A New Way to Play

In the history of video games, there have been many successful titles that have been critically acclaimed for their innovation and praised for paving the way for future games in their genre. One such game arrived for the PlayStation in 1997 with the name, PaRappa the Rapper. The first of its kind, PaRappa the Rapper is a rhythm-oriented game where you play as the title character, who uses his rapping skills to beat several challenges (including cooking and getting a driver’s license), ultimately to impress his friend Sunny Funny [http://www.mobygames.com/game/parappa-the-rapper]. Players must imitate the teacher’s rap by pressing the correct buttons at the right time to make PaRappa’s rap flow well and continue. If the wrong button is pressed, or if the right button is pressed at the wrong time, the rap will be muddled and incoherent, stopping progress. The gameplay has been compared to that of Simon Says, repeating the action that the “leader” does [http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1303642821&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=8470&RQT=309&VName=PQD]. Before, gamers were used to a very systematic approach to playing: pressing the action button to kill approaching enemies, using the jump button to reach high platforms and so on. For the first time, players had to find a rhythm to advance through the game which posed a new challenge to expert gamers. IGN takes note of the unforeseen difficulty, stating that “it’s easy at first, but gets more and more difficult as the game goes on” [http://psx.ign.com/articles/150/150490p1.html].

Both GameSpot and IGN in the aforementioned review, recognize the originality of the game, with GameSpot calling it “a testament to unique design”. PaRappa was the originator in a new breed of popular music games that emerged in the 2000’s. The San Diego Union-Tribune, in reference to the game’s re-release on the PlayStation Portable last year, suggested that “anyone who enjoys playing ‘Guitar Hero’ or ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ should pay tribute to the rhythm genre’s first game…” [http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1313151971&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=8470&RQT=309&VName=PQD]. Indeed, there were many successors to PaRappa the Rapper. Dance Dance Revolution was first released by Konami in 1998, and went on to much success in subsequent years, releasing many games, including the popular spin-off game series Karaoke Revolution, starting in 2003 [http://www.gamespot.com/search.html?tag=search%3Bbutton&qs=karaoke+revolution#game]. Its gameplay is very similar to PaRappa, as stated by the San Diego Union-Tribune, but “without the dance pad and with buttons that scroll horizontally instead of vertically”. One of the latest games from that genre, Guitar Hero was released by Harmonix in 2005 and has also enjoyed worldwide success. Using a guitar-shaped controller, you play the corresponding notes on the screen and sometimes hold them down, similar to the freeze arrows in DDR [http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/guitarhero/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review]. Both of these game series have gone on to become very profitable for the video game industry, especially with the Guitar Hero series reaching $1 billion, according to the NPD group [http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/15511/Guitar-Hero-Sales-Hits-1-Billion-Mark]. All of this shows that since PaRappa’s introduction, this new rhythm genre has become an acceptable in today’s gaming, changing society’s way of playing video games.

While the game allows the player to copy the rhymes of the teacher, it also allows them to freestyle and add to the raps in the game. The New York Times, in reference to the PSP re-release, states what to do if you want a better score, “the game demands that you ignore what it is telling you to do. The game's No. 1 rule is: just wing it.” [http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1306740871&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=8470&RQT=309&VName=PQD]. This distinct feature set the game apart from other games out at that time, in terms of creativity, and allowed for the freestyle modes found in present rhythm games. The article continues praising the creative freedom the game allows by saying, “There is something exhilarating about being set free to do what you want, and at times it can feel as though you are genuinely creating music.”

Since the new millennium, celebrities have caught on to the burgeoning rhythm game genre and have decided to cash in using their own music games. One of the first people to do this was pop megastar, Britney Spears. Spears released her dance video game entitled: Britney’s Dance Beat in 2002. The main objective of the game is to become one of Britney’s dancers and gameplay is similar to PaRappa, and Dance Dance Revolution [http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=126036351&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=8470&RQT=309&VName=PQD]. American Idol, the wildly popular reality show, has released a serious of games, starting with a title on the PlayStation 2 in 2003 [http://www.mobygames.com/search/quick?q=american+idol&x=0&y=0] and continuing with a series of games in collaboration with Karaoke Revolution, due later this year [http://ps3.ign.com/objects/142/14267036.html]. Returning to rap, Eidos and developer A2M release Get On Da Mic for PlayStation 2 in 2004, featuring rapper Jadakiss on the cover [http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/getondamic/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review]. As mentioned in the review, the game features many famous hip-hop songs which you must actually rap into a mic (like the singing feature in the American Idol games). Unlike its rapping predecessor, PaRappa the Rapper, it received a poor review and poor ratings from GameSpot.com and the users of GameSpot.com respectively.

For a brief time, Sega has also taken advantage of the music game craze by releasing two games of that genre for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000: Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo [http://dreamcast.ign.com/objects/014/014748.html]. Space Channel 5 featured a woman named Ulala (in contrast to the animated look of PaRappa) who the player controls using rhythm and pressing buttons to stop the alien force, known as the Moroliens, from making the citizens of Earth dance involuntarily [http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/164/164181p1.html]. Samba de Amigo was significantly different, allowing players to use maracas controllers to shake to the rhythm with Samba, a Mexican monkey and the title character [http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/164/164748p1.html]. The use of instrument controllers would continue throughout the decade with Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the GameCube in 2005, which used special bongo controllers [http://cube.ign.com/objects/945/945689.html] , and the aforementioned Guitar Hero.

PaRappa the Rapper has proved over the past decade that it has left a great effect on today’s society, changing the way people have viewed the pastime of playing video games. It has brought more casual gamers back to video games as well as families who enjoy playing together. With today’s technology of instrument-shaped controllers and virtual reality gaming, courtesy of the Wii, the rhythm genre has a bright future ahead, thanks to the originator.