PaRappa the Rapper

"Hail To The Hip-Hop Hero!"

There's nothing like games from the past, we grew up with them, and they're not forgotten, so they deserve honorable mentions. One of these games I'm talking about is called Parappa The Rapper, which was a little known Playstation music title. The story revolves around a young puppy dog named Parappa who tries desperately to impress the girl of his dreams, Sunny Funny. Before you say anything, pretty much everyone has a ridiculous name, so bear with it. Through the adventure, Parappa figures out ways to get Sunny's attention, but must first learn each of his skills from Rap Masters who teach him through the power of hip-hop.

This was one of the first Playstation games I bought back in the day. Music games were a pretty new genre at the time, so it was incredibly innovative. It's basically just a souped-up game of Simon Says, except it's not boring. In a level, the Master will rap a phrase and the correct buttons will be displayed at the top, whereas Parappa will rap accordingly as you push the buttons in time with the music after the Master has finished the phrase. The better you do, the less chance you have of falling prey to the various bad ratings. You start out the level in the "good" rating column. If you start to miss the button combos, you'll go down to "bad" and eventually "awful". After that, you're screwed, and your teacher isn't too happy about your progress. You can, however, get the "cool" rating, which is attained by surpassing the Master with free-style rapping. After you attain "cool" your Master leaves you by yourself, and you must keep free-styling until the level ends otherwise they'll come back for more teaching.

Beating each level progresses you through the story. There is no true need to get "cool" on any of the levels to unlock new ones. There are only seven levels in the game, but the music is catchy and the gameplay is innovative so you'll be raring to replay it over and over again. The graphics are the biggest compliment to the game, as every character is paper thin. That's where the name comes in, Parappa = Paper Rapper, get it? It's definitely eye candy that's worth checking out. The music is obviously the best part, with mixes of rap, reggae, hip-hop and more. Each level's rap has to do with the story. When Parappa wants to become a "hero", he takes Karate with his teacher Chop Chop Master Onion (yes he's an onion).

It's hard to explain how strange this game is without playing it yourself, so break out the eBay account and look for this rare title. The problem with the game is the lack of multiplayer, but later sequels and spin-offs took care of that problem. If you like music games, check it out. It's a bit on the kiddy side, but it paved the way for the music games we love today.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/08

Game Release: PaRappa the Rapper (US, 10/31/97)