Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon. Don`t know what that is? Well, soon enough you will be dreaming it, so don`t worry. However, considering the massive success this game has been, it`s pretty unlikely that you`ve never heard the little eyeballs chant their song. This little game hit Games32 like a hurricane, and soon enough, everyone was muttering different Pata-songs, while threatening to lock me in the bathroom with my PSP.

If you`ve been living under a rock for the past months (and I bet it sure is cool there), or if the PSP market doesn`t really strike your fancy, then let me explain what all the hype surrounding this game is about.

The Patapon tribe is without a god to worship, and to lead them on their journey to find the great "It"... or at least that`s the case until you show up and become their favorite deity. The first few missions serve as a tutorial, teaching you the basic "move" song, better known as Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon and the "attack" song - Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon. Let me tell you how this works. Your Psp will become a huge (or maybe slim) battle drum, every button corresponding to one special beat. You will get to know the Pata, Chaka, Pon and the Don beats of the drum all too well... and so will your family, friends, neighbors and everyone around you.

Want your warriors to move forward? Then sing the "move" song. Are enemies ahead of you? Then sing the "attack" song for as long as it takes to get rid of them. Later on, you will receive two other songs, the "defend" song and the "retreat" song. This may sound simple, and the fact is that... it really is, but simplicity has its own beauty. The beats of the drums must be timed just right, for the Pons to do as you say. The edges of the screen will help you accomplish this, as they will pulse in rhythm. Of course, after a while you won`t need to look at your screen to get your beats right, and everything will become second nature. Only then can you really start enjoying the game, because if you don`t master the drums, then the game can be one seriously frustrating experience.

While playing, you will quickly realize that there is more here than meets the eye. Starting from the numerous mini games that you can unlock, to the number of different Pons that you can train, the game has enough content to keep you hooked for months. The mini games can be unlocked by collecting different items during your regular or hunting missions. They all revolve around the same rhythm concept, where you have to repeat different and increasingly different beats, to receive special items. For example, the first mini game, the singing tree game as I like to call it, has you singing along a tree that will give you special pieces of wood if you do well enough. It takes meat to start the game, so if you don`t sing well enough to receive any wood, than you`ve just lost your other resource.

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All of the games are like this, taking one resource, while offering a rarer one. Resources have several levels as well, indicating their quality, and the best of the best are really hard to come by. At this point you may be wondering why the resources are so important, aren`t you? The fact is that when you have a tribe of warriors, some of them are bound to die. If your warriors die, then your tribe won`t exactly be a tribe of warriors any more, will it? Now you`re left with two choices, you can either mourn your fallen warriors and retire from the "God-leading-a-tribe" business, or you can grow new ones. Yes, I know "grow" sounds weird, but your warriors seem to grow like plants, using the resources we were talking about earlier. The better the resource, the better the warrior: the basic level 1 resource warriors are black, while the better ones start becoming purple, yellow, and so on. In the end, your tribe will be composed only of elite warrior-eyeballs that will instill fear into the hearts of your enemies.

You have six different type of Pons, each suited to a special task. The Tatepons are your basic melee warriors, holding back the enemy while your Yumipons and Yaripons take them out with arrows and spears, respectively. The Kibapons are your horse riding eyeballs, that aren`t really good when not in Fever mode (I`ll get to this soon enough, hold your horses, little Kibapons). The Dekapon are your big, fat and ugly eye balls, good in melee, and the Megapon are your other ranged troops that fire sound waves at enemies.

With six different kinds of troops, and a very high diversity when it comes to creating this, I think it`s safe to say that the game isn`t as simple as it seems. The diversity comes from the fact that all your troops require two types of resources to create; different resources for each type of warrior. Using one level two meat and a level one branch will not get you the same warrior that a level two branch and a level one meat would. Add to this the fact that you can only use three squads of warriors on any mission, so you`ll have to change them accordingly, and that each squad has up to six units and it may actually seem overwhelming. Oh, did I mention that you can customize each member of your squads with different pieces of armor, shields, and weapons? Hehe, I just did.

Let`s get back to the actual missions and see what your little tribe will have to go up against. Besides the regular hunting missions, aka farming, that you will have to complete from time to time if you want to train new and better warriors, we have two other types of missions. We have the regular mission, that usually has you fighting the evil Zigotons (aka bad eye balls) and the special boss missions. Bosses are a real challenge and a treat for the eye actually. You will fight dragons, robots, crabs, scorpions and even sand worms, and the missions are replayable, each time the boss getting a higher level that translates into a higher difficulty but also better drops.

