PaRappa the Rapper

"Kick punch.....you've heard it all before"

This game is the epitome of originality, no other title even comes close. A game that centres on a dog that wears a beanie with aspirations to be a rapper? That sentence probably shows why Parappa The Rapper didn’t receive the support and huge amount of sales that it so thoroughly deserved. It’s a huge pity really, as this game plays like a dream, it’s a fantastic game and a person would have to be crazy not to fall in love with the cute little thing.

The graphics probably scared a number of potential buyers away from the game, think about it, a big tough “macho” guy goes shopping he’s probably thinking “Me big tough caveman, me eat raw meat, buy Playstation game good. Oook, what this? Parappa the Rapper? Sound good, me see screenshot. Yuck, me go buy Doom now” Hopefully this has shown the effect that Parappa may have had on the mainstream market.
For you see, the graphics are cartoons. Bright, colourful cartoons that look like they come from a children’s book. But despite the cute factor that this game has it still looks darn good. The characters are exceptionally drawn and are two dimensional, the backgrounds are very well detailed and are three dimensional, put them together and you've got a vibrant and exciting visual package.
As a whole the graphics are very clear, all the characters are well sized and it’s always easy to tell what’s going on inside the box in front of you. All of the animations look great and are at times quite comical, the thing that impressed me most was the accuracy of the lip synching, it was better done than a lot of other titles (especially Spice World, I hate that game so much).
Overall, the graphics look fantastic. And if you’re scared off by the childish look of them then you’ve obviously got some sort of conformity problem.

The sound can only be described as brilliant (which is lucky, imagine what a flop the game would have been if the sound stunk); there is no aspect of the audio that is below par. The songs are great, they’re catchy, jumpy and you’ll be bopping along as you push the buttons in. The voices have been done marvellously, all of the characters have a certain amount of singing talent and the voices fit their respective characters to a T. Parappa really pushes the Playstations capabilities to their fullest to pump out these high quality sounds.
Overall, this game is perfect in respect to sounds, there are little to no games which can rival the excellency of Parappa the Rapper.

The gameplay goes something like this. You are Parappa and you’re rapping against one of your respective teachers, as they strut their stuff symbols will appear along the top (X, O, Triangle, Square, R and L), at the conclusion of their line you must try to push in this button combination to the correct timing and copy their line. If you do this well then you will be awarded a good rating, fail and it’s a bad or awful rating for you. This is definitely one of the quirkiest game concepts to rear its head in recent times but it’s one of the best.
The learning curve is a good one. Level one will have you inputting one button per line at a slow pace. Level three uses one or two buttons multiple times. Level six uses all six commands multiple times on each line. With this steady increase in difficulty it won’t be long till you’re rapping like an absolute pro.
To give the game a sense of continuousy there’s a half-baked storyline to push the game along. Parappa wants to win the heart of the beautiful umm… flower, Sunny Funny, due to some unfortunate string of events he meets all these people and has to rap against them. But the story isn’t really important, it’s the beauty of the gameplay that matters. And it sure is beautiful.

The lifespan of Parappa is its biggest problem. As written above, there are only 6 levels (which means the game can be finished in 20 minutes) to play through, this often makes for a short game. Luckily there is incentive to play through again numerous times. If you read above you would have learnt of the ratings (Good, Bad, Awful), but play through again and the COOL rating is possible. In a cool rating you rap freestyle, win the level with a cool rating and you’re on your way to unlocking secret characters and fully finishing the game. Some people may not have that kind of patience however.

Parappa the Rapper’s fun factor is great. There’s nothing more enjoyable than rapping side by side with a frog from the Caribbean or a driving instructor who also happens to be a moose. Seriously, the amount of enjoyment and satisfaction one can get from this game is amazing, it’s just that type of game I guess.

The challenge is a bit poor, it won’t be long before you find yourself at the end of the game. Luckily when you replay the levels the difficulty is upped a notch if you’re trying for a COOL rating, otherwise the game would just be ridiculously easy.

Overall, Parappa is one of the most innovative titles going around. If you don’t own this or the sequel Um Jammer Lammy then it’s something you should definitely consider. You’ve got no idea what you’re missing out on.
-----------------
GOOD POINTS
- So original it isn’t funny
- The songs and sounds are superb
- Although quirky, the game is a delight to play

NOT SO GOOD POINTS
- Apparently it’s too cute for some people
- Six levels just isn’t enough
-----------------
GRAPHICS – 9/10
SOUND – 10/10
GAMEPLAY – 10/10
LIFESPAN – 8/10
FUN FACTOR – 9/10
CHALLENGE – 7/10
OVERALL – 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/00, Updated 05/18/00