I was one of the first people to adopt the Sony PSP as my primary handheld. I remember hitting the local Meijer in the middle of March at midnight to snag one. The PSP performed well in its time, and there are some great games for it. One of the best was Patapon, a strategy/rhythm game that has you controlling a tribe of miniature creatures as they march for victory and land.
Lliam Ahearn at GameCloud writes: "Patapon is an excellent idea executed badly. The focus on grinding fails to create a rewarding sense of progression when it boils down to entering the same basic patterns over and over. Throw in some more commands to use in more dynamic ways and speed things up, and you’d have a fantastic game. Short of that, Patapon is a laborious grind only held up by its charming, contrasting aesthetic."
Mikhail Madnani: "Patapon Remastered is let down by an input lag issue and some low resolution assets ruining an otherwise fantastic game."
I never beat the first game in the Patapon series, and it and both its sequels are still in my backlog, all on UMDs I might add. I might dust off my PSP and try to marathon them. I won't buy this remaster though. I'm glad such an underrated classic is now available on the PS4 as otherwise it probably would have been forgotten by all but a select few. However, there are no new features, and it's only the first game. A collection might have made more sense, but I guess getting a remaster of one game is better than nothing.
A joyous celebration of a fine classic, Patapon Remastered deserves your time and nostalgia.
