In case you were wondering, and are a fan of her work, yup, this is another masterpiece from Annathered, whose masterpieces we’ve featured a few times previously.

[Annathered @ Flickr, via GameSetWatch]

The PlayStation.Blog team have, as part of a contest they’re running, posted five charming little Patapon masks for you to print out, cut out and use to play with your kids/rob your local convenience store.

You may want to improvise your own eyeholes, though. Three visible eyes might ruin the whole “cyclops” thing.

[Patapon Masks]

God of War: Chains of Olympus and Patapon are among the ten new PlayStation Portable titles joining Sony’s Greatest Hits lineup next month.

Ten new titles receive special packaging and a special US$19.99 retail price come April 5th as part of Sony’s 2009 PSP push. God of War, Patapon, and SOCOM: Tactical Strike are the only first-party titles to make the cut. Ubisoft represents with Tom Clancy’s Advanced Warfighter 2 and Rainbow Six Vegas, while EA brings Fight Night Round 3 and Medal of Honour Heroes 2 to the party. Finally we have Sonic Rivals 2 from Sega, THQ’s SpongeBob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger, and Mortal Kombat: Unchained by way of Midway.

It bares noting that of the ten tiles here, only God of War and SOCOM currently retail for over $19.99 anyway, so eight of these titles are simply getting new packaging. Still, its the thought that counts, and I certainly won’t scoff at the chance to get Chains of Olympus for half of the $39.99 GameStop is still charging for it.

In an effort to turn every single Sony property into Sackboy form—hurry up, Blasto Sackboy!—the company has turned the LittleBigPlanet transmogrifier on the PSP tactical rhythm game Patapon. Cross-promotion is just a happy by-product.

Yes, Patapon 2 is coming stateside soon-ish—the official PlayStation blog says it’s “in the horizon”—meaning a cyclopian Sackboy interpretation is overdue.

No word on when this guy will ship out to the PlayStation Store, but we’re betting it’s in advance of Patapon 2’s street date.

PATAPON 2: It’s Pata-Pata-Pata-ON!!!! [PlayStation.blog]

Masatomo Ueda likes Patapon. A lot more than you or I like Patapon. He likes it so much he’s not only got himself a Patapon tattoo, but made himself Patapon prey in the process.

See? They’re marching, relentlessly, on their way across his shoulders to hunt, then kill, his face. Cute, but for the first few mornings looking in the mirror, probably also a little terrifying.

Patapon Tattoo [Milano by Beer, via Wonderland]

It’s that time of the year again. That’s right, time for making Best Of lists. But what about the best overlooked game titles?

Game site Offworld has a list of its 20 best indie and overlooked titles. Games like World of Goo and Newtonica make the cut, joining game press favs like PixelJunk Eden and Patapon. Check it out — there are embedded YouTube clips if you’re not into this reading thing.

The Offworld 20: 2008’s Best Indie and Overlooked [Offworld]

The interview touches on a number of subjects, from how the idea for Patapon came into being and the actual development process; it’s a fairly quick read at a mere four pages. On the simple versus deep conundrum, Kotani has this to say:

There’s been a belief that a simple game can’t be deep, and I think that a simple game can be deep; and, conversely, I think that a complicated game might be a shallow game, from a gameplay perspective — it just has a lot of complication. So, how do you see that issue, within development?

HK: The way I came up with a solution is to divide the game into two different layers. One is the very simple game, so that a player can clear the goal with just three commands. But for those users who want to play a deeper game, they can use weapons; they can collect equipment and weapons, to try to clear different missions, with different goals.

In addition to that, the basic idea of this game is about rhythm, so you have to beat the rhythm in the accurate way — and even though you are giving the command by beating the rhythm, you are also singing a song with the Patapons.

And so, it’s not just a simple game: it’s like creating the music with the Patapons, and that’s what makes the deeper aspect of this game.

There are a couple of gems regarding game design later in the interview. Well worth a quick read.

If you missed our video interview from TGS, that’s worth a peek as well.

The Rhythm of Creation: Hiroyuki Kotani and Patapon [Gamasutra]

That’s $US40 for one of them. So, yes, not cheap. And as with many of these kind of things, they’re Japan-only, so if you want one, go cosy up to your local importer of all thing Japanese and knick-knackey. OH! And while we’re on the subject of LocoRoco plushies…

We KNOW these exist, Sony. I took this photo at TGS, this year. Why you holding out on us, huh?

Pata Pata Patapon [Eegra]