Customer Reviews

Patapon

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I enjoyed this a lot. It's a combo rhythm and strategy game. You do missions were you fight by listening to the music and pressing different combos of buttons. Cute characters, bright and original art style are apparent throughout. The pata-pata-pata-pon sound will surely get stuck in your head as well. Some might have trouble at times, it does take pretty good memory along with good rhythm skills but to make this easier to play always use headphones. You can't get the full experience without.

The only negative is no, you can't pause the game. But you can put your PSP in sleep mode and it leaves it as it is. So, if you need to stop playing in the middle it's really no problem.

The game is overall fun, original and worth your time. Especially considering all the game has to offer along with the price, it's well worth the money. You can also try it before you buy at the PSN store. The demo is free to try and if you complete it you even get a bonus weapon. Try this game out, you will not regret it.

This is a really cool game, especially if you like rhythm games (Guitar Hero and such).

Basically, you have to memorize different pattens of drumming (pressing the action buttons) in order to command the Patapons to advance, attack, etc.

It can get challenging trying to remember which command to send the Patapons while they're in the midst of battle, especially since the fight is real-time (i.e., the game doesn't pause to wait for you to drum a command, and your Patapons are taking a beating until you get the right pattern).

As you progress, you get access to new drum patterns, better armor, weapons, and Patapons (archers, hunters, and warriors). It's not a simple hack-n-slash game though; it has some strategic elements (for example, you should keep archers in the back and warriors in the front, but it's up to you to find the most efficient formation of your Patapon fighters) and you must feed and nurse your army with hunting sessions, which allows you to practice your drum patterns without fear of killing off your entire army.

Overall, this is a wonderfully smooth and well thought-out non-3D game that hints at Adobe Flash-style flat animation with a little Samurai Jack artistry tossed in for extra appeal and a cool new take on rhythm games.

Even better, you can download the demo onto your PSP before you buy the game so you can check it out before shelling out the (amazingly low) $[...]. The demo is on the official Patapon site: http://www.us.playstation.com/patapon/

This game gets 5 stars for fun, 5 stars for value, and 5 stars for ingenuity.

This game is seriously addicting. I originally bought this game for nephews and I found myself to be a closet Patapon freak who has to play when I get home from work and before bed. It is a simple rhythm based game that uses 4 bottoms to control the little army of whimsical one eye warriors. In only a couple days of playing I have played this game more than any of my other PSP games. For the less than $20 the game is well worth the purchase and I would recommend it to anyone who just a whimsical style game almost like a Tim Burton movie.

Patapon is definitely a different type of game than most others. The rhythm and beat style game really sets this apart. The graphics are simple yet full of color and fluid motions. Sound/Music is fairly good, the only thing that can get slighly annoying is when all the little patapons start cheering and yelling when you make combos, etc. Other than that, the rhythms and beats are fun to follow.

The gameplay is really easy to pick up and upon receiving this game, I could not put it down until hours later. Upgrading your units and equipping them are fairly simple.

To top it off, $[...] is an awesome price for such a fun game. This is absolutely a game worth getting.

First of all, this is a must play. It seems as more and more developers weigh into the gaming industry, ironically, it becomes more and more rare for one of them to bring something new to the table. Sony, as per usual, comes out of left field with this gem.

Part rythm, part puzzle, part rpg, Patapon mashes together bits and pieces of several genres. It's a shallow dash of each, but it's there, and it works. The design is simplistic and flat, but it's beautiful. Nothing seems out of place in this world. If you've read other reviews you probably know the premice of the game. You build an army of little cyclopian soldiers of various jobs and abilities and march them through their enemies to the promised land. You create your armies from the ground up by combining various materials you get from mini games and missions. The creation screen will place the default ingredients (two for each type of patapon.) but you can replace these with higher quality items you've found to make more powerful Rarepons. You'll also get better equipment to outfit your armies in while on your missions. Patapons are controlled by using an 8 beat rythm using a combination of the Cirle, Triangle, Square, and X buttons. You play four beats, the patapons sing their reply for four beats and so on. The catch is there's a tempo you have to follow, your button presses must match with the beat flashing around the border of the screen. Keep up well enough and/or hit a high enough combo and they'll enter fever mode. Fever greatly increases the Patapons attributes. Miss a beat though and you're back to normal Patapons until you can pick it up again via combos. It can be difficult at first but you'll find yourself intuitively stringing the various command beats together and watching your patapons follow your directions flawlessly. The beats are simple but very catchy, you'll find yourself randomly Pata-pata-pata-poning in your head. It has a nice system of combining various materials to make various kinds and shapes of patapons. The story is simple but you find yourself really caring about leading these little eyeballs to their promise land. Lastly it's truly a rewarding site when your little army enters Fever mode and volleys barrages of spears and arrows at your enemy and your warriors crush through the front lines toppling towers and buildings alike. All while singing in unision your praises.

