On the eve of holiday break…and the launch of Patapon in Japan, we here at Patapon Central (aka Pon-SCEA) have been very excited over a few little Pata-tidbits that are currently circulating in the media, both locally and overseas.
First, great Pata-News came to me from Japan: Famitsu, one of Japan’s leading gaming publications, has awarded Patapon a Platinum Review award. Needless to say, we were all very elated to hear such great news! If you happen to see ROLITO-pon or Kotani-pon around town (if you’re reading this from France or Japan)… please make sure to congratulate them or you could always post your greetings below :-)
Second Pata-News item: Live from MTV! We’ll, not really live… but close enough — seems like Stephen Totilo’s just received the holiday cards we sent out and he posted the cover… which I think makes for a perfect screensaver… but beyond that, his notes on first-impressions were, on a personal level, very cool. I’ve been a long time fan of Rez (both song AND game) and Everyday Shooter has quickly become one of my all time favorites… so to be put in the same category as those two titles is a great honor in my book. Stephen also posts about the importance of music in portable gaming (and gaming in general) and the reluctance of some players to partake in the soundtrack… but I’m a big music fan, so it might just be me; however, I know that every team puts a lot of thought and effort into the sound design of their titles and some games rely heavily on music to help the player progress through each level – much like Patapon.
In Patapon, listening to the music is the only way you’ll be able to advance through every mission. Your Patapon squad will interact with you in a holla-back fashion: you beat your drums to a particular rhythm and your Patapon squad will chant your beat as they perform your command. If you’ve seen Japan’s ad for Patapon… this will illustrate exactly how the music works: first you beat the Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon rhythm and the Patapons will march and chant to the beat. Here’s another video to see these mechanics in action.
Third Pata-News (while we are on the subject of Kotani-pon and ROLITO-pon): Our PR team just wrapped up a holiday tour and you’ll start seeing first (or second/third) impressions; however, something we’ve been noticing is some confusion on who-did-what-where between Patapon and LocoRoco. Below are some quick points that will hopefully clear this up:
– The development team for Patapon is called Pyramid, but is being produced by Japan Studios, the same studio that developed and produced LocoRoco
– Kenmei Adachi composed and directed the game’s score as well as its sound design. He was also the music composer on LocoRoco.
– Patapon’s game director is Hiroyuki Kotani who wasn’t on LocoRoco, but did the popular Devil Dice back on PS. (The creator of LocoRoco is Tsutomo Kouno.)
– ROLITO is the artistic director and has a line of sweet vinyl toys
As you can see, we’ve had some people working on both teams… and there’s been plenty of name dropping these past few days… so it’s only fair to give credit where credit is due.
That about wraps up today’s post… from everyone here at Pon-SCEA… Happy Holidays-pon! See you all next year!
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