Kotaku
LocoRoco had massive amounts of hype, but fell flat during a time when the PSP needed another Lumines. But the developers of LocoRoco are back with a new title called Patapon, a mix of rhythm game, RPG and RTS that's even more beautiful than its predecessor.
Oh, and apparently it's amazingly good.
So hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Patapon—every review you need to read before deciding that it's time to dust off that PSP after all.
Game Almighty
Your band of Patapon are controlled by issuing commands, which are nothing more than rhythm-based drumming performed with the four main PSP buttons. Want to move your Patapon forward? Press square-square-square-circle. Want to attack? Press circle-square-square-circle. Your ability to maintain perfect rhythm while issuing a variety of commands is the essence of Patapon. Now add to this mix that you have three types of Patapon, including close-combat axe-wielders, mid-range spear-throwers, and long-range archers and you now have strategic elements to consider...
GameDaily
It might sound a bit burdensome, especially if you don't usually get your kicks from strategy games, but this is not a game that gets bogged down in the details. You will have to do some management between levels, but the interface is clean and fun to use. Furthermore, the battles themselves are a delight, and using music to perform all of the commands is such a unique and enjoyable experience that just about anyone can get into it. 
Variety
While music is the blood of "Patapon," the game's art direction, which combines cartoon silhouettes with a shadow-puppet look at times, helps make it captivating. The screen fills with these little one-eyed creatures as a gamer progresses through 30 levels, culminating in sweeping battles that are nearly as fun to watch as they are to orchestrate.
GameSpy
Patapon is like a cleverly designed trojan horse, built to sucker you in with cute graphics and then beat you down with its primal, rhythmic challenge. It's great fun, but you may find it tough to actually play the game on the go considering the amount of attention it requires.
GameSpot
Patapon is unlike any game that has come before it, and with a retail price that's half of what many PSP games sell for, our recommendation of this ingenious recipe that has been masterfully realized is a no-brainer. 
It's good to see software titles that do the PSP's excellent hardware some justice. At $20, it seems like a must-buy.
Comments
It is a lot of fun. I've been playing it at school. It is extremely difficult without sound by the way...
It got the visuals and gameplay that actually is worth playing. Waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail. Wil be enjoying it. But until then, Lost Odyssey, Here I come baby!
It's all true. It's freakin' sweet. Traded in my DS and games a couple of days ago just so I could get a PSP and Patapon.
Oh and God of War COO & FF7 Crisis Core.
"three types of Patapon"? How far did GameDaily get in this game...?
i can attest to these reviews. the game's great. go out and get it!
GET THIS GAME NOW.
PICK OF THE WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK.
@Pombar: I think they mean middle, near, and far soldiers.
My question is, do you always play to the same beat? Same commands?
I mean, do you just press O-O-X-O and then be done with it?
Anyone that's played this game know?
@budash2: Don't forget Wild ARMS XF on 3/11 if you're a SRPG fan
I'm officially jealous of PSP owners.
Since that has happened, I can only assume that up is now down, black is now white, and dogs and cats are indeed living together.
@Setzer IIDX: Im only a few hrs in but you gradually get more commands as the game goes on. There are 4 main ones: Attack, Defense, Move Forward, and Charge Up. The difficulty is actually pretty staggering for some of the fights so planning on which one to use vs the enemy's attacks can be tough.
Well deserved IMO. I can only hope the success is both monetary as well as critical for the Dev Team. That could go a long way toward giving some of these more creative/quirky titles more credence in the industry, as a lucrative proposition when executed as well as Patapon. Not to mention the US $19.99 price point make it accessible to far more people.
@Setzer IIDX: Each command is an order, there are uhm, about 8 of them.
It works like this, you will input your command, say Circle circle circle square, the Patapons will then chant the appropiate syllables, when they are done, you enter the next command based on the situation.
Its more intuitive than that, but yeah.
The music and chanting is different at different points in the game but the commands are always the same. You learn commands every so often, too, but youll use attack and more forward a lot.
@Setzer IIDX: The background beats differ, but the main beat (ie: ooxo, ssso, etc) are the same. It gets tricky during fever.
It's sold much more expensive in Europe... aiming at 35-40€ retail price wich means double of the US. Why?
Dust shmust. The PSP has been an amazing system for a long time, and it is nice to see people finally giving it its due.
@Setzer IIDX: No you press it once to attack once, you press it twice to attack twice, but all in rythm. You keep pressing the buttons according to both what YOU want to do AND the rythm, and it's like playing a rythm game that doesn't tell you the controls (and instead makes you think on what you have to do instead of showing what to do).
Tried to find a copy yesterday, but Best Buy and EB didn't have any, wth
This is the best PSP game to date.
