Released at the height of the rhythm-action boom and following the march of peripheral-based music games, Patapon was a visually unique treat. The result of a collaboration between game designer Hiroyuki Kotani and French artist Rolito Giuli, this curio had you control a tribe of tiny eyeball creatures by tapping out rhythms on face buttons.
The original game and its sequel received a Switch release last year, and it was a perfect fit for the console, given the series’ roots on Sony’s beloved PSP. Now Kotani returns with Ratatan, a crowdfunded spiritual successor that ramps up the madness and adds a roguelite spin.
For anyone unfamiliar with “patas” or “pons,” this game will feel like that rare thing in this day and age: something distinctly new. It’s a vibrant, bonkers blend of rhythm-action and strategy in which you control an army of weapon-wielding critters by matching a beat with specific button combos.
The game’s pied pipers are Ratatan, adventurers who journey across the island of Rataport on a pilgrimage to the Everafter. These music-loving animals (including a bunny with a guitar) keep trying to cross treacherous lands in the hopes of meeting a mysterious goddess. To fulfil their purpose, they must defeat wave after wave of hostile tribes, pirate captains, and gigantic monsters.
They don’t fight alone, enlisting the help of small creatures called Cobun. Attacking, retreating, unleashing special moves, and jumping out of the way are all commands chanted to your little buddies. As you control the Ratatan, you’ll need to stay on rhythm, because a missed beat will result in an idle offence.
The fact that the overarching narrative is simple is a boon, because good luck trying to keep up with it alongside the sensory assault that is Ratatan. This game is an explosion of colour and sound, where the biggest challenge is finding a visual anchor in the chaos of battle. Sometimes I completely forgot that one of your guides is a sentient pirate ship that floats alongside you in levels.
You can freely move your Ratatan across side-scrolling stages, though they only have the ability to jump and can’t attack. You need to position them correctly near enemies so that when you call over your Cobun, they are in range to attack once you play the tune of battle.
The button combos needed to control the Cobun aren’t complicated by any stretch, but you’ll need keen hand-eye coordination to keep your Ratatan alive while making sure their army is where it needs to be. There’s also a fever meter that rewards consecutive precision with fanfare and boosted attack power.
The core concept is just as fun as it was in Patapon, though that series felt much less chaotic than the cartoonish melees you’ll face here. It’s easy to feel bad for your little companions, because some of the harder battles will require you to keep a safe distance and hurl them into certain death. Luckily, there’s a roguelite twist to the formula that offers the potential for powerful runs in which your death squad can unleash devastating damage and effective debuffs.
Levels are separated by gateways and each arena offers a choice of prize for the next gate: health top-ups, trinket store pit stops or Ratakarutas, cards that add modifiers to your run. Gambling on a mysterious enemy in the hopes of obtaining a buff to see you through the next boss fight makes for a compulsive loop. There are some unlucky rolls that blight a run and either kill you off early or make you want to quit and start again.
Outside of battle, you can equip upgrades for your Cobun’s arsenal (each Ratatan can control a different combination of Cobun) and add quality-of-life additions to a run. As we’ve learned from Hades, these repeated loops work much better when there is a consistent reward waiting in the hub after death. Ratatan largely delivers this, though it lacks the narrative depth of the aforementioned genre classic and stops showing you new things after a while.
Thankfully, the addictive nature of the core gameplay keeps pulling you in. The chaos can be multiplied with four-player online co-op, though I couldn’t find any other Ratatan players to jam with prior to launch, and local co-op is sadly not included.
That pick-up-and-play appeal works perfectly on Switch 2. Ratatan might be the first Switch game I’ve ever started in handheld mode, such is my love for its spiritual predecessor. The side-scrolling levels and simple control mappings make it a comfortable fit on the smaller screen. Those garish visuals pop on handheld as well, with big chunky characters and lots of colourful explosions that have been flawlessly performant on Nintendo’s machine.
It’s just as much of an audio-visual treat when docked, though the screen can get overwhelmingly busy at times. Kemmei Adachi and Sadaki Naoe’s compositions deserve to be pumped through big speakers.
Ratatan is a welcome injection of weird into the Switch 2 roster. Hiroyuki Kotani builds on the legacy of Patapon with an addictive musical strategy title that will have “Rata” and “Un-Taka” rattling around your brain long after you walk away from your console.
It will please fans of the developer’s previous rhythm-action strategy, while offering something fresh and challenging for newcomers. It’s a bit light and can feel too chaotic at times, but it’s easily one of the most unique titles on Switch 2.
