Even with as much of a Nintendo fanboy as I’ve been pretty well all my life, I did periodically attempt to give other systems a chance. In particular, I owned both a Sony PSP and Vita, partially because I had a mean addiction to LUMINES, but also because they tended to have some weird titles on them that were smaller and more unusual in nature than you’d normally see on the full-blown consoles. One such title was absolutely the original Patapon, which was then eventually followed by the superior Patapon 2, which managed to leverage what worked with the original, while adding some needed variety and depth to the mix. Now with them available on the Switch, I was eager to see whether they’d managed to still feel fresh and relevant so many years later.

While others may well disagree, for myself I’m happy to say my answer is a firm ‘Yes’! First, even with as many rhythm games as I’ve played over the years, there’s really nothing else that has ever quite played the same way. In many regards it’s pretty simple, you’ll need to be on the beat while repeating one of the 4-button patterns that you’ll use to control your warriors. It isn’t just important that you pick the proper commands in the proper situations, you’ll also want to try to consistently stay with the beat since that will put your troops into a Fever mode where they’ll be much more effective in battle. Whether it’s sending them out hunting for food, taking down bigger creatures, or tackling enemy units, you’ll need to continue to build up your troops to improve their odds of survival in increasingly-difficult battles and challenges. Granted, sometimes the best plan is to simply do some grinding, but in general that’s not so unusual for this type of strategy game.

While I’d absolutely say that the sequel’s continuing to flesh out the base established by the original, providing for much more unit customization and including greater mission variety, was a big step forward, both games do suffer a bit from similar issues. The first is that considering the game is a mix of strategy and rhythm, I wish the game didn’t feel so determined to throw you off at times. You can absolutely keep your focus on the established beat, maintaining your Fever runs, but the game definitely tries its best with conflicting sounds that actively try to throw you off. I don’t know, that tactic feels a little on the cheap side rather than potentially giving you tougher patterns to consider in a risk-reward kind of scenario, raising the difficulty, but leaving it to the player to think over. The second is that while some grinding is fine, and it’s pretty common in gaming, especially in the original there were a few spots where it felt more forced in a negative way, also helping the sequel generally feel like the better of the two games. Regardless, if you’re a fan of music and rhythm games, especially when they’re more on the quirky side, even if you’ve never checked out Patapon before, I’d encourage you to give it a whirl since it’s absolutely quite unique in the space.