A Rhythmic Return

The curious thing about falling behind on blog updates is that the farther behind you fall, the harder it is to start things back up again. After around two weeks courtesy demands at least a paragraph of explanation, a month requires about two. If the system continues in this manner, as it has with me, the task mounts ever higher. By my calculation, I'd need to write well over a page to properly atone for my lengthy disappearance.

Thankfully, I'm no slave to courtesy. Or post-to-post coherence, for that matter.

My collection of games- and, indeed, game systems- has increased in size exponentially in the months since my last update. I could write for pages about every last neat little electronic marvel I've procured, but for now I'll stick with only what is absolutely necessary to explore my most recent fixation.

*Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon!*

First things first: I have recently acquired a Playstation Portable. I never thought I'd see the day I owned one of those decidedly non-Nintendo handhelds, but I recently came into a fair amount of money through the sale of a gifted Xbox 360 to my father, and I rather thought I'd indulge myself. I was actually quite surprised by the sheer number of quality games for the system, particularly when it comes to RPGs- it's no DS, to be sure, but the gaming media has been so overwhelmingly down on it in the past that I kind of expected it to be some sort of... I don't know, desertware, I suppose.

*Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon!*

But the first game from the PSP's library to really grab me wasn't an RPG. In fact, it doesn't really conform to the standards of any already specified genre. The best description I can come up with for it is that it's a kind of action/adventure/war/strategy/god game that's wrapped within a rhythm game and smothered with charming, artsy style. It's inane and addicting, permeates every ounce of my consciousness, and is well on its way toward turning my brain into a gelatinous, rhythm-sensitive ooze.

*Chaka-Chaka...

...PATAPON! This ridiculous drug of a rhythm game has at once enslaved me and catapulted itself into my favorites, losing within its (most dominant) genre only to the nirvanic Elite Beat Agents. To those willing to meet the game's requirements and costs(twenty dollars to purchase, a willingness to surrender yourself to the beat, and a full understanding that you'll never, EVER get said beat out of your head), it's one of the most trippy and brilliant rhythm games available for any system, and that's really saying something.

The game works like this: the player's task is to beat the game's four drums (assigned to each of the PSP's four face buttons) to rhythmically command an army of cute, walking eyeball creatures, called Patapons, as they battle a variety of enemies on a 2-D, side-scrolling battlefield. Different commands are presented through different combinations of drum beats, so, for example, beating Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon (that's Square-Square-Square-Circle on the PSP) will cause your troops to march forward, while Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon makes them launch an attack on nearby foes.

Throughout all of this, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL to keep the beat- otherwise, the patapons will be unable to interpret the commands. Patapon plays in 4/4 time, and the player waits out every other measure, during which the patapons act on the player's last command. By successfully keeping the rhythm through repeated commands, they'll rack up combos, and by getting their combo count high enough (ten or less, depending on the exactness of the beats), they'll enter the coveted Fever mode.

This is where Patapon really gets crazy, and it's one of my favorite parts of the game. Simply speaking, Fever mode makes patapons go completely insane. The background sound changes from a simple, metronome-esque drum beat to a raucous jamboree, the patapons dance around like crazy while you drum, and their attacks rain chaos on their foes. There are stringent beat-keeping requirements for remaining in Fever mode, but I've become skilled enough to maintain it throughout most of my battles, and it's such an intoxicating, godlike state of being that I often go out of my way to set it up in the early parts of a stage so as to be able to use it immediately when I encounter enemies.

Regardless of all I've said, the written word's capabilities to describe Patapon are limited. It's the sort of thing that must be tried for itself to be fully understood, or, if that's impossible, at least seen in action. It's simple and short (I'm nearing the end at around ten-to-twelve hours, and most would finish more quickly), but damn, it sure is sweet.

Now if only I could get that chant out of my head.

-Smashing Brother