Patapon is a great musically-geared PSP game from several of the creative minds behind the popular LocoRoco and sports the same simple flair, highlighted by a colorful world, straightforward mechanics, intricate visual details, and a fantastically catchy beat that'll make this an addictive treat for Sony and music-genre fans. But even if LocoRoco let you down, Patapon comes with some improvements: it relies on an actual storyline that gives the game purpose, the "characters" have a touch more depth, and the amount of army tweaking, hunting areas, bosses, and mini-game diversions should offer enough motivation for you to finish it. For $20, you simply cannot go wrong.



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As is often the case with deities, you - the 'All-mighty' god of the adorable patapons - have been too preoccupied with the business of the universe to cast them an endearing glance. Completely neglected by their patron deity, the patapons - tiny, bloodthirsty, giant-eyed creatures with a serious knack for rhythm - have been forced to deal with an incursion of the malignant zigotons, ugly suckers that, in the ignorance of the divine, have walled their way between Patapolis, the patapon capital, and the object of the patapons' desire – a great, mysterious gift that you conveniently placed at the end of the world. In your absence the patapons have suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the foul zigotons and in a final act of desperation the sole survivor of the patapons' once magnificent army raises the war banner and cries out for your aid.

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Should you answer the call, all of Patapolis will rejoice as you enter the world of Patapon, Sony's mix of real-time strategy and rhythm for the PSP from almost the same folks who brought you LocoRoco, the cute musical puzzle game that had you tapping your toes while sliding colorful blobs throughout the trappings of a rainbow paradise. Though LocoRoco was definitely a delight and a great boon for Sony's handheld, it lacked a certain quality and the player felt like he was maneuvering gelatinous globs for the sole purpose of hearing the next song. Patapon, refreshingly, does more than feature adorable music; it actively incorporates it into the gameplay via a very simplistic control mechanism. The player taps out a command in line with the music and the pulsating edges of the screen, a great help for beginners, and the patapon army behaves accordingly, either advancing (pata-pon), attacking (pon), defending (chaka), or performing the occasional miracle (it's good to see you living up to your reputation).

On the surface, it almost seems too simple; there are no thousand command combo variations that'll trigger some fancy cutscene, no "special" power-ups that'll teach your patapons how to fly, and no healing magic to get your troops back on track. There aren't even items - just four basic commands, yet the music and pounding drums makes them incredibly addictive. The proverbial icing is that each command operates as a strategy, such that "attack" has patapons throwing spears from a wider distance while "defend" orders the patapons to bunch up on the flag carrier, attacking only what approaches the army and therefore narrowing the archer's arch; this is a great maneuver for when bosses are attacking the area immediately in front of them and not the army's flank, where the tightly packed patapons are huddling safely out of reach. Nevertheless, a backup maneuver is sorely missing. When a patapon that isn't the flag carrier dies it leaves a "cap" (its head) behind for the army to collect so the player can resurrect the unit, but patapons at the rear (mostly archers) can get left behind due to the army's inability to retrace a few steps. The lack seems almost silly.


While the basic gameplay consists of leading your patapon army throughout the 30+ main missions, Sony threw in some boss battles and lighter hunting areas, enabling the player to collect source materials (rocks, sticks, etc), money (ka-chi), and "legendary" weapons. Admittedly the enemy design is redundant: the first boss the player encounters is a giant turquoise-spotted, fire-breathing dragon while the second is a giant red-spotted, fire-breathing dragon (and yes, both dragons require the same strategy to defeat). The patapons' prey receive the same treatment, boasting black birds, pink birds, gold birds, and the like. However, there is just enough variation and the bosses are just difficult enough to keep the gameplay interesting. For additional diversity there are some nasty environmental aspects including excruciatingly painful lightning strikes and annoying wind changes to watch out for as well as animals that actually fight back, but again, the sole purpose of Patapon is to lead those adorable bug-eyed killers into battle with your significant drumming abilities. As a final touch, the highly important fever mode, which you activate by staying true to the beat for ten commands, is the key to success, sending the patapons into a blood-frenzy that crushes everything in its path; one troop type in particular, the kibapon (cavalry), relies entirely on fever mode and is less than useless without it, though with it the kibapon become war deities that rival the All-mighty Himself. The only downside to the fever mode is that most levels appear designed to encourage the gamer to reach fever by walking forward; this amounts to a lot of empty space and needless repetition, as you can reach fever by standing in-place and defending, if need be. Another annoyance is that the music changes as you initiate fever, so you can easily miss a beat and lose fever if you're distracted by patapon singing and the acoustic switch.

