Patapon

When LocoRoco came along, a number of gamers looked at it as an important step in revitalizing the PSP with some new, and unconventional gameplay. For the most part it succeeded in helping the Sony handheld get at least some of its groove back, and now we have another game heading to that platform in February with a motif reminiscent of LocoRoco called Patapon that sees both the executive producer and music director of the former return for this project.

The similarities between these two games come from the visuals in Patapon, which uses silhouetted characters in the foreground, while the background for each level proves to be extremely colorful. It's a very simple, yet inviting approach to the visuals.

As one plays the game, a constant drum beat is played at varying tempos. At the same time, players must perform certain button combinations in order to tell the on-screen people what to do. It could be square, square, triangle, circle all to the tempo of the drum to get the tribe to move somewhere, or to fight something, and so forth. In this way, Patapon tries to combine musical rhythm games with a platformer mentality.

The game is certainly shaping up to be a unique experience, which is something that the PSP's library desperately needs these days. Gamers will be able to decide for themselves how unique this whole thing is when Patapon comes out in early 2008.

Jeff Nash