Parappa the Rapper raps on the PSP.
Sony has taken this classic game and ported it to its PSP platform with everything intact from the characters, to the songs, to the unfortunately broken rhythm mechanic. If you've never played the game before, each stage (six in total, each broken up in four to five lessons) begins with a line and button icons. The "teacher" will go first, with an icon representing their face that scrolls across the buttons setting up the rhythm. Once their icon goes across the screen, it's your turn and if you hit the buttons well enough, you'll get points. Miss, and you'll lose points. The game judges your rapping performance on four levels: Cool (which is damn near impossible to attain), Good, Bad, and Aweful. You start out at Good, and if you lose points twice in a row, you will drop to Bad. If you hit Aweful and stay there before a lesson is over, the stage ends, and you'll be given the option to retry. If you are at Bad when the stage ends, you'll be given the option to retry. You'll need to gain points twice in a row to rise up from Aweful to Bad, and from Bad to Good.
What makes this gameplay mechanic so broken is that there are times where it looks like you nail every lyric, but you'll still lose points. There are times where you definately screw up, either missing a lyric or hitting the wrong button entirely, and you'll be given points. It is just way too inconsistent, with an almost unnoticeable margin of error, and as a result the game becomes frustrating, as you have to replay stages over and over.
The game's story is a charming one. It starts with Parappa and his friends coming out from a theatre to head to their favorite burger joint and grab some grub. Their peace is soon broken up by a couple of bullies, and then super suave rich boy Joe Chin bursts through the door and saves the days by distractring them with a seamingly endless string of chatter. The gang gets up and leaves, and Parappa notices the girl of his dreams Sunny has taken a liking to Joe Chin. Now, Parappa has to figure out how he can impress Sunny, and then that's when the game's them "I gotta believe!" is introduced. Everytime Parappa is confronted with an obstacle that makes it harder to win Sunny over, he gives himself courage and inspiration by saying that classic phrase. There are four characters, or teachers, that helps Parappa get through his situations. Chop Chop Master Onion teaches him macho matrial arts skills to show Sunny no bully is a match for him. Instructor Moosulini helps Parappa attain his driver's license so he can drive his friends around. Prince Fleaswallow lets him work with him at the local fleamarket to earn money to buy a new car, and Cheap Cheap Cooking Chicken helps Parappa to make Sunny a cake for her birthday. There is a rap battle for the fifth stage to determine rights of who can use the bathroom first, and it's rapped up with a sixth stage that's one giant party emceed by MC King Kong Mushi.
Sounds ridiculous? Just wait until you hear the lyrics. The songs are quite catchy, though, and you just can't help but love the corney versus these characters spit. A new feature for the PSP version is to download new songs for the levels you've cleared, and I just finished playing with all the news ones currently available, and unfortunately, they are nowhere near as good as the original tracks. Some of them also are such a bad match, they completely ruin the rhythm of the game.
Ad-hoc multiplayer and game sharing also round out the new features of this PSP port. The game sells for 30 dollars, and to be honest, I feel it's a bit much for a game that's almost 10 years old. There's also the fact that the game can be finished in one sitting that lasts about 30 minutes to an hour. The value for people new to the series may just depend on how well they like the game's charm. If you're not impressed by whacky characters and silly music, you'll want to stay away from this game, as it offers you nothing. The value for those who still remember this game will be be determined on nostalgia alone. Perhaps if they make better downloadable songs in the future, and you can find people who have this game to play multiplayer with, the full price would be easier to justify. Still, I'm glad I have this in my PSP library. It'll be nice to rap on the go.