Greetings Pata-peoples. It’s Friday and as you all prepare for a well deserved weekend, here is another dose of Pata-goodness to share. On Wednesday we covered Multiplayer Hotness and how you can now battle to the beat with your friends. Now, as promised, we are going to profile the “new recruits” of the Patapon army.
One of the most appealing factors about the first Patapon was building your army up out of nothingness into an unstoppable fighting force. Picking the right soldiers for battle, setting them up with all the right weapons and equipment, and evolving them to make them stronger was key to victory. This hasn’t changed in Patapon 2, but this time players will get a revamped evolution system and some new Pata-faces…presenting:
THE PATA-NEW SCHOOL!
Air support anyone? (Toripon)
If you remember the original concept art of Patapon 1 you’ll remember the Toripon. These bird-riders didn’t make the original cut, but now you can finally bring death from above as they administer surgical strikes upon your enemies.
Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto! (Robopon)
Armed with robotic enhancements, these troops can pummel their way through enemies and barricades and when you get them all fevered up, they can fling boulders their way too!
Do you believe in Magic? (Mahopons)
Mages, Magicians, Wizards…whatever you call’em these sharp dressers have the ability to heal your troops, throw fire balls, icicles, and can even bring the thunder faster than you can say Abracadabra.
Of course the original troops of your army return, ready to dispense the pain on your command.
THE PATA-OLD SCHOOL
Hatapon– your faithful Banner-bearer and keeper of the Mighty Drums
Yaripon– There are no better hunters in your crew than these masters of the spear.
Yumipon– Bringing the longbow action, these dudes are as bad-ass as Legolas, but better (because they have no relation to Orlando Bloom).
Tatepon– Your first line of defense and attack, no one has swung a sword and held a shield as well as these guys since the Govenator back in the day.
Kibapon– Lance in hand and their mighty steeds set to charge, they’ll knock back to the curb.
Megapon– If you want a real sonic boom, be sure these special troops toot their horns.
Dekapon– The bruisers of your crew, these big fellas may not be fast, but they sure know how to club.
Combine these troops with a little strategy and a whole lot of mighty beats from your war drum, and the Pata-pain will fall like the rain.
Next Pata-post – The New Evolution System! Great weekend to all!
Announce Patapon for the PS3 at E3 and I will be happy
I want this on the PS3.
Please will the PSP2 have dual analogue? I don’t have a PSP because I’m waiting for the dual analogue and HD screen to come!
Can’t wait to pick this up.
Oh, wait. You can’t…
lmfao at the Govenator! this game looks real sweet
Sorry for going of topic, but the Yahoo PS Blog Widget needs fixing.
Looks good. I really don’t like the fact that it’s d/l only and no UMD. Not sure if I’ll get it just for that reason. If I get tired of it then what? Can’t trade it in, I couldn’t even give it away to a friend. BS Sony!
From the title, for a moment, I thought this was announcing some bizarre crossover gameplay between Patapon and Pain O_O
Awesome. I’ll feel better when the original Patapon is on the PlayStation Store too!
And try not to pay attention to those babies who don’t have faith in Sony’s servers! They’re not run by some lonely guy in his basement, right? This is SONY we’re talking about!
CHRIS???
Will I be able to download it directly from my Computer on to my PSP with the PSP Media Manager without using my PS3. Even though I can’t get it for my nephew, I am interested! My PS3 is FULL, so I would need to download it directly to my PSP from my computer via the PSS and the media manager?
THANKS
psn:frostquake
Off topic post but any idea when the Euro Blog launches?
Any specific date other than “Summer 2009”
Boy oh boy I’m all Pata-pumped up for this. Loved the demo and cannot wait to get my little troops out again.
Please oh please give us a PS3 Patapon Theme too. I feel like I waited for ever for the PSP Theme and now I want the same goodness on my PS3. Of course but with the full bells and whistles to match. Just look at the Loco Roco 2 Themes and think along those lines. PLEASE!
can you answer this question?
How big of a download will it be from the PSN?
“One of the most appealing factors about the first Patapon was building your army up out of nothingness into an unstoppable fighting force”
Another of the most appealing factors was that it was on PHYSICAL MEDIA.
No disc, no sale.
Time to repeat my Pata-displeasure with SCEA’s horrible Digital distribution stratagy for the PSP.
Why are you rigging this “test” to fail? You know full well you are losing customers who dont have the internet access or memory stick space needed.
I’m going to make a prediction: Patapon 2 sales dissapoint and Sony uses it as an excuse to continue to drag its heels when it comes to Digital distribution and the PSP.
