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rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by
Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...
for the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997. Created by music producer
Masaya Matsuura (born June 16, 1961) is a Japanese musician and video game designer based in Tokyo, Japan. He was born in Osaka on June 16, 1961, and majored in Industrial Society at Ritsumeikan University. He has worked extensively with music and images, and h ...
in collaboration with artist Rodney Greenblat, the game features unique visual design and
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
-based gameplay and is considered the first true rhythm game. It was ported to the
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
in 2006 in celebration of its 10-year anniversary. A remastered version of the original PlayStation game was released for
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
in 2017 for the game's twentieth anniversary. The game was very well received by critics, who praised its music, story, animation, and gameplay, though its short length was criticized. It spawned two follow-up titles: a
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
-based spin-off titled ''
Um Jammer Lammy is a rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation video game console in 1999. It is a spin-off follow up to 1996's ''PaRappa the Rapper'', once again featuring the collaboration of m ...
'', released in 1999 for the PlayStation, and a direct sequel, ''
PaRappa the Rapper 2 is a 2001 Rhythm game, rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game is the third title in the ''PaRappa the Rapper'' series following ''Um Jammer Lammy''. The game was mad ...
'', released for the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
in 2001. Several publications list it as one of the best video games ever made.


Gameplay

''PaRappa the Rapper'' is a rhythm game in which the main character,
PaRappa PaRappa Rappa (パラッパラッパー), or simply PaRappa, is a fictional character created by Japanese musician Masaya Matsuura and American artist Rodney Greenblat. PaRappa first appears as the title character of the 1996 rhythm video game '' ...
, must make his way through each of the game's six stages by rapping. As the teacher raps, a bar at the top of the screen will appear, showing symbols that match up to the teacher's lyrics. The player must then make PaRappa rap in response to the teacher by pressing the buttons with the correct timing to match the teacher's line. During gameplay, a "U Rappin'" meter determines the player's performance, ranking it as either Awful, Bad, Good, or Cool. By consistently staying on beat, players will stay in the Good ranking area. If the player performs a bad line, a lower ranking will flash, and if the player performs badly twice in a row, they will drop to Bad, followed by Awful. To regain a higher ranking, the player must play well twice in a row to move up a rank. To clear a stage, the player must have a good ranking by the end of the song. If the player ends the song on a Bad or Awful ranking or drops below the Awful ranking at any point in the song, they will fail the song and have to start over. After the game has been cleared once, the player can attempt to achieve a Cool ranking. This is achieved by freestyling in a manner different from the predetermined lyric. If the player performs a successfully impressive freestyle when the Cool rank is flashing, they will enter Cool mode. In this mode, the teacher will leave the stage, allowing the player to rap freely and earn some large points. If the freestyling fails to impress twice in a row, the teacher will return and gameplay will resume in the Good ranking. Ending the stage with a Cool rank results in a special level ending, and clearing all stages on Cool Mode unlocks a bonus mode with characters Katy Kat and Sunny Funny. Rank-changing aspects of a level are only apparent during the first of every two lines. If the player successfully times the first line of a pair but fails on the second, the rank meter will not blink Bad or Awful. Likewise, once the game has been cleared, a Good play is only necessary on the first of every two lines to be able to get Cool mode on the second line.


Plot

The player takes on the role of
PaRappa PaRappa Rappa (パラッパラッパー), or simply PaRappa, is a fictional character created by Japanese musician Masaya Matsuura and American artist Rodney Greenblat. PaRappa first appears as the title character of the 1996 rhythm video game '' ...
, a paper-thin
rapping Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, determined to procure the heart of a
flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
-like
girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary ...
he has a crush on named Sunny Funny. However, he is intimidated by the presence of Joe Chin, a rich,
narcissistic Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism exists on a co ...
dog going overboard making efforts to obtain Sunny's attention. In order to win Sunny, PaRappa learns to do
karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
at a
dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...
, and earns a driver's education course to get a license. However, when he crashes his father's vehicle, he has to earn money at a flea market to pay for this. When Sunny's birthday comes up, PaRappa has to get her a cake but ends up ruining it after an encounter with Joe. He makes a new one by watching a cooking show and proceeds to eat a lot of it on the day. When spending some time alone with Sunny, he is suddenly overcome with the need to go to the bathroom and has to rap against his former teachers to get to the front of the queue. Then one night, PaRappa is invited to Club Fun, and asks Sunny to go with him, to which she agrees. PaRappa then raps on stage with everyone, rapping solo at the end of the song showing that he's showing interest in Sunny.


