Vimm's Lair: PS1 Reviews - PaRappa the Rapper
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PlayStation
PaRappa the Rapper

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
7.53
8.13
7.47
7.84
Votes: 62
Reviews: 1


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Reviewer: Tehgan Date: Jul 11, 2018
Ah yes, Rodney Greenblat's PaRappa the Rapper. A game which, at it's time, was like nothing before it. It's become dated by games which execute the "Buttons to the Beat" style such as the Project Diva series, but a good game, and definitely worth checking out if you haven't already played it.

Graphics: 7
The graphics in this game are quite unique; while the game was in early production, one of the designers (Masaya Matsuura) was working on modelling the characters. They found Greenblat's characters difficult to work with in a primitive 3D environment, leading them to become the paper models we know today.

Now, the graphic style is very unique; the 2.5D models, in my opinion, have aged well. However, the backgrounds have not... Especially the cutscenes! The background props are sometimes drawn by hand, which looks nice, but the rest of the time are extremely basic looking 3D models. We're talking stuff you would see on the SNES's Super FX chip! Overall though, it's good.

Sound: 8
Well, the sound is the main focus of PaRappa, the catchy tunes the teachers rap, and you have to rap along with them. The songs are, again, unique. The beats are pretty catchy, and the lyrics are in "Engrish" half the time. It can either be charming or put you off, but if you're checking this game out you'll probably find them the former.

Gameplay: 7
The gameplay is PaRappa's other main department, and while it's fun, it's also frustrating. Basically, you hit the buttons in time with the ones on the top of the screen, following a PaRappa head and when it goes over, say, a square, you hit square. It's simple enough, but the game's detection of when you press a button is a little off, making it quite annoying, and more difficult then it should be. I feel PaRappa the Rapper 2, a quite underrated game, is much better in this respect (and, dare I say it, has better songs.)

Overall: 7
The game's a little poorly aged, with a clunky system superseded by other games, including it's sequel, but the experience is one you can't get anywhere else. Its songs are strange, its style like no other, and it's invented a genre.

Overall the game may have aged a little poorly, but it's still good fun, especially if you're playing with someone non-familiar with the series. Their reactions may be quite funny!