Review: Ratatan (Switch 2)

When Ratatan was featured in the Nintendo Indie World Showcase this past March, I was so intrigued that I bought Patapon 1 + 2 Replay to prepare for it. That was a good idea, but although the games share some members on their development teams, they offer quite different experiences.

Ratatan isn’t, after all, a direct sequel to the Patapon games. We’ll call it a spiritual successor, and the differences are readily apparent. Ratatan is more colorful. It’s messier. The gameplay is more complex. But the elements that made Patapon so enjoyable are still there and on full display.

Those elements, of course, are the rhythm-based action gameplay and the exuberant soundtrack to which you charge into combat. The basic progression of all of that is the same; you control a growing number of Cobuns, together marching left to right to attack the myriad enemies in your way.

Your attacks are controlled by commands executed to the beat of the music. But you can’t just attack constantly, you can also guard, jump, group up, etc. Each command’s button combo is helpfully displayed on the screen, but it won’t be long before you have them all memorized. There’s also now a visual display that indicates when to tap the right buttons for the command you want to give. You’ll be better off, however, trusting your ears and your sense of rhythm, as there are far more important things to be watching.

Enemies indicate when they’re about to launch a powerful attack, so you need to know when to guard or jump. You can also see where their ranged attacks will land, so you’ll want to move yourself and your Cobuns out of harm’s way. It’s all extremely chaotic and challenging, but fun.

The biggest change between Ratatan and Patapon is in how you approach and prepare for combat. Patapon focused mainly on acquiring items used to create better equipment and expand your group size. You’d then take on a level and hope it’s enough. If not, get a bit tougher and try again. This led to an exorbitant amount of grinding through levels that were otherwise the exact same thing. And, even after completing them, you’d have to play them again in order to power up enough for the next level.

Ratatan now gives you a ton of different customizations that make level completion more about experimentation than grinding. To start, you can swap out your Ratatan to have “ratatabilities” more conducive to taking down a particular enemy.

Need to eliminate a boss from a distance, for example? Select a Ratatan that equips the Cobuns with bombs or arrows.

You will acquire new weapons and power-ups on the battlefield, and you can use your resources to increase their effectiveness. Or, you can trade in those resources for other enhancements to help you on your way. Most of this is done between levels on the island of Rataport, but you’re also given plenty of options on the battlefield itself. You can select attack and skill cards before charging ahead to help you negate the enemy’s strengths.

You can choose which resources you’d like to acquire along the way. You can set up healing items, if necessary. You can even determine when to take on a previously unidentified enemy.

It’s a lot to consider, and it’ll likely be a while before you’re really optimizing your strategy for what’s ahead. Donut or candy? You may have no idea right away, but then you’ll see what you need for a specific upgrade or to unlock a new area, and off you’ll go to get it.

Another nice touch here is that you don’t lose your Cobuns when you and they are defeated. That relieves the pressure and encourages experimentation; all you lose when making the wrong decision is time, making Ratatan much friendlier than Patapon.

It’s also much more vibrant, both visually and aurally. The graphics are nearly as chaotic as the gameplay itself, full of intense color and movement that perfectly compliment the lively marches. I can’t imagine the music is for everyone, but it’s consistently put to great use here. (And, honestly, it should be made available through the Nintendo Music app.)

Unfortunately, some issues do prevent Ratatan from being as good as it could be. At times, the Switch 2 struggles to keep up with the chaos; not good for a rhythm game. And speaking of that, Pro Controller input seems a bit off. I found that using the Joy-Con in handheld mode was much more accurate, and playing the game with headphones provides a better experience, anyway.

Redundancy is also an issue, despite the new roguelike elements. Changing your Cobuns and upgrades doesn’t alter the gameplay experience enough to keep things fresh over the course of its 15 to 20 hour runtime. And if you want to share that experience with others, you can’t do so locally; 4 player co-op is only available online.

My biggest complaint, though, is that the rhythm gameplay has become secondary to the roguelike trappings. Pushing through levels and beating bosses is now more about properly setting up your battalion than about issuing their commands to the beat. That makes things easier, but also less fun.

Still, Ratatan provides a wonderfully upbeat and wholly unique experience on the Switch 2. And not only is it available physically, but it’s also game-on-card. That alone is worth giving the kids the day off from school for a midtown parade.