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Yes, the bosses are your number one source of high level resources and weapons, so fighting them constantly will ensure that your army is top notch. Of course, this does have its problems. Usually, your Pons can`t die during a mission, as their death results in their hat dropping and being picked up by another Pon, and as long as you finish the missions, they will be revived for free in your camp. The bosses seem to disregard this fact and have a bad habit of eating or pulverizing your troops, that doesn`t leave anything to be recovered.

No cap means no free revive in your camp which means you`ll have to spend resources to create a replacement for the warrior you just lost. Usually you will lose more than one warrior when fighting a boss, so the victory may actually be a bitter one. Of course, if you`ve mastered the songs and get to know the special patterns that a boss uses when attacking, you will know exactly when to defend and retreat, thus keeping your losses at a minimum.

I mentioned earlier the Fever mode, and I`m sure you`re very curious about this. You enter Fever mode after 9 successful songs in a row. Since a song is composed from four beats, this translates into 36 successful beats in a row. Miss one and you`ll have to start from scratch. You can also enter Fever mode if you complete 4 perfect beats in a row. Perfect beats have a different, more profound sound than the regular beats, and you have to time them perfectly, but it can be worth it, as the Fever mode is very important. For one thing, the Fever mode will make all your fighters better. The Tatepons shields will be replaced with larger, better ones, the Yumipons will start shooting three arrows instead of one, and your Kibapons will simply charge through the enemies, throwing them to the ground. Each Pon has a different attack mode when in Fever mode, so remembering these differences is very important.

The other thing is that the Fever mode is the only time when you can activate miracles. What are those? Oh, little Pon, you have a lot to learn... Miracle mode can be activated by chanting the special Don-DoDon-DoDon mode when in fever mode. This can be difficult to accomplish at first, and certainly irritating as it will make you lose Fever mode, but you`ll get the hang of it soon enough. Miracles can help you during a mission, and sometimes they are actually necessary in order to finish. For example, the rain miracle that you will receive first and that you are required to summon two times in a row in order to cross a flaming hot desert that spells death for your army. Since this is your first miracle, summoning it even once will be quite an accomplishment, even with the tutorial, and twice in a row may seem like an actual miracle. You are forced to do so, or else your Pons will burn to death, summon it too soon and you will have to summon it three times, summon it too late and you may not have any Pons to cross the desert.

Of course since miracles can only be summoned when in Fever mode and since any mistake will cancel this mode, one mistake can mean the death of all your army. One rain miracle will not last you enough to get back in fever mode again (if you don`t get the perfect beats), and this means the restart of the mission. This was one of the most frustrating missions for me, since I was just starting out, but once you`re over this hill you`ll see that things get a lot better, so enjoy.

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Conclusion:

You can either love it, or learn to love it. The little, helpless tribe of eye balls is bound to earn your sympathy, and when they do, it means you`re hooked. Their singing in order to confirm your drum beats will soon have chanting along and their frowning when spotting an enemy will make you start shouting Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon as you beat the drums. Or maybe not, and you`re a normal person, unlike me... With more content than a 20Gb PC game, more gameplay time than RPGs and more secret things to unlock than the Final Fantasy series, this has to be one of the best PSP games out there, and 20$ should be spent with your eyes closed.

Gameplay: 92

One of the best features of the game, as everything seems to be just right. Mission time is perfectly balanced with mini game time. The creation of your new Pons will have you trying out different combinations until you find the ones that suit your playing style and the hunting missions will be completed with your eyes closed. Once you feel the beat, it`s in your blood :). Having a perfect mix of Pons, each made of only the finest materials and armed to the teeth with the best equipment in-game will prove to be quite a challenge. The increasingly difficult bosses provide a challenge even when you have a tribe full of elite warriors, and defeating every boss at level 99 will have you playing for months on end.

Graphics: 91

Simple in essence, just like the gameplay, but beautiful once you study it more, the graphics is definitely one of the games` strong points. Simple 2D backgrounds, but very colorful, and certainly a treat for the eyes since I can`t remember when the last time was when I saw a game look this good and use so few colors. The almost cartoony style is also great, your little frowning eye balls fitting right in.

Sound: 93

Patapon is truly a game of music and sounds. Headphones are a necessity, both for your health (you don`t want other train passengers to beat you up and shove your PSP down your throat, do you?) and for your success in-game. The drum beats will have you tapping your leg accordingly, the music will make you forget you have to get off at the next station, and the Fever mode (that causes the Pons to jump up and down a sing even louder and faster) will fill you with adrenaline. The mini games are a welcome distraction from the missions, their music being very relaxing and fun as well.

Multiplayer: n/a

Hardware: 99

With low loading times, and excellent performance, I`m sure that Patapon doesn`t push the PSP to its limits. One thing I must warn you about is the lack of a Pause button, so once you start a mission you`d better make you have time to finish it.