Retro Review – PaRappa the Rapper

<p>I still remember checking <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> out on a demo disc shortly before it released in 1997&period;  I grew up with an NES&comma; Sega Genesis&comma; and a Super Nintendo so I was down with 2D graphics but I remember thinking that <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> looked so weird when I first saw it&period; There were 3D objects but the characters looked like they were cardboard cutouts&period; The PlayStation had a big 3D push and so it was so weird seeing something that appeared to be trapped between two styles being shoved into the spotlight&&num;8211&semi;or so it seems&period; Once you actually boot the game up and experience it you quickly realize that it isn&&num;8217&semi;t trapped between two generations or art styles&period; No&comma; instead its art style is unique and its own while complimenting its fun nature and zany attitude with the perfect visuals that strengthen the overall presentation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> was the first rhythm game that I had ever played and it always stuck with me&period; I think that helped make the genre popular for many other people my age&period; I was seven years old when it came out but it stuck with me the entire time&period; Years later when I was setting up a PlayStation emulator on the family computer one of the first games that I played on it was <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em>&period; When <em>Guitar Hero<&sol;em> and <em>Rock Band<&sol;em> were announced many years later I still thought of <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> immediately&period; I simply thought to myself &&num;8220&semi;Oh&comma; this is <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> but with guitars&period;&&num;8221&semi; I know that I&&num;8217&semi;m not alone in thinking that either because when it was re-released and optimized for HDTV screens and the PS4 I saw it being discussed all over social media in video game circles&period; It may be an older game but there&&num;8217&semi;s a reason that people still yell &&num;8220&semi;I gotta believe&excl;&&num;8221&semi; when the game opens with the question &&num;8220&semi;You gotta do what&quest;&excl;&&num;8221&semi; and it&&num;8217&semi;s for that very reason they still believe in the magic of <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129438" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129438" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129438" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;06105048&sol;parappa1-1480877423694&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129438" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> is a simple game at face value&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a fun little story to go along with it but at its core it&&num;8217&semi;s a rhythm game and one of the reasons it succeeds as much as it does is because it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t try to be anything else&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s brave and completely admirable in the fact of 3D releases that <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> embraced its quirky visuals while wearing its genre right on its sleeve loud and proud&period; <em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em> will have you rap through a few different tracks as you see PaRappa grow and learn to win the heart of the girl he loves named Sunny Funny&period; The raps start off simple enough but grow increasingly difficult over time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The raps are all fun and focus on a variety of different subject matters as PaRappa learns karate&comma; how to drive&comma; how to cook and much more&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an interesting premise and you&&num;8217&semi;ll find yourself humming along and even reciting lyrics after playing through the songs just a few times&period; This will happen for two reasons&colon; one&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re going to want to replay these songs&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll even want to buy the soundtrack on PS4 and throw it on a mobile device&period; I know I did&excl; The second reason though is that as tracks get increasingly difficult you&&num;8217&semi;re going to fail and need to replay them multiple times to pass them&&num;8211&semi;and that will just be to complete them at an acceptable difficulty&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be so hooked on the jams and getting better ratings for your performance that it won&&num;8217&semi;t be long before you replay stages for better ratings&period; The good news is that even though the stages will get increasingly difficult&comma; the songs get better and better as you progress through the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129439" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129439" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129439" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;06105143&sol;parappa-the-rapper-screen-06-us-03dec16&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129439" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>PaRappa the Rapper<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I really don&&num;8217&semi;t have a lot of complaints with the game other than there not being any kind of calibration method in the options in the re-release&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t remember it being in the original version either but it definitely needed it then and it needs it more than ever now&period; The cooking stage &lpar;stage four&rpar; has an incredible song but it will take most people forever to complete successfully because of how off the button prompts are with what you see on screen&period; The entire game suffers from this and audio&sol;video calibration would have done wonders for not only the performance but also the artificially inflated difficulty as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This game was a lot of fun back in the day and it&&num;8217&semi;s just as fun on the PS4&period; Audio&sol;Video calibration would have helped a lot but you&&num;8217&semi;re still getting an incredibly fun game from twenty years ago that has aged very well&period; The remastered graphics are nice too&comma; though I do wish they would have remastered the cutscenes as well&period; This game is only fifteen bucks and is well worth your time&period; Just be prepared to deal with the prompts being off from the game a bit and join the rest of us in hoping for an update on a game five months after its remaster released&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;