Patapon 3 Preview

Let's get this out of the way up front: it looks like I've been wasting my life. I'm nearing the 75-hour mark in my Patapon 2 save, and it looks like that data won't carry over to Patapon 3. I started a new game and Patapon 3 didn't ask me if I had played before and if it could load my old save like the game did in Patapon 2.

Luckily, the game is packed with awesomeness, so I really don't care.

We're going to need a bigger spear.

If you've never seen a Patapon title before, you're missing a franchise that won PSP Game of the Year back to back. You use the PSP face buttons to pound out four-beat songs that make your one-eyed troops march, attack, jump and party. You take the archers, spear throwers and more up against massive monsters, collect loot, and evolve your team.

Patapon 3 keeps all of that. Kind of. When I started a new game, I needed to choose what type of hero I would be. That's right; what type of hero I would be. Previous Patapons have cast you as the army's God, but this game looks like it's casting you as one character. Yeah, you still have a squad with you, but you choose this one masked hero who will be taller than normal Patapons, but you're the one beating the drum. You're not some slick omnipresence.

This is definitely a change, but it makes sense because of the way Patapon is setup; this game is meant to be played with your friends. You can play by yourself if you like, but the game totally encourages you to get together with players. When you go to set out on a mission, it'll ask you if you want to have other people join you and if you want to do it locally via ad-hoc or connect to the Internet and play via Infrastructure. There's even a competitive mode that allows for four-on-four battles.

Yay, online play!

Look at all the loots!

The story here is a bit different than what we've seen before, too. Rather than trying to get to Earthend, this time the game opens with the tribe turned to stone and in front of a massive treasure chest. It seems the Patapons finished the bridge they began working on at the end of the game, opened this chest, and unleashed seven evil spirits. After picking my hero, I spent the first level reviving the team via my drums.

I've put a ton of time into Patapon over the years, and I'm prepared to do it all over again this fall with Patapon 3. This one has more than 80 missions that range from hunting to escort and more than 20 new bosses. It also has my full attention, so keep checking IGN for more news on it.