PATAPON 1+2 Replay is a release that marks a bygone era. A pair of rhythm games developed by Japan Studio, a defunct PlayStation team, they’re a vital piece of the console developer’s history. Coming from a period when bountiful amounts of weirdness, creativity, and ingenious game design were coming out of not just the developer but across the entire platform, they’re not the kind of titles we really see anymore. Especially since the teams’ closure in 2021. With this collection that sees two games fuse RTS (Real Time-Strategy) combat and rhythm gameplay in joyous harmony, now on additional console platforms, it’s a bittersweet time with the weird and wonderful series that marched to the beat of its own drum.

The PATAPON games were home to the PlayStation Portable and, like many other games on the handheld device, take a small and simple gameplay design and stretch it out for miles to create endless fun. Your hook is simple: situated on a 2D plane, you must command an army of tribal eyeball creatures known as Patapon, travelling across the lands in search of the ‘Earthend.’ Along the way are giant beasts, an enemy tribe and even battles against the harsh environment. Your saving grace and single thing that will see you to victory is the beat of your army’s drums, engaging in rhythm game-esque gameplay to attack, defend and progress through levels.

It was simple and efficient then, and it’s simple and efficient now. Anyone is able to pick up the game and play, but perhaps not master it, for quite some time. The breadth of players being invited in is also bigger than ever, thanks to 1+2 Replay’s unique addition of difficulty options, fine-tuning drum timing and other quality of life offerings.

PATAPON 2 as a whole is just inarguably a stronger, bigger and better game in every way than its predecessor. The first title has its charm in its minimalist roots, but falls short in areas of gameplay diversity and even tutorialisation. PATAPON doesn’t explain itself well when it comes to the minute details of how to specialise army units and level them up. Though you’re still having fun, it’s not until the sequel that you’re truly soaring and understand the franchise’s unique game feel. A big way that this clearer direction is more apparent is due to the clearer levelling system found in PATAPON 2, where players follow crafting trees to evolve and build up and create bulkier and better army units with the resources and currency (known as Ka-ching) they’ve gathered in levels.

Battles in PATAPON 2 also require more thought. New enemy types see enemy forces taking to the skies on birds, which you too can match with similar allied units later on. With more to deal with than ever, including big bouldering bosses that require a lot of aggression to take down, you’re required to strategise better with unit placements. Maybe your spear throwers and archers should be more at the back this time, so they’re not overshooting and missing the shot against that encampment you’re stuck on. Continue to be stuck against a wall? Then you’re going to have to go back and grind out earlier battles and hunts to gather key resources.

While all of this is going on in the sequel, the spectacle of fights is bigger than ever. Arrows are flying all about the screen. Chants, war cries and yells from your adorable eyeball soldiers erupt through the music as you work on taking down waves upon waves of enemies, doing your best to hold onto every unit until their last dying breath. Environments are more varied than their predecessor, rich and bursting in colours such as orange sunsets or bright pinks, evocative of you going to battle in a forest of cherry blossoms. More gimmicky levels and fights see you making use of every mechanic, ability and unit at your disposal in frequent push and pull fights for control across the battlefield. There are hints of this in the first game, such as needing to do a rain chant with a specific drum combination so that it’s safe to cross a fiery desert. PATAPON 2 takes these starter ideas and runs with them.

For all the praises I can sing to PATAPON 1+2 Replay, it doesn’t do away with the small annoyances that’ve always been there. For example, the games can feel a little bloated and long in the teeth. This lengthiness feels artificial too, due to the consistent brick walls that’ll sprout and block your progression, requiring considerable periods of grinding to get that one key item or unit to be able to finally see a fight through. It’s a shame the games are still like this, too; it often can take away from the grandiose, special feeling of taking on a boss fight for the first time. I lost count of the times I was introduced to a level, seeing a giant tunnelling sandworm or hulking dinosaur-like thing, only to inevitably fall to some mechanic I had no warning of or way of mitigating.

PATAPON 1+2 Replay is an interesting beast. It’s good to see PlayStation taking more of its IP to other consoles after its moderate success in doing so last year with LEGO Horizon Adventures. I’m stoked that more players are getting to see some of the company’s kookier and creative side with this release. By the same token, it feels a little too coldly calculated and is a reminder of how overprotective they can be of their properties if all they’re willing to port over to consoles is low-stakes games and a soon-to-be multiplatform multiplayer game that will surely make them a lot of money. Moreover, I just god damn miss Japan Studio and the wonderful stuff they put out over the years. Remember Ape Escape? Gravity Rush? Even Tokyo Jungle? It stings a little that the biggest bone PlayStation has been able to throw us about this era is this fun, if largely unambitious, port. Both PATAPON as a property and Japan Studio deserve more.