Songs

There are six songs, all in the style of rap:


Development

The game was designed by
Masaya Matsuura (born June 16, 1961) is a Japanese musician and video game designer based in Tokyo, Japan. He was born in Osaka on June 16, 1961, and majored in Industrial Society at Ritsumeikan University. He has worked extensively with music and images, and h ...
, who at the time was a musician in the band '' PSY.S''. Matsuura hated appearing in
music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
and began working on interactive software as an alternative outlet. Game development started in 1994, before the release of the PlayStation. At the time Sony Computer Entertainment was attempting to produce as many games as they could, which were worked on in two divisions. One division worked on popular genres and the other, internally known as "Division Zero", according to artist Rodney Greenblat, "just did whatever".
PaRappa PaRappa Rappa (パラッパラッパー), or simply PaRappa, is a fictional character created by Japanese musician Masaya Matsuura and American artist Rodney Greenblat. PaRappa first appears as the title character of the 1996 rhythm video game '' ...
was a product of Division Zero.
Japan Studio Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. A first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment), it was best known for the ''Ape Escape'', ''LocoRoco'', '' Patapon'', ''Gravity Ru ...
assisted on development. Greenblat got involved with the project after an SCE producer suggested that he and Matsuura work together, having both expressed interest in working with the PlayStation console. Greenblat had already worked with other divisions within Sony and was fairly popular in Japan, particularly for his CD-Rom ''Dazzeloids''. Similar to the ''
Paper Mario ''Paper Mario'' is a video game series and part of the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and produced by Nintendo. It combines elements from the role-playing video game, role-playing, action-adventure, a ...
'' series, all of the characters appear to be two-dimensional beings cut from paper while the surroundings are primarily three-dimensional. On his website, Greenblat remembers that making the characters flat was Matsuura's idea, after creating a mock-up with characters from Greenblat's Dazzeloids CD-ROM. The game's title is a wordplay referencing the flat characters; "PaRappa" is a variant of the Japanese word for "paper thin". After deciding on designing a music game Matsuura went through multiple ideas such as having a game centered around singing or playing the guitar. Matsuura was particularly inspired by the musical practice of sampling and claimed "the most interesting thing about sampling was people’s voices", and thus wanted to create a music game using actual voices and by extension one based around rap. By the time Greenblat began working on the game, the basic structure of the game had formed. Greenblat would create characters based on outlines created by Matsuura. Several of the main characters were already designed and owned by Greenblat, including PJ Berri and Katy Kat. One of the first designs Greenblat created specifically for the game was that of the main character, PaRappa, who initially took the form of a
shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...
. Occasionally Greenblat's designs would cause the game's story to change. Greenblat noted that he ended up having more input because the other team members felt that some of his characters exceeded their expectations, which prompted the writers to adapt to his characters by changing the story itself. For instance, after Greenblat came up with the idea of an onion for the Karate teacher character, the idea was changed to make him an onion master. The game's soundtrack was made using samplers rather than MIDI synthesizers, which were common at the time. Initially all of the teachers' songs used sampled vocals. These could, however, not be used in the final game and were redone "while maintaining the concept of each tune". The lyrics were written in Japanese by Matsuura and then translated by rapper Ryu Watabe while he was freestyling. All of the music was recorded at a studio in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
. The game also is one of the first PlayStation games to use in-game motion capture in order to portray more realistic character movement. Promotion for the game proved to be somewhat of a problem. Before this, there had been no similar games, and the team struggled with what genre to market the game as. Many staff members at Sony felt that PaRappa did not qualify as a game and Matsuura himself recalls initially being unsure as well. The game, however, became massively successful, which prompted SCEA, despite having a strict policy against 2D games, to release the game in North America. According to Greenblat, SCEA did not know how to market the game and aimed its marketing primarily at children, a demographic he noted would have trouble completing the game.