This isn't a perfect game though. There's hardly any tutorial, I'm not sure if they just wanted to invoke a trial and error element to the game or if they were just too lazy to flesh out all the mechanics. For instance, say you pick up a really quality piece of meat and some rare metal (required to make the warrior type patapons) and you want to use them to make a Rarepon. That's all well and good if you don't have a full regiment of warrior Patepons. If you do though, it will simply tell you that you can't make any more of that type. Now there are bosses that will eat your Patapons rendering them irrevivable, but trying to strategically get a boss to eat the right Patapon and ONLY the right Patapons would be an exercise in catastrophe, and a large chunk of wasted time. I had to skim through a walkthrough on the internet to find out how to delete unwanted Patapons so I could create better ones. You have to go to the item equip screen, to get there you have to select a mission to go on first. Then you have to press Triangle over the correct regiment, highlight the patapon you don't want. Now you'd think that there would be an option to "Retire" the Patapon or even "Kill" Patapon... No, the button you have to press is Select, conveniently labeled "Quit". Silly me, not realizing that Quit meant get rid of highlighted Patapon. Instead I assumed that Quit meant Quit the game, or Quit the item selection phase... Another issue is the items that enemies drop. Most of it is completely useless after you've started making Rarepons as you don't use the generic meats, wood, and stones anymore. Rarely do any gear or weapons drop. When they do, they're only there for a short amount of time before they dissappear, and not into your inventory, they're gone for good. So say a nice weapon drops, but when you killed the enemy he bounced back puting him behind the rest of his soldiers. You better hope that they fall back or you kill them all quick otherwise you can just wave goodbye. If a boss drops an item behind him when he dies and the mission says complete before you walk over it, you lose it as well. You can watch your happy little eyeballs parade by shiny loot and heaps of cash without any one of them picking it up. The mini games are fun but the items you receive from them can become outdated very fast if your bolstering your ranks with Rarepons rendering said games pointless. On top of that, while they're fun the first couple times,each game is the same thing every time. It's a "song" that you have to mimic or play along with and it's the same song with the same beat and you just do the same thing every time. I can literaly listen to the mini games at this point and complete them without looking at the screen. There's also alot of repetition. You need to go back and do the same farming runs through the same stages several time to gather materials (you'll rarely get the ones you need) and money to make troops. Most farming missions yield around 200-250 Ka-ching! (money) and each of the 2nd best Rarepons cost 1k to 1.5k to make. That's 200-250 Ka-ching! if no monsters block you from being able to pick up the coin dropped by their dead counterparts. The last thing isn't really the games fault, it can just be frustrating. This game requires alot of concentration and if the TV's on or your significant other or a friend is trying to talk to you or the phone rings you'll find yourself getting off beat and losing Fever ALOT. Yeah, there's no pause either. Once you start a mission you need to finish it, quit, or die to stop it. Even when I'm alone I generally play with headphones as the PSP speakers don't carry the drum beat all that well all the time, plus it cuts down on the distractions. Personally I have a nice pair of Skullcandy Hesh that I use. They have great sound, they're comfortable, and they block out alot of the outside noise even if you don't have them cranked.

In closing, this is a game that you don't want to miss out on. It's at a bargain bin price right now, and you don't find anything this original very often. Yes, it has it's issues but what game doesn't? The good far outweighs the bad.

Typically read a lot about a game before I buy. I like RPGs and was intrigued by the rhythm component after thoroughly enjoying Puzzle Quest (a very different but also "mixed" type game). Found out I apparently don't have any rhythm. Gave up on the game after several hours and the first 5-6 levels. Never qualified as fun for me. Gathering levels were too repetitive, but main complaint was that in order to do well in the battles and keep my army in "Fever" I had to ignore what was going on in the battles to focus solely on keeping with the rhythm. That is, when I had overpowering force and was decimating the enemy, I couldn't watch my minion wreaking havoc, but had to keep focused on the screen border to not loose the beat. Obviously given it's popularity, non-rhythm challenged people are not having the same problem.

I recently purchased Patapon, after reading a few reviews, because I'm a Guitar Hero and DDR fan. I was skeptical about the idea of a rhythm game on a handheld system, but Patapon pulls it off nicely.

Basically, you play The Great Patapon, which an army of little eyeball thingies with feet, called Patapons, regards as a god. You come to possess four drums, aka the square, triangle, circle, and x buttons. The Patapons teach you short commands, usually four button presses, occasionally more, which tell the Patapons to execute a command like attack, march forward, or defend. Using these commands and a few others, you work your way through battles in a side-scrolling world. Between levels, there is opportunity to create and customize more little eyeball thingies, customize equipment and battle formations, follow the fairly simple storyline, and play a few mini games, also rhythm based.

The game has fairly mindless rhythm game elements, as well as a mild amount of strategy. It's actually sort of like Donkey Congas and Final Fantasy I went and had a brightly colored baby.

The pros:
-Really catchy soundtrack, which is more than a soundtrack, because the music changes related to the gameplay and how well you keep up with the beats. It's been permanently stuck in my head for a little over a week now.
-Cute animation, fun little noises that the little eyeball thingies make.
-A fair amount of customization is possible, but not really a hard and fast requirement, thanks to the automated optimize function for equipping soldiers. Tweak, or don't tweak.
-It's inexpensive. It could probably sell for more, given the quality.

A few minor gripes:
-There is no pause button. When playing the game, you build up to what's called "fever," which comes along after you've correctly entered several commands in a row, keeping good time, and not pausing between commands. I usually build up a fever before I do anything else, and maintain it throughout the entire level, because the little army fights better that way. There would be opportunity in the four beats between each command for a player to hit the pause button, take care of whatever is demanding his or her attention, and resume playing without having to disrupt the fever. This isn't a major problem, just an annoyance. The hold switch will "pause" the game, but not without having to build the fever back up. Levels usually take about five minutes to complete, so there isn't as great a need for a pause button as there could be.
-Once you create a little eyeball thingie, it's hard to replace him with a more powerful one. The army can effectively hold eighteen soldiers, six of each of three types. Once you've created eighteen little eyeball thingies, which can happen early on, the nature of the gameplay makes it hard for them to permanently die so you can later create more powerful little eyeball thingies. So a word of advice, and I'll heed it myself when I start a new campaign: don't create another little eyeball thingie just becuase you can; wait for rare materials to make more powerful eyeball thingies.

All in all, this is the most addictive game I've encountered for PSP. It's well done, innovative, simple to learn, and tough to master. It is replayable, because of the customization options. The animation is unique and engaging, and the soundtrack is really catchy. If you like rhythm games and own a PSP, you won't regret the purchase.

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.

I picked up Patapon on a whim - I saw it at a video game store, and after seeing a short demo (and listening to the crazy, addictive tunes), I decided to give it a try: after all, it was only $20.00.

I have not regretted that snap decision.

The amount of skill required to navigate the game is subtle but powerful: though it combines two disparate game types (real-time strategy and musical rhythm), it would seem they are two great tastes that taste great together. The game requires that on a sub-conscious level one keeps track of the 4:4 beat, the different drum sounds that communicate your divine will to your Spartans . . . er, Patapons, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for monster or enemy behavior on screen, and a variety of other on-screen information. Either one learns this - as the one-eyed Patapon tribe's deity - or your little tribe in will not be in the fight as long as it takes to bring down your enemies and liberate them.

Add to this several mini-games that become available as your warriors re-discover ancestors' remains throughout the game. My personal favorite was the musical stew-cauldron game.

The minimalistic and cartoony character designs are not only charming, but also avoid overwhelming the senses to such a degree that one can enjoy the game structure and design fully.

A real treat, and highly recommended, "Patapon" is even more attractive for its $20 price tag.

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!!!"