The PS3 has had 3 games released on both Disk and Download at the same time. How can a company so forward thinking when it comes to Downloadable content on its home console be so reluctant to do it with its portable system?
Anyone with half a brain can see that doing Download and UMD at the same time is the best stratagy for the PSP right now. SCEE figured this out, So did SCEJ, Why cant you SCEA?
Concur with #15, but on the same token I don’t have any of Sony’s figures to show me either way.
On another note. C’mon Sony, put the original Patapon on the Store already. I’d have purchased it already if it was on the store. Until then, no purchase.
Chalk another one up for a no disk no sale.
@15 – completely agree.
They are either willfully ignorant, or just out to deliberately make customers angry.
*CHOICE* is *always* the best option.
If this fails they’d better not blame it on pirating…
I canceled my pre-order the day I heard it was going digital-only. What a scam!
Great post, Chris! I’m really excited about the new patapon units. I’m really looking forward to using Mahopons. Their healing is going to be really useful for the tougher battles. It’s going to be really hard to figure out what my standard army is going to consist of as far as Patapon units go. Hmmmm, maybe Tatepons in the front, Robopons in the middle to throw boulders and I’ll alternate between Yumipons and Mahopons in the back.
Also, enough with all the “Bring it to PS3” and “No UMD, No Buy” comments already. It stopped being assertively giving your opinion and started being just plain spam about one pata-post ago.
PON PON PATA WHAT??
I’m sorry I couldn’t hear the rhythm because the Patapon army refused to march in my empty UMD case.
Wow, I’m amazed by the vehemence of the anti-digital distribution sentiment; for me, I really enjoy having the option of carrying lots of games on my memory stick.
@14 By the way, I’m pretty sure that not one single person saw Patapon and said to themselves “Wow! A game on UMD??? I’ve *got* to get that!” :P
I’m glad it’s going digital. Having my psp and being able to play Patapon 2 without having to go and grab the disk will be great.
Of course I’m a complete sucker for this. I’ve bought games I’ve already owned on UMD just for the convience. And I’m on the RLS, so some of these games I couldve gotten the umd for free.
Patapon 2! will there be a demo?
@xaos
We’re not anti digital distrubution, we’re pro choice. SCEA doesn’t give us the choice.
@krae_man, does that mean you also resent the release of UMD-only games?
Yeah! Consider the idea of making a Ps3 Patapon pleaaaaase! Like Loco roco did
Maybe, just maybe a PSN Patapon release. But I’m not crazy for it, I’d rather let it stay on the PSP where it belongs.
BTW, I much prefer Patapon 2 on digital over UMD. So what if it takes up space on the Memory Stick? It still loads up faster than on the UMD, which is honestly a nuisance. I thought you complainers hated the UMD for that reason.
PS3 – Only if it’s on Blu-Ray as well as DLC.
PSP – Only if it’s on UMD as well as DLC.
No disc is a slap in the face to customers and I really hope people continue to express their displeasure with this move until Sony finally wakes up and realises they’re going to lose a lot of sales with this UMD-less move.
Not a lot of people really bought the UMD for the first Patapon. It was a light success no doubt, just not a huge one. Making it digital would reduce the costs for manufacturing the game as though it would sell hundreds of thousands, when it probably won’t.
@ Chris Hinojosa-Miranda or Jeff Rubenstein
Hola!
Could you let the PlayStation Network Team know that we want Patapons Avatars?
It’s been a while since we haven’t get any.
(Sorry for going off-topic)
Jeff, when are going to hear or read anything on the upcoming PSP LittleBigPlanet title?
@31
But going digital only is certainly not going to increase sales, as the reaction to the news has shown.
Sony IS in the wrong in this situation, and they need to remedy it, or they’re going to face Patapon2 bombing in sales.
I know this is totally unrelated, but MP in Uncharted 2?!?!?! WTF!!! Some games don’t need any MP Sony!
Chris…
Another week has passed, yet we’ve still not received the simple courtesy of a response to the many UMD-related queries directed towards you over the last few “Pata-Post” blogs.
I would also like to apologize to those who consider pro-UMD posts spam, ridiculous, inappropriate or otherwise irrelevant. If you are so irritated by such postings, kindly skip over ’em.
Digital DLs and UMDs both have their pros and cons, but the issue at hand here is CHOICE.
Sony has an obligation to shareholders to make a profit, so it makes no sense to blatantly ignore a large segment of their sale base. It should have been obvious to SCEA that the proper distribution strategy for the PSP at this time are simultaneous UMD + Digital DL releases — a release strategy that SCEI/SCEJ, SCEE and SCE Asia employed and is enjoying success with.