Reception

''PaRappa the Rapper'' sold 761,621 copies in Japan during 1997, making it the 7th best-selling video game of 1997 in that region. In May 1998, Sony awarded the game a "Platinum Prize" for sales above 1 million units in Japan alone. , the game has sold copies in Japan and 214,398 copies in the United States, for a combined copies sold in Japan and the United States. The game received near-universal acclaim from critics, who hailed ''PaRappa the Rapper'' as a unique game with irresistibly catchy songs. Dan Hsu of ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...
'' commented, "Several of the tunes are so catchy, you'll be singing them for days." Hsu also made it his pick for "Sleeper Hit of the Holidays". ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' wrote that "while the words may seem a little strange ... this just adds to the quirky nature of the game. The music is top-notch as well." ''
GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...
'' concurred: "The melodies are funk phenomenons, and the raps are so silly, they'll make you laugh in spite of yourself." Full review appears only in printed version. The graphics and animation were also widely praised. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' remarked, "All of PaRappa's characters are comically animated paper dolls moving against colorful 3D backdrops, a simplistic and charming visual design that never would have worked but for the game's theme and some brilliant camera motion." Multiple critics also commented on the well-crafted story and charming title character. '' Next Generation'' summarized that "The game is so well-produced and carried out that you won't even notice that the gameplay itself is based on the most primitive of concepts. Simply put, style over substance has never been better done than in ''PaRappa''." The one common criticism was that the game is too short. At the first annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards) in 1998, ''PaRappa the Rapper'' won the awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music", and was nominated for "Interactive Title of the Year". ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' awarded it "Most Original Game of the Year" and "Best Music", and the character PaRappa "Best Mascot" (beating out
Lara Croft Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around th ...
and
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...
, both of whom had critically acclaimed games released that year), at their 1997 Editors' Choice Awards. In the final issue of the ''
Official UK PlayStation Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
'', the game was chosen as the 3rd best game of all time. ''PaRappa the Rapper Remastered'' received mixed or average reviews. It was praised for keeping the charm of the original game while improving on the graphical quality but was criticized for only improving the graphics of the gameplay and not the cutscenes. Caitlin Cooke of ''Destructoid'' wrote that "The remastered version does not include a calibration setting. This works very much against ''PaRappas favor as there’s an extremely noticeable lag throughout each of the levels, causing havoc when trying to hit the notes on time." Stuart Andrews of Trusted Reviews wrote: "I love PaRappa and his 'I gotta believe' attitude, but this early rhythm action game no longer holds up." In 1999, '' Next Generation'' listed ''PaRappa the Rapper'' as number 36 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that "''PaRappa'' has to be played to truly understand how wonderful it is, and it appeals to both young and old, men and women, hardcore gamers and people who have never held a controller before in their lives."


Legacy


Franchise

''PaRappa the Rapper'' was followed by a spin-off titled ''
Um Jammer Lammy is a rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation video game console in 1999. It is a spin-off follow up to 1996's ''PaRappa the Rapper'', once again featuring the collaboration of m ...
'', which was released on 18 March 1999 in Japan. The game featured a new cast of characters, multiplayer modes and focused on guitar play, but very similar gameplay. A bonus mode was included in which the entire game could be replayed with PaRappa as the protagonist, complete with his own versions of the game's stages. An arcade version of the game produced by
Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
was also released. A direct sequel, ''
PaRappa the Rapper 2 is a 2001 Rhythm game, rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game is the third title in the ''PaRappa the Rapper'' series following ''Um Jammer Lammy''. The game was mad ...
'', was released for the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
in 2001 in Japan and 2002 in North America and Europe. Several media adaptations outside of the video game industry were also developed, including an eponymous anime television series which aired in Japan between April 2001 and January 2002, which served as a
tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...
to ''PaRappa the Rapper 2''.


Ports

''PaRappa the Rapper'' was released for
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
in Japan in December 2006 and in North America and Europe in July 2007 for the game's tenth anniversary. The port, developed by
Japan Studio Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. A first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment), it was best known for the ''Ape Escape'', ''LocoRoco'', '' Patapon'', ''Gravity Ru ...
and
epics The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...
, features
ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
mode for up to four players and the ability to download remixed versions of the existing songs. In conjunction with the PSP release, Sony, for a limited time, freely released the soundtrack. In a 2008
Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
interview,
Masaya Matsuura (born June 16, 1961) is a Japanese musician and video game designer based in Tokyo, Japan. He was born in Osaka on June 16, 1961, and majored in Industrial Society at Ritsumeikan University. He has worked extensively with music and images, and h ...
revealed that a brand new song created for the PSP release, "Believe in Yourself", was cut due to development time constraints. A remaster of the game by
Japan Studio Japan Studio was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo. A first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment), it was best known for the ''Ape Escape'', ''LocoRoco'', '' Patapon'', ''Gravity Ru ...
for
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
was released on 4 April 2017. The port features graphics of up to
4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K Ultra-high-definitio ...
, and includes all the downloadable songs from the PSP version. A playable demo was released on 3 December 2016, celebrating the game's 20th anniversary. Homebrew developers found that the PS4 port was actually the PlayStation Portable version running inside an
emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run so ...
and with high resolution textures. In 2016, Sony's mobile studio ForwardWorks announced they were working on a
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
version of the game; no further details have been released since then.


In popular culture

''PaRappa the Rapper'' was featured as a challenge on the video game-based show '' GamesMaster'' in 1998. The game was also referenced in the web series ''
Video Game High School ''Video Game High School'' (often abbreviated ''VGHS'') is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie ...
'', where the character Jenny Matrix is pressured into playing a level of "PAROPERA THE OPERA" during a talk show.


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parappa The Rapper 1996 video games Golden Joystick Award winners Interactive Achievement Award winners Music video games NanaOn-Sha games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games PlayStation Portable games Rhythm games Single-player video games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video games about dogs Video games adapted into television shows Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Masaya Matsuura