The first mission is a hunting mission which is also a great way to collect items you’ll need to fortify your army. Although some may say this is a fun way to discover new items, it’s annoying to play the same missions over and over again. Also, there’s no ‘boss’ meter, so while you’re trying to defeat some of these guys and you’ll see the number of damage you caused, it really doesn’t mean anything because you have no idea what your opponent’s strength is. What’s the point of seeing all these “damage” numbers?

The levels themselves are fun when you’re not trying to figure out how many more attacks will you need to finish someone off. The chanting by the patapons is really something that will stick in your head as well as anyone else who’s listening to the game (even though they may not be playing or watching you play). The RPG elements add a nice strategy tactic and no matter how frustrated it is to play and replay a mission, it’s easy to keep going back because it is addictive.

The game’s retail price is only $19.99 and the demo is absolutely positively worth playing, as you can bring your save game from the demo over to the full game (as well as getting a weapon you can only obtain from the demo). It’s a straight single player game – having even an ad-hoc army to army option might have been interesting but hey, it’s a $20 game.

Patapon is a bargain for the price. It’s a fun game that combines many genres into one package and is a great reason to dust off the PSP and start playing again – just make sure you have headphones.