Patapon Revisited

A few months ago I got myself Patapon shortly after its release and quickly became addicted to it.  What I began to realise though, was how nail-bitingly hard it could be in certain places of the game.  One easy example, is the difficulty many people had in figuring out how to cross the desert.  Once you know how, it’s quite easy.  But in the game itself, you are more or less left to try and figure it out for yourself- if you can.

Patapon in action

This probably explains why the PlayStation.Blog team had to lend us a helping hand.  Also equally frustrating is the ease at which you can lose the beat.  From my own personal experience, this has made me want to throw my PSP at the nearest wall after trying to complete the same level 5 times in a row.  So I left the game and vowed to return to it once I had calmed down…

What I have been doing for the past couple of years now, is taking my PSP with me on holiday and having a quick gaming session before I go to bed.  Last year I took LocoRoco and completed all levels (not all quite 100% yet though!) and this year has been Patapon’s turn.  Yes, about 4 months after I had last touched the game, I decided to revisit Patapon and see how far I could get this time.

Surprisingly, I found that I wasn’t losing the beat as easily, but I think this was down to a new technique.  Heard the advice (includng my own) about tapping with your foot to the beat?  Forget about it- repeating “pata, pata, pata, pon” or whatever drum beat you’re doing, in your head, in-between your turn is very helpful in keeping the beat.  Why is it otherwise so hard to keep the beat in fever mode?  This is because the fever mode music can trip you up, especially when the music starts.  I have found this to be THE most unhelpful feature of any game- ever!

Let my little story not distract you from the main point- this game is fantastic!  You just need a lot of time and patience as Patapon is amazingly deep.  Think you’ve done it all?  Well, you haven’t.  There’s just so many rare Patapons, weapons and materials to collect.  Get frustrated at time?  Give the game a rest and then get back to it, feeling refreshed.  Some games are like a fine wine: they get better with age.  That is why, although I’ve never actually reviewed Patapon, I’ll give it a 9/10 just because it deserves it.  If you haven’t picked it up yet, you need to!  Its essential for your PSP.

Getting to grips with Patapon

With the amount of coverage on PlayStation.Blog, I was intrigued and decided to give this game a go; especially with its low price point of £25. Now, Patapon isn’t your ordinary game. No sir. It breaks the mould of game design just like LocoRoco did. And like LocoRoco, it is a 2D game yet still packed full of gameplay, charming graphics and a catchy soundtrack.

If I was to sum up Patapon in four words, I would do so like this: pata-pata-pata-pon. What exactly am I trying to get at? My rather crude explanation is that as the gamer, you fulfil the role of the god of the Patapons, ‘Almighty’. It is your job to beat the drums for the Patapons to follow and obey. You take turns between beating the drums and hearing the Patapons chant. You’ll eventually unlock four drums which map to to the buttons: X (Don), O (Pon), triangle (Chaka) and square (Pata).

Patapon

Different ‘chants’ or combinations tell the Patapons to do various things such as march forward, attack, and defend. If you keep the rhythm going and don’t miss a beat, your army will build up into a frenzy which increases attack speed, power and all-round impressiveness.

I’m still struggling to get to grips with the game as a whole as sometimes I might not be pressing a button hard enough and therefore ‘missing’ a beat. Also, you’ve got to beat the drums at a steady pace; not too fast, or again you will be losing the rhythm. Furthermore, in frenzy mode it can be easy to lose track of the beat, so I’ve found it useful to tap the beat out with my foot. It makes things a lot easier!

Related reading: PlayStation.Blog’s ridiculously good Patapon coverage

And more specifically: How to cross the desert without burning your Patapons to a crisp!

More PS3 Gaming

More PS3 Gaming- In addition to being captivated by Locoroco Cocoreccho, Super Rub a Dub is a lot of fun as well. Again, excellent value for two small downloadable games. Anyhow, after having played heavy amounts of Assassin’s Creed since I got my PS3, my other new favourites are Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I like a bit of variety these days and try not to hammer one game to death (like Assassin’s Creed, I must admit). I’ll try to give some thoughts and opinions on these two epics at some point.

A little bit of PS3 indulgence

A little bit of PS3 indulgence- I’ve been playing a sick amount of LocoRoco Cocoreccho! over the past couple of days. For such a small and cheap downloadable game off the PlayStation Store, you may think there’s not much to it, but I’m just astounded. There’s so much gameplay and replay value. On top of that, I’m loving the SIXAXIS interaction.