The Video Game Revue

Parappa the Rapper

Ah, music-oriented games. I remember back in the NES days, there was the "Miracle" system that taught users to play piano using their NES (you had to buy a keyboard accessory) and there was the popular "Track and Field" game that used a step-pad so gamers actually had to move--and, gasp, exercise--as part of the game. It doesn't seem like anybody at the time had the idea of putting the two concepts together to form what would essentially be the Dance Dance Revolution series as we know it today. One might speculate that before that leap of ingenuity could be made, somebody had to take a half-step in that direction. Cue the rapping puppy-dog cartoon character.

Parappa the Rapper turned a lot of heads and drew a lot of critical acclaim in its day because nobody had really seen an interactive music game before with such a simple concept: the song plays, you hit buttons following a sequence in time to the music, and your score is based on the accuracy of your performance. Clearly, this is one of those game concepts that is so simple that many people--even hardcore gamers--fail to appreciate the appeal of it. Of course, Dance Dance Revolution takes it to the next level by replacing the gamepad with a step-pad and forcing the player to involve their entire body in the act of playing, but in my opinion that does not detract from the brilliance of Parappa the Rapper.

Parappa was so popular in Japan that he displaced Crash Bandicoot as Sony's official PlayStation mascot. The game wasn't quite that popular in the US, but certainly every serious gamer at the time had at least heard of it. Since Parappa the Rapper and DDR, music-oriented games have had a steady fan following. Just recently, we've seen Donkey Konga (bongo-drumming game for GameCube) and Taiko Drum Master (drumming game for PS2) released. It's a good time for gamers to get their groove on.

posted by Parappa @ 11:19 AM