Patapon 2: hold your drummers!!!

Review:

This is a little late and a little... little. But as I am not yet an established reviewer of mobile games, I had to wait before I purchased Patapon 2. I have been a commited fan of the title ever since I heard the first rumors about the concept in the gaming grapewines.
Now there is a number two. More drumming more fun - what?

For those of you who lived somewhere without the basic necessities of civilised life, such as a PSP, internet and clean water: this is a game of outrageous hillariousness where you get to play a long lost God, ruling a long lost tribe of one-eyed black little creatures with vaguely humanoid features.
Maybe i didn't sell the concept all that well there. Any way. Patapon 1 was one of the most innovative games comming out for the PSP. Made by the same team which gave us Loco Roco for the PSP and okami for the ps2. Made by the same hands that gave us pocket games, coke and singlehandedly invented the internet. maybe no. But in my oppinion the lead designer Hiroyuki Kotan has a status closely related to Godhood.

Now - there hasn't been a lot of love for the PSP owners and we continually whine about it in high pitched nasal voices. Just like the little creatues you send towards death and glory and the ends of the world. And er... it is just like the first installment of there series. Oh wait a minute - there is Death from above for your enemies in the shape of warrios in birds. You get to upgrad heroes, which is not a bad idea. It was unfortunenately expliotied in a lot of previous titles. But the thought is good - there are a lot of hero-based games out there. WoW, WAR, EVE, GW etc.
I really think that this game is more fun than most other games and it caters for the format of the PSP: something a lot of other games and gamedesigners forget. But mostly I am in love with the idea of a succesfull series for the PSP here in in the western countries. But I still think that Patapon 1 is that game. Go buy it - then come back for more.

/Jacob

Is Little big Planet the Big one for little psp?

In a well-read oppinion over at pocket gamer, Jon Jordan share his view on how the psp should survive. Hop over and read it

I really think that this oppinion by John Jordan, nails it in at least one important and sore spot.

The DIY (do it yourself) bit.

In Johns words" playground that you share with friends, share with the world, mash up, strip down and laugh about. Just like PSP is sort of a games console".

There is a lively underground homebrew audience for the little handheld from Sony - not that I encourage illegal activities... but the path to the gamers and multimedia-consumers-of-our-times' hearts is through a sense of participation.
Even the little subpar (in terms of hardware) handheld from Apple has features that a least SEEM to cater for this type of audience. I am refering to the abundance of low-perfoming games in terms of graphics, but with the kind of homemade, participation-like qualities in terms of gameplay that is available at the press of a thumb and a cheap price from the onlinestore with an apple-logo.
Lets face it: large parts of the modern audience wants to be part of the fun, together and in a community-style setting. Facebook and Twitter and what-have-you are (I know, I know; these are not really gaming communities) part of this trend. If the Little big Planet can go even littler - it can make the little handheld for Sony bigger, like mr. jordan suggests.

Mobile games micro-billing big in 2009, says Come2us

Acccording to Pocketgamer.biz, Com2uS plans to make micro-billing a feature in more of its mobile games this year, says Joony Koo, senior manager in the publisher's international business team.

This includes the upcoming baseball and RPG games from Com2uS, as well as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for iPhone.

Especially the MMO-migration into handheld devices is an exciting feature, which we here at Mobile Games look foreward to. Combined with up-coming features from AR (Altered reality)-games this should have really ground-breaking potential.

Koo says, more of these games [featuring microbilling] have been launched in Korea, supported by marketing from mobile operators and the publishers.

"The developments in the industry demonstrate once again how lucrative the micro-billing model can be," he says.

"Role-playing games, for example, are seeing additional revenue from micro-billing at rates as high as 90 per cent of their initial sales, while casual games are generating as much as 60 per cent of their initial sales profits in micro-billing transactions."

"For example, in a multi-player home-run derby game coming from Com2uS this April, items such as bats, clothes, helmets and baseball stadiums can be purchased and sent to friends," he says.
As such we at Mobile Games think that there are even more potential in thuis type of games, if not only at the microbilling as a business model: 2009 and 2010, will feature products born online and given life offline, where the opposite usually is the case.

One of the first games to feature microbilling is the sequel to the popular role-playing game Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor, coming this June, players are able to purchase and trade items and maps with each other via micro-transactions.

But it's the company's ambition for micro-billing within iPhone games that are most intriguing:

"Even massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), which are often subscription-based, are delving into micro-transactions as they enter the open-content markets for touch-based devices," he says.

"Com2uS is developing an MMORPG for iPhone and iPod Touch, expected to launch in late 2009, with a built-in micro-transaction system."

However, Apple's policy towards micro-billing is still somewhat clouded - it's unclear whether it's allowed or barred from the App Store.