Patapon Tattoo Marches to its Own Beat

Check out Masatomo Ueda's new Patapon tattoo! How cute ... they're marching on his chest.

[Via Wonderland Blog]

Is this Heaven or Hell? Either Way, Kratos is Here.

This week has been very weird for me as a blogger. Tuesday was wicked awesome as I finally got the last two gaming units to complete my next generation collection. I finally got a Playstation 3 and PSP, so I now can official play any new game out there on any system. My PC is finally up to snuff to play most of the newest games out on the market (no, not Crysis and no, not Hellgate London), I have both handhelds, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP and I have all three console, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 and Xbox 360.

Plus I got a few new games for my new systems: Patapon, which you can read the review for below, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Hot Shots Golf and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I also got a new Duel Shock 3 controller, because who can live without vibrating controllers nowadays. These were an early birthday present from a friend of mine and he totally rules the gaming world for it.

For the rest of you, my birthday is April 29th and I don't need multiple copies of GTA IV in the mail box that day. Final Fantasy figures will be just fine. :)

Anyways, so that Tuesday and what a wicked day it was. Best of all, I got a paid day off and my dog finally got shaved, so he's in a better mood now.

Wednesday, however was a completely different story. After reading this story on Game|Life about how bloggers are practically killing themselves for their hobbies, I start experiencing these horrible pains in the side of my stomach at 10:00am and at first I think they're muscle pains or something, but they just kept getting worse and worse until I couldn't sit, stand, and just barely lay down.

I managed to get dressed and my bf took me to the hospital. After one angry nurse, a security call threat, one urine test, one blood test, one ultra sound and exactly 8 hours with no food or water, and one major headache, the doctors concluded that either I had a problem A or problem B, neither which they could test for and both would go away in a day or two.

All I can do is eat light and take it easy = videogames and soup.

Somehow karma always get you in the end. One good day always means a really sucky day later down the road. I guess my good day was just too good and I had to pay the ferryman the next day.

Anyone wanting to hook up with me online can find me on the PS Network as CPAIR747.

Review: Patapon

Patapon
SCEA, Interlink
Available now on Sony Playstation Portable

Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon! These words have been stuck in my head for the last few days and all because I decided to pick up the newest rhythm game for the Sony PSP, Patapon. Patapon, a whimsical game created by Interlink, the same studio that created Loco Roco, has bewitched me with its enchanting beats and simple, yet lovely artistic graphics by French artist, Rolito and now I plan to implant those 4 beat counts into your mind, my lovely readers.

Patapon places you in the role of a powerful God that has been chosen to lead the Patapon nation to its former glory. The small tribe has been forced from their homeland by the evil Zigaton army and it’s up to you to help them reclaim it. With the help of 4 special drums, you are able to drum out commands like attack or march to the Patapons during battle using the PSP’s face buttons. Each command must be drummed out to the rhythm of the music playing, and then the Patapons will repeat the beats to you as they carry out the command. Once they finish, you must repeat the command beat or drum out a new command and if you miss a beat, the Patapons will stop.



You can customize your army with different unit types, different equipment and as the game progresses you can even learn miracle beats to create rain storms or other miracles to help your Patapons in battle. You get three different missions types to complete: hunting, battle and boss. Hunting missions can be repeated to gain meat and ka-ching to create more Patapons. Battle missions can be only completed once but must be completed to advance the storyline and for your Patapons to earn new weapons, units, and items. Boss missions can be repeated but the bosses will get harder each time to kill.

Being that Patapon is a rhythm game, expect to be singing the jungle beats in your head for at least a week after finishing the game. The addictive and groovy melodies are truly what make Patapon stand out as a unique and creative music game. The graphics were simplistic with its use of light and shadow and I loved how the bosses were humungous in comparison to the little Patapons, which just made their victories all the more sweet. The designers even made sure that each little Patapon unit was unique and even changed in colour and shape as they advanced. They reminded me of Mike, the eye ball monster from Pixar’s Monster Inc.



I honestly didn’t have one complaint about this game. Patapon is addictive, rewarding and best of all, half the price of normal PSP games, which provides no excuse for gamers not to pick up this great title. Buy Patapon and I promise by the first mission, you’ll be chanting in time with me too. Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon!

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!