Reviewed: July 25, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer
SCE Studios Japan
Released: July 17, 2007
Genre: Music
Players: 1-4
6
7
7
4
6.4
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I’ve never been a big fan of rap. I liked some of the early stuff, but it seems the entire genre has been driven into a world of hate, racial intolerance, and lyrics with so many explicatives you can’t even hear most songs on TV, the radio, or buy a CD at Wal-Mart anymore.
PaRappa the Rapper tries to put the fun back into rap with a PSP port of the 1997 PlayStation original. That game has achieved a cult-like fame, but ten years later this adorable rapping mutt has lost a lot of his charm. And with the ability to download original PS games to your PSP via the PS3 (although PaRappa isn’t one of them), you have to ask yourself if a dedicated PSP version was really necessary.
Despite being a music game PaRappa tells a story spread across six chapters, each ending with a rap that allows you to proceed to the next chapter. Yes, six songs is incredibly short, especially when DDR and Guitar Hero are packing in 40-70 songs in their latest titles, so to make up for the lack of content, Sony has ramped the difficulty to epic proportions. You’re going to need the patience of a Buddhist monk or the mad skills of Kid Rock if you want to finish this game.
The story is as weird as the construction paper visual style and not all that important to the game. Boy (PaRappa) loves girl (Sunny Funny), who is also being hit on by rich dude, Joe Chin (picture Jay Leno as a dog). PaRappa must first learn to rap at the Dojo before he can possibly take Driver’s Ed. which leads to him borrowing dad’s car, wrecking dad’s car, rapping at a flea market to make money to fix dad’s car, going on a TV cooking show to learn to bake a cake for Sunny’s birthday, and rapping his way to the front of the line at a gas station bathroom before his bladder bursts. Confused? Play the game. You’ll watch all this the first time then rapidly tap the button on future replays to get to the actual game.
PaRappa the Rapper boils down to the six actual raps, which are pretty much your standard Simon Says-style button matching set to rap music. Where PaRappa differs – and this is crucial to successful gameplay - is that you quickly need to learn to use your ears and not your eyes. This can be tricky since you at least have to watch the screen long enough for the next sequence of buttons.
Each rap has an instructor, whether it be Master Onion at the Dojo, Mooselini (an actual moose) at the driving school, or Cheap Cheap, the Cooking Chicken, they will lay out the rhymes one verse at a time then you must repeat that verse back in a perfect beat-matching performance. Again, the game is based on matching the rhythm of the music and lyrics and not the actual buttons. Yes, it’s as hard as it sounds, especially if you’ve never played the original game before.
Assuming you ever get good enough to perform the song as instructed you can start mixing things up by freeform rapping. This is merely you inserting addition words into the open spaces between the regular song. When done correctly it not only sounds fresh and original, it gives you some extra points. As you get further into the game the songs become packed with more buttons closer together leaving little room to express yourself.
PaRappa offers a weak multiplayer component for Ad Hoc play, but it’s merely a real-time comparison of scores as you each play on your own PSP. You may as well take turns and just compare scores. You can also share a demo of the game using GameSharing, but this is more of a promotional tool for Sony than a benefit to the person who bought the game.
While not pushing the limits of PSP graphics technology, PaRappa has an original art style that’s hard not to love. Character designs are creative and original, so much that you won’t even care why a dog is trying to hook-up with a flower or a reggae-singing frog is running a flea market. The colors are rich and vibrant and pop-off the screen and the cutscenes are elegant in their simplicity and totally hilarious.
Not much was done when porting this game from the PlayStation as evidenced by the large boarders around the 4:3 ratio screens. The actual rapping (gameplay) screens stretch out to fill the PSP screen. Despite the clarity of the PSP, the buttons that glide from left to right along the top are often difficult to identify at a quick glance, and that is often all you have.
This game is obviously targeted toward kids with its cute characters, cartoon visual style, and most importantly, the rap lyrics. If this concept takes off we might have Barney rapping instructions on how to make our beds or clean up our rooms. The lyrics are witty and funny, especially the driving school and cooking show, and the gas station bathroom had me laughing so hard I still can’t finish the song – at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
Still, the music isn’t terribly annoying or insulting for older gamers and I really got into the groove with the flea market reggae rap. You can even download new background beats for the existing songs. It doesn’t change the lyrics, only the instruments.
Like DDR, and Guitar Hero, PaRappa isn’t a game you’re likely going to pick up and master in a day. The gameplay is challenging and gets even more challenging if you increase the difficulty level. I suspect it will take most gamers weeks or months to master this game.
Even so, six songs is short by anybody’s standard, especially when it’s the same six songs from ten years ago, making this a hard sell at $30. Unless you are a huge fan of the original and have been dying to play it again, preferably on the road, then you’ll probably want to wait for this to hit the bargain bin.
Music games are pretty common today with titles that allow you to sing, dance, scratch a turntable, and even play the guitar, but the PSP seldom sees anything in this genre. To that end, I suppose PaRappa might find a niche fan base on the PSP, but most of us will be seeking our musical entertainment elsewhere.
Sony has shown us that a dog can rap, even on the PSP, but PaRappa the Rapper needs a next-gen makeover with new music and a lot more of it. The competition is a lot stiffer than it was ten years ago and this short trip down memory lane is more of a demo than a game by today’s standard. I have a feeling we haven’t seen that last of this mutt, and I look forward to seeing what his next adventure has in store for us.