 89 cars to unlock and an assortment of challenges to be made. The 175 events are divided into Tour mode (race) and Crash mode which is accessed via the World Tour menu which is basically a campaign mode. It just does not stop there; it also has 21 tracks available to hear while on the menus as well as racing. So why is it boring then? Like I said it gets repetitive quickly, there is just no incentive to play through all those events and challenges, while some events are way too easy a handful are way too hard.

Now the graphics are very good, although some of the newer racing games appear to have better texture and smoothness on the environment and the cars, even so Legends holds out well especially for a game that has been out for some time now. The sense of speed the game offers is amazing which is why almost anybody will be hooked initially particularly players that haven’t ever played a Burnout game before. This brings me to the established fan base of the Burnout series, I have read some reviews and it appears that a lot of customization and options are not present in this port. Now since this is my first time with the series I was able to enjoy the game without feeling anything was missing. I would have liked original cars and a better sound track but that is just my personal taste speaking

I can easily think of a few other racing games for the PSP that I would sooner recommend over Burnout Legends but since it has so much to offer you should pick up a copy and decide for yourself especially if you are a fan of the series.