Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #388: PaRappa the Rapper

PaRappa the Rapper

PlayStation

Nostalgia Factor:

It's PaRappa the Rapper time as we move onto 1997, 15 years into my Mop Up Duty review tour. I was aware of this game when I was a kid, but its premise wasn't one that interested me. I wasn't familiar with the concept of rhythm games back then, nor did I really care about rap music. Although this game received critical acclaim, playing it never really crossed my mind.

How would I feel about this game now, playing it 25 years after its initial release? Was I missing out on something good when I was a kid? Let's find out!

Story:

This game takes place in a zany animated world, visually similar to cartoons like Happy Tree Friends (but without all the gratuitous violence). PaRappa is your everyday high school dog. He just wants to hang out with his friends and be accepted.

The main plot of the game focuses around PaRappa as he works to gain the affection of his crush - a flower named Sunny Funny. PaRappa learns karate, how to drive a car, all kinds of things as he works to improve himself to earn Sunny's honor.

Gameplay:

I came into this with the expectation that the game was just going to be just a bunch of quick time events. You see x on the screen, you press x. You see the circle, you press the circle. That kind of thing. I was sort of right.

In this game, you have to time your button presses with the rhythm of the music. So if you're in the middle of a song and you see three circles come up, you can't just hit circle three times. That's not how this works. You have to tap them in rhythm with the music.

This sounds pretty simple, in theory. But the deeper you make it into the game, the more complicated these patterns become. Some of them are so long they take up the entire top portion of the screen. Not only do you have to react quickly to the buttons coming up, you have to time them to the music as well.

Your progress is graded by a meter on the bottom right corner of the screen. You want your music to be "good" or "cool". You don't want bad or awful. The better you perform, the higher your score becomes, and these points help keep your good or cool meter up. If you start to fail, you drop into the bad or awful range. If you perform poorly enough, your rapping mentor will stop the song mid-rap and shame the hell out of you. You then have to start the whole thing over again. Get used to this happening a lot. This game is HARD.

I've never been challenged by quick time events. Never. I expected this game to be a breeze in the park. But the whole rhythm aspect throws everything off. I swear, there are moments where I am hitting the buttons perfectly in rhythm and then it says I did awful. And then the next time around I do the exact same thing, and I pass. I'm not sure what the rhyme or the reason is for the game deciding if you did bad or good. It seems to be completely random and at the discretion of the game. I don't like that.

Even though this game is only six stages long, it is still very frustrating. Some of these songs you have to attempt literally dozens of times before the game will let you progress. While the songs are fun and catchy, for the most part. when you hear them that many times they start to get old no matter who you are. The game likes to ramp up the difficulty right at the end of songs, too. There's nothing more frustrating than completely nailing a song perfectly, and then screwing up at the very end and having to do it all over again. This happened to me more times than I can count.

Graphics:

I didn't think I'd like this game's visuals coming in, but I was in for a pleasant surprise. This whole game is like a living and breathing cartoon. The characters are visually stimulating. The situations they find themselves in are funny as hell. I don't see how anyone could not be charmed by this game's style.

Sound:

If you're going to make a game that's entirely based around music, it better have good sound. And this game does. The voices and the music for the cutscenes are a lot of fun, but that's not what we're here for. The music. The music is so good.

I'm not a big rap fan, nor am I a fan of childish cartoon music, but this game takes both of those elements and completely knocks the finished product out of the park. I couldn't help but smile and groove along as I played this game. The lyrics are funny. The songs are catchy. Really an A+ effort here.

Overall:

This game does so many things very well. The music, the graphics, the presentation, everything is really fun to look at and to listen to. If only the gameplay was a little better.

I don't have any problems with the concept of a rhythm game. If PaRappa was a bit more accessible and a little less arbitrary with what is considered a fail and what is considered good, I would have enjoyed this game a lot more. A lot of times it seemed like it was grading my performance completely at random. I'd do well on a section and they'd say I was terrible. I'd bomb a section yet I'd still make it through.

And how the game would make you fail at the end of the song, and then you'd have to play the whole thing over again.... maaaaaan! Not cool.

That said, this game still left a positive impression on me. I'd come back and play this game again, sure. I'd recommend it to my friends, too. It's not perfect and it has its flaws, but the overall package more than makes up for it.

THE GRADE:

B-

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984: