Gaming | November 2026
Some games ask you to keep the beat. Ratatan asks you to command an army with it, which is a wonderfully chaotic idea when the screen is full of tiny fighters and everyone is trying to survive the next encounter.
The rhythm-roguelike action game launched on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 14, 2026. Nintendo’s official listing describes side-scrolling battles involving more than 100 characters and online co-op for up to four players. Steam’s release announcement confirms the full 1.0 launch arrived alongside the console editions.
Keeping time is the strategy
Rather than tapping notes for a score, players use rhythmic sequences to order their Cobuns into action. Positioning matters, and so does knowing when to pull back. The result is a strategy game whose instructions happen to be musical: knowing what you want your army to do is only half the job if you can’t deliver the command on time.
There’s an appealing contrast between the bright, toy-box presentation and the pressure of coordinating a crowd. The hand-drawn characters are expressive, but the central question is whether players can still read the battlefield when more than a hundred fighters are moving at once.
Better with friends?
Four-player online co-op adds another layer. A group that can communicate and maintain the rhythm might turn the chaos into something surprisingly coordinated. A group that can’t will probably have a memorable evening anyway. Nintendo lists a paid Switch Online membership as necessary for online play.
For players who miss games that feel a little strange and distinctive, Ratatan is worth a look. It takes a familiar beat-matching idea and gives it consequences beyond the music. That’s more interesting than another game that simply asks us to hit the right button when a note reaches a line.
