|
These days, playing another music game is just as likely to induce narcolepsy as it is to get your blood pumping and body bumping. Even the portable systems have their fair share of musical hits and misses, which is why the fresh perspective brought by the genre-bending Patapon is so exciting. In name it’s an action title, but in reality it’s a unique blend of simple strategy and a toe-tapping rhythm game. Is it going to have you singing along on your bus ride home, or doing a sad, tired head nod as you try to stay awake?
The art style works hard to keep your eyes fixed on the screen. Your budding army, the Patapons, are black and white for the most part, so they stand in strong contrast to the often brightly colored background. And yet, cute as they may be, your little guys mean business. They're armed to the teeth with spears, arrows, swords and shields, and they intend to do some serious damage to their nemesis, the Zigotons. It’s your job as their god, the Mighty Patapon, to lead them to victory by pounding out drumbeats via PSP button presses. It’s a simple, straightforward mechanic that ends up packing quite a challenge throughout the 30-plus levels.
Unit marching orders are broken out into four basic commands: advance, attack, defend and a special miracle ability. As the de facto commander-in-chief, you must listen to the background music and pound out a rhythm in concert with it. Your Patapon army responds by performing the correct action and singing the rhythm back to you. In turn, keeping a continuously strong beat allows you build up a combo. Enough ticks of the combo meter and you'll trigger fever mode. While in fever mode, your army will be much more formidable, with increased attack power and defensive capabilities. It’s key to success.
Also key to your progression is a pair of headphones, as the standard PSP speakers make staying on the beat difficult, particularly when the musical distractions of fever mode get in the way. To have any real chance at beating most levels, you need to stay on the beat and in fever mode for extended periods of time, which is hard enough to do without sub par speakers. Keeping fever going is also difficult because there is no pause feature. It’s just odd not have one included, and a serious oversight for any portable game. Even though you can always put the system to sleep as a stopgap measure, you're sure to lose any combo you might have built up. It’s frustrating to lose fever at a critical moment because your bus has reached your stop.
That’s just the thing, as bus stop or not, you aren’t going to want to stop. Although marching around some cute, little eyeballs doesn’t sound all that thrilling on paper, Patapon features some strong strategy aspects. Not just implementing the proper commands at just the right moments, but utilizing the proper units and managing your limited resources. Your army is comprised of three individual squads, and you can mix and match different types of units to suit your playing style. You’ve got everything from up close brawlers to long range arrow launchers. Individual unit strength is also affected by the types of weapons you put in their little hands. Random weapon drops by enemies can be your savior. In addition to collecting weapons as you progress, you'll also accumulate a wide variety of resources. The resource collection aspect adds to the depth by allowing you to mix and match to form unique Patapon units.
Unfortunately, it’s all these same elements that hamper this catchy musical experience. Many of the more challenging missions cannot be completed without some real grinding. It’s not just the boss battles providing the challenge either, any mission can end up sending you back to the drawing board. The problem is that you have to have the ka-ching (money) and resources in order to create units. Getting the necessary cash and resources is never a one and done scenario. You’ll end up playing some missions over and over just to collect some new loot for use in another mission. In fact, after you fail a mission, the game will often suggest that you go back and repeat the hunting mission in order to accumulate resources for unit production.
Given the sometimes frustratingly difficult missions, when you do down that boss by the slimmest of margins or push those Zigotons out of another area, it feels like a real accomplishment. It’s these moments when Patapon truly excels. Despite its flaws, this twenty dollar title is worth the time and effort. As they say, the beat goes on…PATA PATA PATA PON!
|
