Patapon 1+2 Replay review – march to the beat of your own drum

Despite my self-proclaimed affinity for rhythm games, until very recently, I had never played Patapon before. This is potentially because the 2007 title was native to the PSP, which was my dad’s, but thanks to Bandai Namco’s Patapon 1+2 Replay release, I’ve finally managed to experience this piece of weird rhythm game history.

The Patapon series, which popped onto my radar after the original team announced Ratatan, an upcoming Switch game that acts as a spiritual successor to Patapon, follows a tribe of funky, one-eyed creatures who look a bit like the cast of World of Goo. As their Mighty Leader, you command their forces to advance, attack, hunt, and more through the power of rhythmic drumming. This is immediately very different from most of the rhythm games that I’ve played in the past, which simply get you to play along to various songs for the fun of performing and hitting that sweet, sweet full combo.

Patapon 1+2 Replay, as the name suggests, combines the first two games in the series into one neat remaster package, complete with a swathe of quality-of-life changes that didn’t make the cut in 2017’s ports for the PS4. Although the art style is quite simplistic, it looks fantastic on my Nintendo Switch 2, especially thanks to its bold colors, and I haven’t encountered any performance issues during my long handheld and docked play sessions.

Usually, I’m not a fan of war games, or any games where I’m taking control of an occupying or aggressive force. It’s not super clear in Patapon and its sequel whether the Patapons are oppressed or simply power hungry, so I tried not to think about it too much. There are also some language and design choices, such as the word ‘juju’, that I don’t think have aged particularly well, but they don’t detract from the game as a whole.

I’ve seen other reviewers of the original titles and the remaster say that Patapon is perfect for short play sessions, and I definitely agree. The gameplay is engaging, and during the course of a level, you really get into a groove, but if you play too many stages back-to-back, you start to realize how grindy the experience is. I think Patapon 2 improves on this feeling a little bit, especially as you can link your save data from the first game to make getting through the initial tutorial stages a lot faster. I also found Patapon 2’s signposting to be a lot clearer, leading to a lot less time wasting while I figured out what the game wanted me to do to progress.

In a similar way to Pikmin, Patapon 1+2 Replay really makes you care about your army of tiny eyeballs. Seeing them fall in battle (even though I knew I could revive them) or run around screaming because they caught on fire genuinely makes me want to perform better in the levels. The quality-of-life upgrades feel very seamless, too, to the point where I found out after playing that they weren’t present in the original games. If I were playing Patapon in 2007, there’s no way I could memorize the various button combos for the different commands, so the mini menu is a godsend for me.

Patapon 1+2 Replay is incredibly well suited to the Nintendo Switch, which makes sense as a PSP title, and I can see myself playing a couple of levels here and there in bed or on train journeys in the future. My only concern with playing in handheld mode is that I could feel my hand cramping after an hour or so, and I’m writing this review with residual joint pain in my right hand from pon-pon-pata-pon-ing for too long last night. That’s probably another reason why people recommend playing in short bursts! I should listen to that advice, but even though I was initially hesitant about this game, it has an incredibly satisfying and addictive gameplay loop.

Overall, Patapon 1+2 Replay is a weird but wonderful rhythm game that I’d highly recommend for veteran fans and newcomers alike. Considering that the bundle of two games, plus all of its additional quality-of-life changes, only costs $30, it’s a great deal that’ll provide hours of fun.

For more awesome handheld experiences, make sure to check out our lists of the best mobile games and best Switch games, as well as the new mobile games to keep an eye on.