PaRappa can rap to some awesome tunes, but this PSP counterpart has not stood up to the PlayStation 1 original.
Graphically, nothing has changed. The graphics still remain the same. Characters are made out of paper, but the artwork of the characters is beautifully done by Rodney Greenblat. So... that is something to enjoy.
Audio-wise, the game's soundtrack has not changed. The songs are composed beautifully to take advantage of the PSP's sound system. There are downloadable remixes for some songs, but they are not as good as the original tunes from the game.
The control system is just pushing buttons in time with the rhythm, a la Dance Dance Revolution. If you hit it right "on the money", then PaRappa will rap "good" and right up to "cool!", where he will perform a free-style rap. If you miss or hit the wrong buttons, the meter will drop to "bad" and "awful". The meter has to stay "good" or above to pass, otherwise, you will be stuck at the same stage again and that could be frustrating. The game is not fairly long so it could take only 30 minutes to an hour to go through the entire game.
There are 2 ad-hoc multiplayer modes: game sharing and regular ad-hoc. You can share the game with someone, but they can only play Stage 1. As for ad-hoc multi-player, there is a rap battle in which the person with the better rap score is the winner. Unfortunately, it could have been online through infrastructure. Other than that, there is not much else to do.
PaRappa the Rapper does have some colourful graphics, but unfortunately, it is gameplay that should have been improved. Despite this, it is still enjoyable. Any aspiring rappers may enjoy this title. Other people who enjoy music games should take their rap battles somewhere else.