I like a variety of rhythm games, ranging from the Guitar Heroes series to the Elite Beat Agents and others. However, when I heard about a rhythm based strategy game featuring a bunch of little eye-ball creatures, well, I would've told you that's not for me. Thankfully I sometimes don't listen to my own self and go against my better judgment, and when I do so I usually find a lovely little game that manages to surprise me in many ways. I'm sorry I ever doubted Patapon. Now come on guys, come over here and give me a hug. Pata Pata Pata Pon!

THE STORY SO FAR
You play as the Mighty Patapon, an all-knowing god essentially who plays ancient drums in order to control his worshippers and give them commands, all for the sole-purpose of leading his followers to the promised land known as Earthend. What's so special about Earthend you might be asking yourself? Well, it's where "IT" is? What's "IT"? Nobody knows exactly what "IT" is, but the Patapon want to see it desperately, so perhaps it's a metaphorical heaven or Holy Grail for them. If you want to find all the answers and lead the Patapon to Earthend, you'll just have to pick this game up.

The story isn't as involving as many games, but the simplicity of it actually helps it. You play as a god, you lead your people to a promised land like Moses, and you try to thwart any creatures or enemies in your way – that's it. But every so often you'll join your little tribe of Patapon after a battle, watching them chill out and dance the night away in celebration, and then you'll get a little story about ancient ruins, mystical objects, and the talk of their battle against the Zigotons, the ancient enemy of the Patapon. Slowly, as all the narrative comes together piece-by-piece, the game really creates a mythology and world for itself, one that you'll be utterly enthralled with by the time you reach the end.

GAMEPLAY
Patapon is a weird mix of genres, combining a strategy/RPG system with the mechanics of a rhythm based game. When you first start out the game, you only have a select few Patapon at your disposal, but they are good enough at this point to get the job done for the first level or so. The Patapon, however, will only work when you tell them to, which you do by beating on the game's drums (aka tapping in a pattern to the beat with the buttons on your PSP). When you've successfully tapped in the pattern, the Patapon will do such things as move forward, attack, or defend.

At first the system is a bit strange and hard to get a grasp on, as you try to adjust to the rhythm of the game and not to get lost in the sound of battle and shouts. Around the screen you'll find a white frame that pulses to the beat, indicating when you'll need to hit a button press. For example, to move the Patapon troops forward, you'll have to hit (Square, Square, Square, Circle) with each button press matching up with the white pulsing frame. If you're successful inputting the command, you'll hear the Patapon sing back the beat you just put in (Pata Pata Pata Pon) and move forward. However, just one successful command input isn't going to get you anywhere, because you'll have to learn how to keep the rhythm constant and flowing; if you mess up and break the rhythm, you'll find your Patapon not wanting to move and simply stand still or even fall down on the ground. Yes, they are some dependent little creatures, but because of the connection it really helps you establish an emotional bond to them.

So the pattern goes that you input a command and then the Patapon sing it back, but once they are done singing you need to keep the combo by instantly following it up in beat (without losing the rhythm) so that once the Patapon get done singing you instantly input the next command, whether it be to keep moving forward, attack, or defend. As you successfully make combos by continuing one move after another, slowly you'll build up until your Patapon go into Fever mode, making it so they suddenly become a devastating group of tough as nails warriors. When in Fever mode, for instance, your archers suddenly shoot farther and more arrows at one time, and your spear throwers will jump higher and attack harder. The Fever mode is actually the groove you'll want to try to stay in from the moment you get it until the end of the level, because all that extra power really helps in taking down creatures, bosses, and those evil Zigotons.

As you discover new Patapon types, you'll be able to create a certain number of each group to combine together into your level troops. The creation of each Patapon takes two specific objects and a certain amount of power that you get for killing creatures and Zigotons. There are basic Patapon you can create in each category for the bare minimum specs, such as two simple stones and like 200 power, but you can make even more sophisticated and stronger Patapon by using better items (like ores instead of simple rocks) and by sacrificing more money; you'll start to create fatter Patapon of different colors and with different shaped eye-ball heads.

As you fight bosses and Zigotons, you'll occasionally have items drop such as different types of hats and weapons. The items you'll pick-up aren't just for show, however, as you'll be able to outfit your Patapon with new and better items, equipping stronger caps to increase your Patapon's defense, and giving them stronger weapons for attacking. You can manually go through, pick a Patapon, and then upgrade them to your liking, or you can use the system's setting to automatically optimize your team's appearance to best raise your group's attack and defense in battle.

Though the game is really fun and features some new gameplay not seen before, all is not well in the world of Patapon. For one thing the game is pretty hard at times, as you might breeze through one or two stages easily, then the next thing you know you're failing one mission four or more times in a row. Another problem is that the game often makes you replay levels over and over, making you hunt creatures and do things to help get the items you need to power your Patapon up so that they have a chance of surviving that battle you're choking on time and time again. Also, from beginning to end, the game is pretty much the same thing, as the only thing you do is keep pressing buttons in rhythm as you watch your Patapon fight; sure, you need to know when to move forward, attack, and defend (so there is some strategy and smarts needed), but for the most part it still feels like just tapping your foot and pressing buttons.

Still, despite those annoyances and problems, the game remains quite fun in the gameplay department.

GRAPHICS
Though the graphics might look a little dated or simple in screenshots, there's actually a whole lot of nice graphical tweaks, such as rain and thunder shooting down, the blow of the wind and badly shot arrows, and everything is very colorful and wonderfully animated, breathing life into the game and making it seem like you really have this little world in your hands. We just wish there were overall more color schemes going on than just orange, black, and white for the most.

AUDIO
The game doesn't have the greatest score, but what it lacks there it makes up in sound effects. The sound of your tribe singing out its commands, the roar of a dinosaur on the charge, and the crackling of thunder all sound great on the PSP.

IN CONCLUSION
Patapon is a great game and one definitely deserving of a purchase (it's also quite cheap too). As long as you open up your mind to some new gameplay mechanics not seen before, more than likely you'll dig the game just as much as us. Sure, it has some problems, but all-in-all we still recommend the game to any PSP owner. Patapon won't sell systems, but it will round out libraries quite nicely.

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