Patapon

Great game. It's so much fun. It's repetitive but in a good way. I recommend it 100%.

I've played the demo of this game and I LOVED IT!!!! It's hard to give the huge eyeball people a bad grade.

When I picked up this game for rental at my local video store, I had no idea what to expect. After playing it, I can say this: Patapon is without a doubt, one of the most addictive and fun PSP games I have ever played.

The game is simple enough - we are the unseen God of a little tribe of people who look like walking eyeballs called the Patapon. We start out with a small group of soldiers called Yaripon, and embark on a quest to defeat the evil Zigoton tribe, and find the elusive "IT".

The soldier classes are the following:

Yaripon - Spear throwing soldiers
Tatepon - Foot soldiers
Yumipon - Archers
Kibapon - Soldiers on horseback
Dekapon - Ogres
Megapon - Soldiers with musical horns

Now like any good Role Playing Game (RPG), you have to decide which soldiers are the best suited for each mission. Some are good at hunting, others are not. Some rush headlong into battle, others wait it out and release devastating attacks from afar.

Here's the gameplay twist - for your platoon to perform any action, you have to tap out special drum beats on the PSP buttons.

For example:

Moving your platoon requires the beat "pata-pata-pata-pon"
Ordering your platoon to attack requires the beat "pon-pon-pata-pon"

If drum beats are played successfully a number of times in a row, you can unlock "fever mode" - this unlocks more powerful attacks and quicker troop movements. If you miss a beat, you have to start again. As you get more proficient at Patapon, you can unlock more advanced drum beats, create more powerful soldiers, unlock mini-games, find hidden artifacts, discover miracles, and more.

During each mission you can gather currency (known as ka-ching!), various raw materials, and weaponry. These items can be used to create more powerful Patapon soldiers during the level breaks.

There are a few negative items about Patapon:

(1) There is no pause button. Once you start a stage, it can take up to 7 minutes to clear. Any interruptions and it's bye, bye, fever mode.
(2) There is an item pickup error. Sometimes when Patapon finish their victory song, they will walk right over some items without adding them to the spoils of war.
(3) It's not clear how to "retire" a solider and create a new one. You have to delete a solider in the preparation screen with the select button - I had to go online to figure this out.

Patapon is a fun and very addictive little game. With over 30 levels and 4 mini-games, that's a lot of playability for a great price. This is the only PSP game I've come across that combines problem solving, strategizing, and bongo-beating into a hilarious little package.

If you like rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution or PaRappa The Rapper, you will definitely find a lot of enjoyment playing Patapon.

If rhythm games aren't your thing, or if the aforementioned issues would cause you frustration, you might want to skip this one.

Don't worry, the best way to know if you're addicted to Patapon is if someone in your house comes down with a temperature and the first thought in your head is:

"Keep it up!!!"

I was curious about this game as it gained a lot of interest as a rhythm game that would keep the player occupied with the beats to advance in the game. I enjoyed the beginning but smashed into the virtually impassable sequence to make rain, or whatever it was I needed to get through the desert. Looking online to see that it was extremely difficult for other players helped me to let go and have someone else enjoy the first fraction of this game before leaving it in frustration for something else fun to do.

I wanted to like this game so badly but it just wasn't happening. I'm not a musically inclined person so I really couldn't get the hang of the beats (as easy as it may seem to others). My patapons kept yelling at me whenever I messed up and I eventually got so angry I just turned it off. I've picked it up again several times since, each time hoping that I could get the hang of it... but it just wasn't coming. I've clocked in hours and hours of frustrated time into this game but with no progression. So be warned, if you are as musically stupid as I am, do NOT buy this game. But, I'm sure it's fun for everyone else.