Singing, dancing, and drumming your one-eyed soldiers to success - while the highlight of the gameplay - is only half the story in Patapon, as any great army unleashed by any great civilization requires plenty of bureaucratic management. To this end Patapolis awaits the All-mighty's use, boasting many convenient features, the foremost of which is the life-tree for patapon creation and/or reincarnation (nobody's perfect). At the life-tree you can bring forth many a new patapon by mixing ingredients, usually minerals, meats, and tree branches, for specific race and troop types. If you're looking to create an archer (yumipon), for example, you throw in a rock and a stick and viola - instant bow-and-arrow buddy. To "adjust" the yumipon you simply increase the quality of the ingredients, this time mixing a tytanium ore with hinoki wood to create a tikulee (blue) yumipon, read: an archer with improved stats (HP, damage, speed, crit, etc). There are four basic troop types: yumipon (archers), yaripon (spearmen), kibapon (cavalry), and tatepon (infantry), and each unit within each type my be either a regular (white) patapon or, with a little genetic tweaking, achieve that extra special rank: pyokola (red), gekolos (green), mofeel (purple), or tikulee (blue).

Though the life-tree is the heart of Patapolis, Sony added some elements of the mini-game variety for fun and musical relaxation. As the player completes missions he'll collect "unique" items that can be utilized by the life-tree to create "hero" patapons - the great patapons of lore who kept the troops fed and the altar flooded with resources. The mini-games have you repeat tunes in a 'Simon-says' manner for four lines and, depending on your timing, reward you with prize goods for patapon creation. The rest of Patapolis - the "gateway" to the world map, the base camp (led by the priestess patapon, Meden) - serve as nice perches from you can view plot progression, but otherwise they exist to make the city feel less vacant.

Patapon's presentation is on par with LocoRoco's and is about what you'd expect if you played its pseudo-predecessor: the environs are colorful, the patapons and zigotons are detailed from their helmets down to their very tiny feet, and all character and object design features a simplistic structure and color palette. What differentiates it the most from LocoRoco, besides its "puzzles" (most of which include the obtaining and usage of the proper miracle needed to proceed) and gameplay mechanics, is the inclusion of an actual storyline and characterization, shallow though both may be. The player feels as though there is a real goal to obtain for helping the struggling patapons succeed and not just another level filled with cute little musical "events" that may eventually bore him. This drive to finish the game nicely compliments its replayability and keeps the gamer coming back for more of this unique musical experience, often hunting for kicks or creating patapons to form the "ultimate" army. Perfectionists beware: with more than 100 weapons/armor and plenty of source materials to tweak your darling soldiers, you can spend a few hours doing nothing but gaining goodies and improving stats. Unfortunately all 100+ of those weapons/armor must be obtained by completing missions: you can't take the source materials you already have and turn them into weaponry, which is a missed opportunity that could have added countless hours and much depth to the gameplay. On the whole, however, Patapon is yet another fantastic title on the PSP, perfect for short or lengthy mobile gaming sessions and full of endless acoustic delight. You'll be pleasantly surprised by this one.

Publisher: Sony Computer Ent.
Developer: Sony Computer Ent./Japan Studio/Pyramid
Release: Feb 26, 2008
MSRP: $19.99
Everyone

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