On the eve of holiday break…and the launch of Patapon in Japan, we here at Patapon Central (aka Pon-SCEA) have been very excited over a few little Pata-tidbits that are currently circulating in the media, both locally and overseas.
First, great Pata-News came to me from Japan: Famitsu, one of Japan’s leading gaming publications, has awarded Patapon a Platinum Review award. Needless to say, we were all very elated to hear such great news! If you happen to see ROLITO-pon or Kotani-pon around town (if you’re reading this from France or Japan)… please make sure to congratulate them or you could always post your greetings below :-)
Second Pata-News item: Live from MTV! We’ll, not really live… but close enough — seems like Stephen Totilo’s just received the holiday cards we sent out and he posted the cover… which I think makes for a perfect screensaver… but beyond that, his notes on first-impressions were, on a personal level, very cool. I’ve been a long time fan of Rez (both song AND game) and Everyday Shooter has quickly become one of my all time favorites… so to be put in the same category as those two titles is a great honor in my book. Stephen also posts about the importance of music in portable gaming (and gaming in general) and the reluctance of some players to partake in the soundtrack… but I’m a big music fan, so it might just be me; however, I know that every team puts a lot of thought and effort into the sound design of their titles and some games rely heavily on music to help the player progress through each level – much like Patapon.
In Patapon, listening to the music is the only way you’ll be able to advance through every mission. Your Patapon squad will interact with you in a holla-back fashion: you beat your drums to a particular rhythm and your Patapon squad will chant your beat as they perform your command. If you’ve seen Japan’s ad for Patapon… this will illustrate exactly how the music works: first you beat the Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon rhythm and the Patapons will march and chant to the beat. Here’s another video to see these mechanics in action.
Third Pata-News (while we are on the subject of Kotani-pon and ROLITO-pon): Our PR team just wrapped up a holiday tour and you’ll start seeing first (or second/third) impressions; however, something we’ve been noticing is some confusion on who-did-what-where between Patapon and LocoRoco. Below are some quick points that will hopefully clear this up:
– The development team for Patapon is called Pyramid, but is being produced by Japan Studios, the same studio that developed and produced LocoRoco
– Kenmei Adachi composed and directed the game’s score as well as its sound design. He was also the music composer on LocoRoco.
– Patapon’s game director is Hiroyuki Kotani who wasn’t on LocoRoco, but did the popular Devil Dice back on PS. (The creator of LocoRoco is Tsutomo Kouno.)
– ROLITO is the artistic director and has a line of sweet vinyl toys
As you can see, we’ve had some people working on both teams… and there’s been plenty of name dropping these past few days… so it’s only fair to give credit where credit is due.
That about wraps up today’s post… from everyone here at Pon-SCEA… Happy Holidays-pon! See you all next year!
Heyyy… bringing life to the PSP… thats good… my nieces will love this game and maybe me hehe… I like locoroco and maybe I will like this… bring it on…
Damn, looks fun
haha. gotta love crazy japanese games.
Cool game,and happy holidays to you too!
Insane. Hope I get that PSP for Christmas now so I can try it.
ahhh u guys r Insane, but I LOVE IT, can;t wait to pick this up getting a Daxter Psp for christmas :D
game looks great. Nice art direction.
Make a version for PS3 PSN PLEASE! :P
Awesome style.
I will own this game as soon as it comes out, and if your are a fan of innovative games, I suggest you all check it out some more.
Thank you for the update Chris, please bring us more info as soon as you can (a demo on the PS Store would be amazing too :) )
Merry-Pon to you!
awesome. Patapon will be an awesome game for me. I love music! So this will be great.
Will you guys put out a Demo of this game to try out? ;3
Pata, Pata, Pata-Pon!
Pata, Pata, Pata-Pon!
Any thoughts on bring this to the PSN as well? That would be cool.
we NEED a demo of this just like locoroco had like 5 demos so we need 5 patapon demos!!!!!!!!!! happy holidays to all!
when is it coming to us???
lol I like it.
Devil Dice was (and still is) awesome.
Awesome! Love the Patapon – convinced two people to buy psp’s just for this game.
Do you guys think you could get a service where our PSN account could come with 1 gb of storage so we could backup PS3/PSP saves. Magnetic storage being what it is, and I having just ended up with a corrupted 60 gb, it seems like it might be a nice way to distinguish your service from someone else’s (ahem) – y’know, by adding features they don’t have.
do you think we can get a demo of this please.
happy holidays
Please release a demo. Loco Roco had a great demo and Patapon could use a demo to get people talking about the game.
I got the demo and the game is a blast! It is so unique, everyone I showed the game to today thought it was awesome…The only problem is that I am stuck on a level and don’t know how to get past wherever I am at! Get this game out so I can read some instructions or something!
Awesome-pon. I cannot wait to get my hands on this title!!!
That’s awesome, I’ll be getting this for sure, I’m a big fan of the LocoRoco for PSP, not so much with the PSN one though.
cmack98…where did you get it?? is it on the Japan store cause i dont see it anywhere??????
Haha… this is awesome.
Pon Pon Pata Pon >_<
My Personal PSP goty, sorry FFCC, GoW:CoO.
Can I buy it now, please?
Can we expect a demo before the game is released in February?
Awesome. Love it. Now can we get this for the PSN?
Can someone please post where the demo is available!! please Cmack98 can you say where you got it please man…
ha ha , seriously, would love a demo, and i think i’m already getting the addictive soundtrack stuck in my head, i think loco roco can play in my head too. wait. dumbam churi da otra ba, dam dam chura da otre bu, dum dum churi da urta da re ra de um, dum dum por te. ha ha, if you get me a demo, i promise to buy the game? also, don’t make it an only PSP PC release demo, if you do, it’ll piss me off and i won’t buy the game. SUPPORT MAC.
crazypenguin lets chill, you play team fortress 2? hit me up…. DankandSticky
I’m really looking forward to this game. Such a unique and refreshing concept for a 2D game. It’s nice to see PSP hitting its strides. It needs more original, innovative games like this. Keep em coming. :)
Girlfriend is playing Locoroco right now…I’m prepping her for Patapon :D
I think I will buy this since it looks a lot more fun then the Loco Roco demos were, though I have been meaning to get that too…
I know im gonna try this out.Like Korlithiel said it does look more fun the Loco Roco so im cant wait.
no demo yet… any body?