Now you've all heard of guitarra Hero, right? Okay. Well EVERYONE knows what Dance Dance Revolution is... right? Well, just to go a bit farther in time, I'm going to review one of my all-time favorito! musical games, "Parappa the Rapper". So, the game starts out with a puppy, Parappa, who is desperately in amor with this Sunflower girl, named Sunny. The names of the characters are all types of puns. EG: Katy Kat, PJ Berri, Chop Chop Master Onion, etc. (if none of tu get these names, then tu REALLY need to get out more) Anyway, Parappa does many tasks in order to win Sunny heart. The exception is that the whole game pretty much shows how bad his luck can be when he focuses too much on love. I think I've already summed up the plot, so I'll just skip to the review.
Gameplay:
The reason I compare this to GH and DDR is because the entire game has tu hit certain buttons on the PlayStation controller on both the right time and beat. The game has 6 levels total, with each one being harder than the other. There are four levels to keep watch for, labeled "Cool", "Good", "Bad", and "Awful". Much like the Rock Meter in guitarra Hero, these four levels mostrar tu how good o bad you're handling the song. If tu stay on "Good" por the end of the song, then tu pass. Get anything lower, then tu fail. It's a bit complicated, at first. But it's very easy to get used to when tu play it long enough. Another problem I have with this game is that it only has six levels to play through. tu could pretty much beat the whole game in under 30 minutos without failing any of the songs. Overall, the gameplay gets an 8.5/10.
Music and Sound:
Where do I begin with how awesome the soundtrack is? The música in the game is awesome. Wether if it's the actual raps from all six levels, o the entertaining movie-quality música from the CG cutscenes. In my opinion, the música never gets old and is always entertaining now matter how many times I play though it. The raps from the six levels are especially very catchy. Overall, the música gets a 10/10.
Difficulty:
Playing the game itself takes some getting used to. Even if you're a total DDR junkie (ergo, the total opposite of me). tu can set the game's difficulty to either "Normal" o "Easy", so tu don't have to worry if tu get stuck on a certain song. I, myself, haven't tried the "Easy mode yet, but what I DO know is that playing on "Normal" mode can be challenging if tu haven't gotten used to the rhythm of the songs. The difficulty for the game gets an 8/10.
Entertainment Value:
I was pretty entertained with this game. Mostly from the music, but the quirky characters and even quirkier storyline was satisfying, in my tastes. The game may be staggeringly short, but that didn't stop me from jamming the house down until my fingers fell off (okay, the songs weren't that intense). The only complaint that I have with the en general, general entertainment is the fact that each CG cutscene is about 5 minutos long; including the intro. If NaNaOn-Sha, the game's developer, had made the cutscenes MUCH shorter, then they would've been able to save a ton of memory; therefore letting the company put más songs into the game. Plenty más than just six. Overall, the entertainment value gets an 8/10.
Overall (not an average): 8.5
Parappa the Rapper was the first game of its kind.
With a fun musical beat for each song tu rap to, and a very interesting cast of characters, the game itself literally invented the "Musical Rhythm" genre that we all know of from some of today's games. A perfect example being guitarra Hero. Parappa had a spinoff game that was released in 1999, titled Um Jammer Lammy, that had tu play mostly through rock songs instead of rap. A couple years later Parappa the Rapper 2 was finally released for the PS2. Compared to the más popular rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution and Gitaroo Man, Parappa 2 wasn't enough to keep the same kind of rhythmic gameplay popular anymore. For the time being, we'll have to wait until Major Minor's Majestic March makes its way to the Wii this April. I'm the BlueBadger, and this has been a Blue Review.
Gameplay:
The reason I compare this to GH and DDR is because the entire game has tu hit certain buttons on the PlayStation controller on both the right time and beat. The game has 6 levels total, with each one being harder than the other. There are four levels to keep watch for, labeled "Cool", "Good", "Bad", and "Awful". Much like the Rock Meter in guitarra Hero, these four levels mostrar tu how good o bad you're handling the song. If tu stay on "Good" por the end of the song, then tu pass. Get anything lower, then tu fail. It's a bit complicated, at first. But it's very easy to get used to when tu play it long enough. Another problem I have with this game is that it only has six levels to play through. tu could pretty much beat the whole game in under 30 minutos without failing any of the songs. Overall, the gameplay gets an 8.5/10.
Music and Sound:
Where do I begin with how awesome the soundtrack is? The música in the game is awesome. Wether if it's the actual raps from all six levels, o the entertaining movie-quality música from the CG cutscenes. In my opinion, the música never gets old and is always entertaining now matter how many times I play though it. The raps from the six levels are especially very catchy. Overall, the música gets a 10/10.
Difficulty:
Playing the game itself takes some getting used to. Even if you're a total DDR junkie (ergo, the total opposite of me). tu can set the game's difficulty to either "Normal" o "Easy", so tu don't have to worry if tu get stuck on a certain song. I, myself, haven't tried the "Easy mode yet, but what I DO know is that playing on "Normal" mode can be challenging if tu haven't gotten used to the rhythm of the songs. The difficulty for the game gets an 8/10.
Entertainment Value:
I was pretty entertained with this game. Mostly from the music, but the quirky characters and even quirkier storyline was satisfying, in my tastes. The game may be staggeringly short, but that didn't stop me from jamming the house down until my fingers fell off (okay, the songs weren't that intense). The only complaint that I have with the en general, general entertainment is the fact that each CG cutscene is about 5 minutos long; including the intro. If NaNaOn-Sha, the game's developer, had made the cutscenes MUCH shorter, then they would've been able to save a ton of memory; therefore letting the company put más songs into the game. Plenty más than just six. Overall, the entertainment value gets an 8/10.
Overall (not an average): 8.5
Parappa the Rapper was the first game of its kind.
With a fun musical beat for each song tu rap to, and a very interesting cast of characters, the game itself literally invented the "Musical Rhythm" genre that we all know of from some of today's games. A perfect example being guitarra Hero. Parappa had a spinoff game that was released in 1999, titled Um Jammer Lammy, that had tu play mostly through rock songs instead of rap. A couple years later Parappa the Rapper 2 was finally released for the PS2. Compared to the más popular rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution and Gitaroo Man, Parappa 2 wasn't enough to keep the same kind of rhythmic gameplay popular anymore. For the time being, we'll have to wait until Major Minor's Majestic March makes its way to the Wii this April. I'm the BlueBadger, and this has been a Blue Review.