Ratatan, Colorful Spiritual Successor to Patapon, Launched on Kickstarter - Hardcore Gamer

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Sony’s Japan Studio was a long-running developer that developed other developers.  Rather than a development studio in a traditional sense, it worked with smaller studios to bring games to whatever consoles Sony had available at the time.  It oversaw titles as diverse as Ape Escape and Elemental Gearbolt on the PS1, Ico and Flipnic on PS2, Afrika and Demon’s Souls on PS3, etc.  Basically it was all over the place, and while not everything it oversaw was a smash hit at the very least games with the Studio Japan logo were almost always interesting.  One of the series under its banner was Patapon, which covered three games between 2008 and 2011 on the PSP plus saw the first two games remastered for the PS4.

Patapon was a 2D side-view rhythm RTS with a silhouette art style, where you built up a battalion of patapon with different combat roles and gave them instructions by tapping to the militaristic beat.  Each of the face buttons corresponded to a word, and new commands were introduced slowly enough that learning the battle language was a relatively gentle process.  Keep to the beat and the patapon would enter fever mode, with the music ramping up in intensity to match the army’s extra power.  There was nothing else quite like Patapon, and in the years since the third and final game that hasn’t changed.

While Patapon may be over, Ratatan was initially teased back in mid-July with a gameplay trailer released on Friday in anticipation of the Kickstarter going live today.  Ratatan basically is Patapon, except ditching the silhouettes for a colorful cartoon style and being released initially on PC.  It’s a complete retooling of the idea that will be instantly familiar to series fans while also adding new details to expand its