« Happy Birthday NCSA Mosaic | Main | Review: Castlevania - Symphony of the Night »
Review : Parappa the Rapper for PSOne
Yeah I know... I GOT TO BELIEVE!
I just wouldn't be Playstation Appreciation week with out mentioning Parappa the Rapper.
This is the first real modern music game and started it own geanra of game play. You play a rapping cartoon dog who must follow button presses to the beat of a song to perform a rap. The rap will change instantly depending on your ability to follow the tune.
This also was a major non-realistic specialized artistic style for graphics. Parappa means Paper Thin in Japanese and so it is these wierd 2d shapes in a 3d world to make a very neat but totally bizzare artistic style. The visual design of the game is attributed to the american graphic designer Rodney Alan Greenblat. A spiffy interview of him can be found here and I invite you to check out the brilliance of his portfolio on his website. It is a multi-cultural and international project and Parappa is as much a product of New York as it is Tokyo. I brings to mind the work of the late Keith Haring. The graphics are happy and memorable.
This game does not take it self to seriously and is a good example of wacky Japanese humor that is cool but not as universal as the Smurfs.
Oh man I love the music. There is a collection of lyrics at Gamefaqs.com.
The tunes are catchy old school rap that is wacky and will get pleasantly stuck in your head worse than any marketing jingle.
The most important music games in my mind in chronological order are:
Loom by Lucasarts
Parappa the Rapper
Bust a Groove (Bust a Move in Japan)
Dance Dance Revolution
One of the downsides of the game is the problems with usability and accessibility. You had to have great timing and the ability to listen to the music and follow the happy but bouncing graphics. If you have problems with your hearing this game is impossible. It also has a different learning curve than other games. You had to get really good at the Playstation button layout and know where the triangle and square buttons were by heart. But I don't think that it is too hard just different.
This games make you happy and it has damn great replay value and I don't get sick of the happy tunes. If you have a playstation and you see a copy of this game GET IT. It will make you happy.
Ribet, ribet, I can not hold it
The last toilet that I had, I've already sold it
In the rain or in the snow, I got the funky flow but now I really gotta go (In the rain or in the snow, you got the funky flow but now you really gotta go)
The toilet over there will bring you luck so give up! I got no time to spare!
Jake at March 14, 2003 
Reviews
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/cgi-bin/mtype/mt-tb.cgi/86
Comments
That game is brilliant! I managed to find a copy in a video shop for sale and I immediately snapped it up.
Needless to say, I suck at it but all my other brothers can finish it.
Posted by: l33t k1w1 at March 14, 2003 1:20 PM
