Patapon was one of the PSP’s most beloved series. It’s been fourteen years since the last new release in the series, and fans had been clamoring for it to get a new entry all the while. Thus, in 2023, the original designer and composer teamed up to launch a Kickstarter for a spiritual successor to the franchise with Ratatan.  At Summer Games Fest, we got to go hands-on with the game. Boy, did it feel like being teleported back to the mid 2000s and playing with my PSP again.

For those unaware, Ratatan is a rhythm roguelike game where you musically lead an army of little creatures through rhymic combat as you clear areas.  You lead your army as one of the many musically talented adventurers, I chose the cool pig guy Buttonda, and must hit buttons in rhythm with the music to have your army do different things such as form up on your location, attack and perform skills on the enemy, or guard against incoming attacks. This game will work great for handheld players, as there is so much UI things you must pay attention to and keep track of in combat, that a smaller screen will keep that in check. Outside of combat, you explore a little town where you can upgrade your units and accept side quests from my short time there.

The best thing about the game is the visual style and music. The art is a great evolution of the art from the original series with everything being so bright and vibrant and the characters all having personality just from their style. Then, any good rhythm game has to have good music as you’ll be listening to it for hours on end, Ratatan succeeds on that front easily as I was sitting there bouncing along with the music to stay on beat with the rhythm, and had it stuck in my head the entire rest of my day.

Ratatan enters Early Access next month on July 25, 2025 which now has it directly competing with Patapon being brought back as well early next month with a new collection.