PaRappa the Rapper

Kick! Punch! Chop! Block! Sound familiar? That's because it's the famous opening to PaRappa the Rapper from the original PlayStation. Way back in 1997, which believe it or not is now ten years ago, Sony came up with the original concept at the time - a rhythm game. It never caught on as a mass hit, but had a cult following that lives to this day. Although a sequel made its way to the PlayStation 2, Sony is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the series with a straight-up port of the original version to the PlayStation Portable.

The first thing I want to say about PaRappa the Rapper is that I am sure it was fun ten years ago, but on the PlayStation Portable with almost no additions, this game is seriously dated. Come on Sony, how many games only have six stages these days? Almost none. Granted, there are different difficulty levels that you can select to change increase the challenge, but it's still the same game in the end of the day. The game is still cute, it can be funny and the music is still good as well.

So what did they add? With up to four systems total, you can rap against your friends in wireless head-to-head multi-player. Furthermore, you can wirelessly share a game demo with your friends as well. Finally, the last and probably most notable inclusion is the ability to download new songs. I am not sure why they didn't just include these songs with the game out of the box, but if you want, you can connect to the Internet and download eight remixes to rap to.

If you aren't familiar with PaRappa the Rapper at all, the game takes shape in “paper” 2D with a three-dimensional gaming world. All this game has you do is play Simon Says more or less. Scrolling across the screen are buttons for you to press, which you need to press to the rhythm of the song. As you press X, O, square, triangle, L1 and R1, PaRappa will rap the song the way that it was sung by the character in each stage.

It sounds easy enough, but this is actually a very difficult game. Although there is a bar at the top that shows you what and when to press, it isn't nearly precise enough. This is a game that you will need to pay close attention to the sound. It is often better to just look at the bar for the buttons to press and play back to the rhythm of the song that you just heard as you remember it. The game tends to be brutal, so even a slight mistake will cost you. The game's rating system requires you to score a "Cool" or "Good" to advance. If you fall to "Bad", you'll have to replay at the end and "Awful" will end the game immediately.

All said, PaRappa the Rapper is an interesting game that is the unfortunate victim of age. Sony did almost nothing to improve the game, outside of a few downloadable songs and it is short enough as it is. For those of you diehard fans that would like to play it on the go, you might want to consider picking this up for the PSP. Otherwise the short length, unforgiving gameplay and dated everything will turn most others away.