Considering how much attention this game requires, and it's pace, I'd like to see it on PS3 in HD. Please.
My only quarrel with the game is that they don't tell you anything other than the little hints after you finish a level. I needed that rain dance to march across the desert (not a spoiler, don't worry) and I was told which two items to get, but not how to obtain them. After getting frustrated I finally looked online - which I hate doing - and saw where the rain dance was.
I believe that, and the fact you can't really play the game on the go were the only two complaints. Since my 360 is at the repair center I've been occupying my gaming time with Patapon.
@Setzer IIDX: no, theres lots of commands, you just get new ones as you progress through the game.
Each of the 4 face buttons is a different word, and you combine the words to make a chant. so you hit say, X-X-X-square, and they chant "pata, pata, pata, pon" (I cant remember if that's the actual command off the top of my head though). You then chain these commands together to get "fever" mode which makes all your chants more powerful. I think theres about 8 or so chants in all.
@kyosuke9999: I feel dim... What a wonderful return to the norm. Ta muchly for the insight.
@sUKi: Haha, I've been doing the exact opposite. Patapon's been tiding me over 'till tomorrow's Lost Odyssey release!
The demo certainly didn't set my world alight, but I figured for $20 it couldn't hurt to give it a spin. I go to the store and it's $60. No deal.
@Anthropomancer:
$60? Where the heck do you live?
Its a great game, well worth the $20 for it. Although that 2nd pic with the castle and flying enemies? That particular scenario is not in the game. So don't go complaining you got shortchanged.
@Pai Pai Master: Agreed.
It's a great time period to be a PSP owner with a bunch of great games coming out, all these new features being implented now and the ones being planned down the road (Blu-ray movies playable on the PSP, PS Store accessible through the PSP, yada yada yada).
I still need to beat this game.
Btw I cant wait till I see others scream I HATE THE DESERT too. ;D
I gotta pick this up. The demo was surprisingly lengthy and engrossing.
@Groodle: Europe D:
I gotta pick up another PSP...
@Anthropomancer:
ew, stab them in the face with your spear
ordered a PSP because of this game...will have it in a week or less.
I played the demo, and only got as fat as the pata-pata-pata-pon and pon-pon-pata-pon commands. For some reason I figured those would be the only commands, and that I would get bored with that pretty quickly. But since there's more than just 2 combos, I guess I should give the actual game a try.
I think this game is slightly overrated. Kotaku has been hyping this shit since like 2 months ago, so obviously it was on my radar, but I just don't really like the fact that you can only input one command to your patapons every 8 beats, it makes the game seem slow and a little too simplistic.
I can't find this game *anywhere*. EBGames, FutureShop, Wal-Mart, London Drugs... nobody in my town has it.
Damn them.
Oh well, it's not like I can actually afford it right now.
Very nice concept, great deal for $20
The more of this game I see, the more I really want to buy it. March is going to be a great months for the PSP.
I'm waiting for mine in the mail. The anticipation is murder!
@thambone: Strategy. If you could input commands at your whim then it wouldn't have as much strategy to it.
I traded in 7 360 games and 11 DS games for a new PSP, a used memory card, and this game (and a chance to play GOW:COO). It's a lot of fun. I rate it a strong buy.
@Kyle81: You download it from the playstation store.
Where the wind blows also effects your attack.. pretty awesome
I'm picking this up next week.. it's great fun! Speaking of Loco Roco, I need to pick that up too..
@MrMcdoobie: I had the EXACT same issue.
@WILSON:
Uh, mistake in spelling aside, you have to be the first person in history to mention "Loco Roco" and "flat" in the same sentence. Now the PS3 offering, yes that was a different story. But the original PSP title was dripping with quality and originality. Fortunately it was loads of fun to play. If anything I felt that the 3 hours it took to complete was it's only shortcoming. Me wrong?
Picked it up yesterday from Gamestop and it's pretty fun.Only on the 3rd board right now.Maybe I just dont understand what I'm doing,but I had to play the second level like 6 times to beat it.Very cool game though.
i've been reading too much kotaku.. during my intermittant, stuffed-up dreaming periods last night, patapon was a major theme. i don't even own a PSP.
The only annoyance I have with the game is Fever mode. The syllables and timing is very difficult to glean from the sound alone.
@notalkjustrock: From the Playstation.Blog post it looks like they are working on it, or at least thinking about it. Looks promising to me.
@Witzbold: I HATE THE DESERT TOO.
How's that. This game is massively good, and surprisingly difficult (in a good way), and I basically am driving my girlfriend nuts today by seeing if I can get my dog to respond to Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon.
No luck so far, but he wags his tail a lot when I say it to him, so it's a