Despite my self-proclaimed affinity for rhythm games, until very recently, I had never played Patapon before. This is potentially because the 2007 title was native to the PSP, which was my dad’s, but thanks to Bandai Namco’s Patapon 1+2 Replay release, I’ve finally managed to experience this piece of weird rhythm game history.
The Patapon series, which popped onto my radar after the original team announced Ratatan, an upcoming Switch game that acts as a spiritual successor to Patapon, follows a tribe of funky, one-eyed creatures who look a bit like the cast of World of Goo. As their Mighty Leader, you command their forces to advance, attack, hunt, and more through the power of rhythmic drumming. This is immediately very different from most of the rhythm games that I’ve played in the past, which simply get you to play along to various songs for the fun of performing and hitting that sweet, sweet full combo.
Patapon 1+2 Replay, as the name suggests, combines the first two games in the series into one neat remaster package, complete with a swathe of quality-of-life changes that didn’t make the cut in 2017’s ports for the PS4. Although the art style is quite simplistic, it looks fantastic on my Nintendo Switch 2, especially thanks to its bold colors, and I haven’t encountered any performance issues during my long handheld and docked play sessions.
MORE FROM POCKET TACTICS: Patapon 1+2 Replay review, Best rhythm games, Best PSP games