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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I Gotta Believe!", July 18, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Ten years ago, the rhythm genre was something new. And the game which introduced it to us was Parappa the Rapper back in 1997. Rhythm games at the time were pretty new. Nowadays you've got stuff like Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution and Elite Beat Agents, to name a few. But in 1997? If you wanted a rhythm game you picked up Parappa the Rapper. In truth, it's hard to say whether or not the original Playstation classic has aged well or not. Is it still a good game? Certainly it is. But in 2007? That can be questionable.
Parappa the Rapper was quite a charming game back in the day. The story centered on Parappa, a rapping dog who had the hots for Sunny the Sunflower. Unfortunately for Parappa, Joe Chin is always upstaging him. Having all the goods. He's though, he's got a car and he's completely impressive. What's a guy gotta do to impress a girl? The story of Parappa the Rapper centers on Parappa trying his best to impress Sunny. He'll have to do plenty to do that. He'll learn Karate, get a driver's license, and bake a cake among other things he'll do.
The main story of the game is extremely simplistic, yet for what it's worth, it's kind of fun. This isn't meant to be a game with a story to blow you away. The overall presentation of the storyline and the whole game is really nice. Even by today's standards the game holds up really well. The cutscenes are brilliantly drawn and the voice acting is some of the best the Playstation had to offer, and that most certainly holds up well even ten years later. Those who played Parappa in 1997 and enjoyed the look and feel of this game will still enjoy the look and feel of this game now.
Each and every level pits you up with a rap master who will rap. Your job is to rap with him or her by repeating his or her lines. Sounds simple right? Not entirely. In each level as the gameplay progresses you'll see a bar at the top of the screen. First, the rap masters head will go across the bar and as it does you'll have to look at the button presses. When the rap master is done, Parappa's head will cross the bar. When Parappa's head gets to a certain button on the bar, your job is to press said button to make Parappa rap. Sounds easy, doesn't it? It's really not quite as easy as you think. For one, sometimes the button presses are just off. You'd do better to listen to the rhythm of the song rather than rely heavily on the button presses. This same mistake plagued the game when it was first released ten years ago. It's a shame they didn't fix it.
In each level there is also a scale to tell you how well you're rapping. Either "Cool" "Good" "Bad" or "Awful". Your first play through the game you can't rap cool so don't even try. You can only rap cool by playing the level a second time. It's fine and dandy, but once you reach the status of cool, you're given the chance to freestyle. The problem with freestyle rapping is that you don't know how long the song has to go. On the plus side, you're allowed to press all the buttons you want until it's either over or until you drop back down to "Good." That doesn't mean you go button mashing, unfortunately. The other problem is that getting to rap cool requires that you keep pressing the same button on the bar over and over again and hope that sheer luck will take over and you'll get it. Again, something that was wrong with the 1997 version.
On the bright side, however, the tunes are really catchy. Even ten years later I can remember each and every word to each and every song. The soundtrack is very good and it's very catchy.
On the downside, though, the game is incredibly short. I'm talking less than two hours here. It'd be no surprise if you were able to complete the game in one sitting. There are only six stages. There's gotta be a multitude of extras, though right? Well, not really. There are a couple of extras, but nothing really major for this version. In the original Playstation version the only extra you got was the ability to play through levels a second time. Here you now have some multi-player and music downloads. Unfortunately, these sound better than they actually are.
The multiplayer is a letdown. You can load up with four friends and go into a stage and rap. It sounds cool, but in the end your only competing to see who can get the highest score. It hardly ever feels like your actually playing against your friends, though. You can blab about your high score, but there's never any feeling that you're really in any sort of competition.
You can download music, but they're just remixes of the games original soundtrack and they're not even all that good. Aside from multi-player and music download, though, there's really nothing special here in this re-release, and for a game so short it makes even the price of thirty bucks hard to plop down.
It's hard to review Parappa on the PSP. It was a defining, iconic game in 1997, but its gameplay elements haven't aged well over the years, and it shows. Time hasn't been too kind to Parappa the Rapper. It's a fun game, but will probably appeal more to gamers for nostalgic reasons more than anything else. If you've been keeping yourself busy with games like Guitar Hero II or spending a lot of time with Dance Dance Revolution, then Parappa the Rapper probably won't appeal to you in the same way.
The Good
+A port of a classic game
+Really catchy tunes
+Simple gameplay
+The look and feel of the cutscenes is still fantastic, even by today's standards
The Bad
-Sometimes button presses are off
-The game is way too short
-Not enough extra content, and what extra content there is is hardly worth while
-Thirty bucks is a bit steep for a game that's as short as this with hardly any extras and lack of replay value
-The gameplay elements that hurt the game in 1997 have not been fixed here, and what's even sadder is that the gameplay doesn't even hold up well by today's standards
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars, August 24, 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
My kids wanted the game and they said that they love it.On a scale of 1 to ten they said a 10.They beat the game already.They said "it was hard but we beat it" and now they can't stop playing it.the game challenges your rapping creativity which makes it a little difficult but as PaRappa always says "you gotta believe!"My son made that last comment.So as you can see they loved it.
Thanks.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
PS1 Remake, June 28, 2009
Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars
I was very excited to see Parappa the Rapper on PSP. Had I known it was the exact game as the one for the original Play Station 1, I probably wouldn't of gotten it. The game play is the same as the original title and is even less forgivable. While the classic songs and memorable characters make up for the lack of new features it still doesn't make me say "Run out and buy a copy." If you have played the original PaRappa, don't waste your time. If you are new to the franchise, by all means, you will enjoy this rhythm based game.
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