I've been waiting for this game ever since I first read about the import
version, nearly six months ago.  Well, it's finally here and it's...weird.
Weird and funny and an enormous amount of fun.

So what's this game all about?  You are PaRappa, a rapping puppy dog, on a
quest to win the heart of your true love Sunny Funny -- a flower.  To do
this you have to go up against several "rap masters" and beat their raps
to accomplish various goals along your quest.  Basically, the game
consists of watching some very...odd cinematics which move the plot along,
then going up against the "rap master" for that stage to beat his rap.
How do you do that?  Er...that's a little hard to explain if you haven't
seen it.  You'll hear (and see) the rap master rap a line of the song,
then you have to repeat it, in rhythm, by tapping the correct buttons on
the controller to match the words and beat -- these buttons are displayed
on a strip across the top of the screen.  A symbol scrolls across the
strip in time with the rhythm (think of a bouncing ball following lyrics
on an old sing-a-long TV show) and you tap the buttons in time with the
music to make PaRappa, er, rap.  It's easy to get the hang of, but
challenging to master the rhythms.  If you rap well, a meter on the side
of the screen will go up from "U Rappin Awful" through "Bad", "Good" and
finally the coveted "Cool".  To beat the stage, you have to be rappin'
Good when the song is over.  It's harder than it sounds.

The songs, I'm almost ashamed to say, are really good.  They're not what
you think -- there's no Snoop Doggy Dogg or Puff Daddy to be found here.
Try to imagine what Japanese children might think was "cool" rap, being
rapped by an onion-headed karate sensei, a female moose driving
instructor, a Rastafarian frog, and a cooking-show-host chicken with Julia
Child's voice, and you'll start to get the idea.  The beats and lyrics are
infectious, and you'll find yourself humming them to yourself for weeks
after playing this game.  What's more, the music actually changes
depending on how well you're rappin'; if "U be rappin' Awful", the beat is
still the same, but the underlying music becomes darker, more minor-key
and ominous -- it's a great effect.  If you manage to climb back up to
"Good", you hear the music seamlessly shift back to a happier, major-key
sound.

The graphics are simply a joy to look at, and set the tone of the game
perfectly.  All the scenery and backgrounds in both the FMV and actual
game sections are 3D modelled in a hyper-bright surreal cartoon style, but
the characters are two-dimensional cartoon drawings mapped onto paper-thin
polygons that ripple and wave in the 3D environment like paper dolls.
It's a very strange and *very* cool effect.  While actually rapping, the
on-screen action also changes to reflect your rapping; during the frog's
stage, (his name, if you can believe it, is Grand Master Fleaswallow) for
instance, if you're rappin' "Awful", some wares from his flea-market stand
fall on his head, and the sign above his stand careens crazily, as if
about to fall if you don't start rappin' better!  All the stages are
extremely entertaining to watch, making this a game you MUST play with
friends around so you can take turns challenging the masters' raps.

In the final stage, PaRappa raps alone on stage in his big show, and you
no longer have a rap master tutoring you -- you have to do each line
without having seen it first, vastly increasting the difficulty!
Unfortunately it doesn't take long to get to this stage, as there are only
six stages of rap-masters to beat in the entire game.  But once you've
beaten it, you can go back and try to score "Cool" on every stage by
"freestyling" your raps, earning a bonus stage (I haven't gotten it yet!)
This shortness and limited replay value is really the game's only failing,
and may relegate this marvellous title to a rental for many people.
However, for anyone with kids (or a significant other -- this is my wife's
favorite Playstation game) this is a must-buy.

It's refreshing to see such a radically *different* title get released on
the Playstation.  Keep 'em coming, Sony.

--------
review by Dan Burford
gilmore@netacc.net