Patapon's simple, mingled game play surprises me for how intriguing it can be.
Game play of Patapon combines factors of many genre: strategy, god game, rhythm and is presented from 2D side-scrolling view point. The success of Interlink is to adjust these elements to the right dose that can appeal to a wide range of gamers. Strategy is expressed in building several arms to form an army. Besides the flag-holder Hatapon who does not directly participate in battle, there are six other types of troops: Tatepon (melee), Yaripon and Yumipon (range, spear and bow respectively), Kibapon (cavalry), Dekapon (heavy infantry) and Megapon (military band). Typical of strategy, game requires you to gather enough main resource (Ka-ching) and two other types to train troops. Resource is mostly gained through hunting scenes, so you may want to replay these scenes to stock them up. Depending on which 2 types of resource you spend, different kinds of troops can be trained and the more precious the resource is, the higher level units you gain. Patapon also applies ceiling limit for the number of units of a specific arm. In addition, weapons and armors taken from enemies can be equipped to strengthen your army. Although 6 types of troops can be trained, only 3 can be selected for a battle. As a result, players need to pay attention to the nature of the scene and opponents before choosing. Note that with 2D side-scrolling presentation, the order of military units will not change during the act hence, the basis for ordering troops is melee in front line, range behind.
Patapon also show the nature of a god game while you don't directly micro units in battle but play the role of Almighty to conduct them by the means of drum-beats. 4 buttons (triangle, square, X, O) are assigned to 4 different drum tunes: "chaka", "pata", "pon" và "don", which can be combined to create a complete melody suitable to situations. For example, "pata pata pata pon" will make the troops advance, "pon pon pata pon" for attack or "chaka chaka pata pon" for defensive formation. Later you will gain new power to command natural force like rain, wind, lightning, earth-quake... through other tunes to add you army on battlefield. Of course, you can't press these buttons in any random order but have to harmonize with the background soundtrack in the play scene. Continuous success in harmonizing will increase combo index and to a certain level you will switch to Fever mode in which the attack power of your army is multiplied. Further maintaining successful drum tune means you continue to have all advantage from the Fever mode and it's the key to beat a more powerful opponent. These sounds simple in theory but practising it can prove quite challenging, I promise that.
With over 30 play scenes designed arround 3 primary quest types: hunting, battle, boss fight, Patapon is lengthy enough to satisfy every gamer. Its simple, diversified, creative nature is the reason why you will get stuck to your PSP screen for a while. However, game only support single player mode so you are not able to share joyful moments with other gamers in multiplayer battle in cooperation or versus style. Perhaps it's the most considerable flaw in such an highly appreciated game like Patapon.