Para Para Paradise

"Passionately pink and painfully putrid!"

I have not played every single game in Konami’s BeMani series, but what I have played in the past, I really enjoyed. I have played BeatMania, Dance Dance Revolution, and Pop’N Music, all of which I enjoyed. I have put a lot of time into those games and I don’t regret a single minute of it. Anyway, a few months ago, I heard about a new game to the BeMani series called “Para Para Paradise”; I read about it on American fan pages, talking about what a fantastic game it is. The game is Japanese, and only a few months old, and there are already very large English web sites about the game. I even heard that Konami has brought several Para Para Paradise machines into the US already. For those who don’t know, Konami is EXTREMELY stingy about releasing BeMani games in the US, which just goes without saying. It took Konami nearly 2 years to bring Dance Dance Revolution to the US Playstation market. Needless to say, I was taken by surprise when I heard that Para Para Paradise arcade machines are already in US arcades, and just 1 month after the release of the Japanese PS2 version of Para Para Paradise. When I began to see the game getting a lot of play here in the US, I couldn’t help but thank that this game must be fantastic. One month later, I imported Para Para Paradise along with the (expensive) controller that is used to Para Para “dance”. I chose “hard” and went to a song called “Eurobeat”. I then began to play the game by moving my arms over the bright pink censors and I then passed the song with a rating of 94%. Something seemed very wrong right away. When you first play a BeMani game you have never played in your life, and you choose a song that is more difficult than average, you are more than likely going to fail the stage. I chose another song (Tora! Tora! Tora!) And I had little trouble beating that song with a high rating as well. I started to wonder what was wrong, so I went into the “training” section of the game and I watched the dancing girls do a dance to Eurobeat. Now I see what was wrong, I was not doing all of the little exaggerated movements with my arms and I also was not stepping back and forth like the girls in the movie. I then thought back to all the many hours I spent playing BeatMania, when was I “suppose to” scratch the turntable with my nose? When I played Dance Dance Revolution, how often did I try and play the game with my elbows? I don’t remember doing either one of those things when I played those games. My point in making those 2 ludicrous examples above is why should I have to complicate doing what I would typically do in a BeMani game just to make the game seem more difficult? If a couple of dancing women want to complicate a song with goofy arm motions while stepping back and forth, that’s fine with me, have fun being a complete idiot. Leave me with the better BeMani games such as Dance Dance Revolution and BeatMania. BeMani games are much better when they don’t require you to complicate things to make the game seem hard. If you want to go play Dance Dance Revolution upside down and standing on your hands, that’s fine. But I have a better idea, why don’t you stop doing “have you never been mellow” (the most easy song in DDR) with your hands, why don’t you try doing “Paranoia” (a more difficult DDR song) with your feet! I don’t mean to make any Para Para Paradise players too upset (please refrain from witting me with your feather boas) but this game is terrible. Don’t thank that I hate difficult games, I thank it is awesome that people have mastered difficult games in the BeMani series such as DrumMania and KeyboardMania, but those games are difficult enough on their own without requiring you to do extra stuff outside of just playing the game.

Graphics 5
There is not much to offer here. There is video of spinning colors being played I the background while you wave your arms around. The game also includes footage of dancing Para Para girls. The video clips are clear, but why should you expect anything less from a game on DVD rom? There’s not even any picture of Mickey Mouse while the “Mickey Mouse March” song plays. The spinning color backgrounds remind me of what they might play at a karaoke bar while you sing along, basically just boring and nothing you have not seen used better in other games.

Game play 2
I imaging a very intoxicated “slow” person would not have too much of a struggle passing most of the songs in this game on first attempt. Then when one of the “pros” at this game sees you playing, and they may say “No! You’re not doing it right! You have to clap your left hand against your face while you wave your right hand vertically over the far left censor! …You almost have the routine down, but try to look like a bigger idiot next time”. If you want to spend a lot of time learning the “correct” way to play this game, have fun, I don’t thank fun is what I would call it though.

Music6
The soundtrack is somewhat of a hit and miss. For every song that you like on the game, there are about 2 or 3 that you wont like that much at all, unless your really into Eurobeat music. I am a fan of both Konami’s music, and Avex Trax music. The group “Togo Project” from BeatMania is a perfect example of good music that Konami can create. I even thought that the Avex Trax songs in Sega Touring Car Championship for the Sega Saturn is a good example of good music Avex Trax creates, or better yet, the music the original Bust-A-Move for the Playstation. There is just something I don’t quite enjoy about some of the music in Para Para Paradise.

Overall, this game feels more like Acclaim’s attempt at a music game instead of Konami’s. Konami is one of my favorite game company’s next to Capcom and the now closes SNK (very depressing indeed, but that’s a whole different story). I really should have bought Keyboard Mania instead of this game. Even though the box to the game was bright pink, I still kept an open mind and came out feeling discussed. I believe that unless you are completely biased toward Konami, you eventually find a BeMani game that you can’t stand; for me, that game is Para Para Paradise. Before I go, I just want you to see the ridicules caption that is written on the front of the game:

“For wild guys & cute gals!!
Get into the Eurobeat ecstasy
& fire the hi-tension vibe!!
Super bass sound will make you
The prisoner of dance!!”

There you go, that is reason enough I should have not played this game. Anyway, I will be selling the game and getting Keyboard Mania very soon. Hopefully my review for that will be on a much better note.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/01, Updated 06/26/01