Approx. half the recent “Pata-Post” comments were from gamers requesting a UMD edition. These gamers represent only a tiny fraction of the ~14 million PSP owners in the North America region. If only 1% of NA PSP owners purchased PATAPON 2 on UMD, those 140,000 copies would represent gross sales of $2.8 MILLION (@ $19.95)… or $3.5 MILLION (@ $24.95). The math speaks for itself.
@xaos
Yes,
I wanted to download Locoroco 2 instead of UMD, and I imported the UK version in protest of SCEA’s decision to only do UMD now and “maybe” toss it up on PSN 6 months from now as an afterthought like they have done with the rest of the “UMD legacy”.
SCEA’s Digital Distribution Stratagy for the PSP has been nothing short of a total Failure.
To date the PS3 has had 85 downloadable games released for it in North America, 5 disk games(Three of them day and date UMD and Download Two added later).
Now lets look at the PSP. 31 UMD games have been put up on PSN as a download well after they were released on UMD as an afterthought. You know how many Download only games the PSP has in North America? 11, and 4 of them are ports of PS3 PSN games. And ZERO, yes ZERO games have been release on Both UMD and a download at the same time.
How can a Company be so forward thinking when it comes to downloadable content on its home console be so backwards thinking when it comes to its portable system? A system that stands to benefit most from digital distribution.
I think SCEA is setting Patapon 2 up to fail to justify continuing to drag their heels when it comes to digital distribution and the PSP.
Anyone with half a brain can figure out that Releasing UMD and download at the same time is the best Stratagy for the PSP right now. SCEE and SCEJ figured this out and are doing just that right now.
For crying out loud SCEA, Start putting out PSN games for the PSP on a regular basis and Release ALL your retail games as both UMD and a download and track the sales ratio like you’ve been doing with Warhawk etc.
How hard is this to figure out? Piracy is only partly to blame for the PSP’s low software sales. Quit using it as a scapegoat for your own horrible decisions.
Game is still sounding good, too bad I wont be getting it due to the digital jump. I’m going to be waiting to buy any further PSP games until they announce what is going on with the PSP2. There’s no way I’m buying more memory sticks to put things on right now, and I’m thinking we will be given the choice to buy PSP1 games again digitally on the new system hopefully with a hardrive. I’ve got plenty of other games to keep me busy while I wait to see how this plays out.
@35
You are exactly right.
The fact that Chris can’t even be bothered to post a simple response speaks volume for the contempt that he and Sony have for gamers.
Put this on the PS3 please. I have lost interest in my PSP really since there hasnt been too many great games for it. I would love to see this on the PS3. I loved the first on.
I need some Cha-ching before I can wrap my hands around a copy.
Chris Hinojosa-Miranda // Associate Producer, SCEA
HELLO…..HELLO…Chris you are being VERY RUDE by not making ONE SINGLE Comment about very important questions that people are posting and asking???? Are you hoping it just goes away??? Are you under a GAG order??? Not One Reply…Your RUDENESS has put me off this game UMD or Download…What is wrong with you?? Ignoring all these weeks of questions????
psn:frostquake
Hello, i’m french, if you want a UMD for Patapon 2, just buy it in the net, use the import, try the UK site like play.com, amazon UK etc…In europe, we have the choice UMD or PSN…
Will the original Patapon become available via PSN download as well? I’m unable to track down a UMD copy here in Australia.
cheers
When I finally get a PSP this summer, I’ll pick this one up.
Wow, I read through all the comments again just to see if there was a single reply and no, no there wasn’t.
I prefer digital downloads on my handheld and disc based on my PS3. But CHOICE is the biggest issue here.
Also whats SCEA’s excuse for not releasing the first Patapon on PSN yet? Seriously. Sony is possibly the only company I know of that has consumers who WANT to spend money but won’t give them the opportunity through choice.
Amazing.
Bring this to ps3, and you will all become millionaires!
Kudos to krae_man!
I have to agree with ExPresident on that issue. Choice is the most valuable thing to consumers. I’m glad to see a digital release of this title, but the box in the stores should maintain discs until the next generation is out. Because of the costs of UMD production, it is cheaper to do it this way, but you could cut costs even MORE, if you take the UMD case out of the equation all together. But all this is kind of a test, and I respect that. Thanks to my hefty internet connection and my PSP, I can handle the download, but I may have to invest in a bigger memory stick. Bah.