Parappa the Rapper: Is It Still Fun Today?

Summary

Game Scoop! – "Parappa the Rapper: Is It Still Fun Today?" (April 27, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode of Game Scoop! is part of the “Is It Still Fun Today?” series, where host Daemon Hatfield and the IGN crew—Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne, and special guest Logan Plant—revisit classic games to determine if they still hold up for modern players. In celebration of IGN’s 30th anniversary, the crew picks games from 1996—the same year IGN was founded—for nostalgic (and often critical) retrospectives. This week, their focus is on Parappa the Rapper, the PlayStation’s genre-defining rhythm game. The discussion covers the game’s cultural impact, gameplay mechanics, memorable quirks, technical problems, and whether or not it remains fun in 2026.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Historical Context and Parappa’s Impact

• Parappa the Rapper launched in 1996 as one of the first rhythm games and helped set the template for future titles in the genre, including Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.
• The hosts share memories of discovering Parappa via demo discs. The widespread inclusion on PlayStation sampler CDs gave the game an almost social ubiquity (03:43–07:12).
  • Sam: “Getting AOL in every home on a disk and getting Parappa the Rapper in every home on a disk was like before we had social media, before we had a connected world. But that was the only way to do it... It certainly worked because I think a lot of people know what this game is.” (06:48)
• Its distinct art style—flat, paper-like characters reminiscent of anime and a quirky Japanese sensibility—made Parappa an early PlayStation mascot (02:00–03:43).

2. Gameplay and Technical Limitations

• Multiple hardware versions were used for the review, revealing different experiences due to emulation and timing issues:
  • Nick played it on nearly original hardware using FPGA and a RetroTink 4K (08:30–08:55).
  • Sam and Logan played on the PS4, which runs a PSP port via emulation and introduces latency problems (09:00–09:39).
• Latency and sync issues are pervasive:
  • Sam: “Now what Nick is just telling you though, is that it was. It already had a problem with that chicken stage. And I think that was known at the time too. I remember that being a thing. [...] So like, man. And then Prepa 2 actually got a, like an emulation port, so it doesn't have that issue. But that's all to say, like, prep has been done dirty and there needs to be. Somebody should do a mod fanfix...” (17:22–19:13)
• Gameplay timing feels arbitrary:
  • Nick notes you must often hit buttons on a different pace than the on-screen prompts indicate, sometimes mashing buttons to pass levels (13:36–14:24).
  • Logan: “I actually found more success. And this is like a bad indictment for a rhythm game. Muting the sound and just looking at the symbols.” (14:24)
• Difficulty spikes and inconsistent mechanics:
  • The game is either laughably easy or inexplicably hard, particularly at certain stages (chicken stage, bathroom level) (12:02–13:05, 37:10–37:31).

3. Charm, Art, and Soundtrack

• Unanimous praise for the aesthetic and music:
  • Sam: “It's 10 out of 10 charming.” (09:39)
  • The soundtrack merges playful rap with influences from the Beastie Boys, Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul (31:19–31:23).
  • Daemon: “The songs are totally good, totally catchy. They're fun, goofy rap songs... It's very cool. Very clever.” (30:53)
• Unique storytelling and weird moments:
  • The story is summarized humorously:
    • Daemon: “This is the story of Parappa the Rapper. Parappa is a dog who hangs out with his animal friends. He has a crush on a flower, Sunny. (...) And then he takes Sonny on a picnic, and then he has to go to the bathroom, and then he performs a show on stage. And that's it.” (28:55–29:25)
  • Recurring jokes about Parappa's intimidating dad and surreal character designs (23:20–24:30, 23:48).
• Signature moments, memorable dialogue:
  • “Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind…” (05:05, 08:04)
  • “I gotta believe!” (37:31, 37:51)
  • Potty humor and quirky cutscenes are highlighted as both a product of '90s experimentation and part of Parappa’s lasting charm (11:12–11:18).

4. Mechanics, Freestyling, and Innovation

• Original rhythm mechanics force players to "feel the rhythm" rather than simply follow prompts, despite the unreliable execution (21:23–22:43).
  • Logan sees promise in “Cool mode,” where players can improvise as long as they stay on beat, calling for a modern game to do this idea justice (21:34–22:43).
  • Nick: “When you hit the sample at the correct moment, Parappa sounds like the line that came before... if he does it incorrectly, he sounds unsure of himself or it sounds cut off a little bit.” (32:06)
• No tutorials; learning by failing is observed as both an artifact of its era and a frustration for modern players (21:23–21:31).

5. Nostalgia vs. Modern Playability

• All hosts reminisce fondly about Parappa’s impact on their childhood and its place as a cultural touchstone, but modern playability is questioned:
  • Sam: “It’s funny and a great museum piece and everybody should just maybe even watch videos. But unfortunately, playing it makes it worse than watching it and listening to it.” (36:41)
  • Logan: “I'm gonna say it's still fun to look at and listen to today, but not fun to play.” (36:33)
  • Daemon: “It only has two speeds. It's either easy, breezy, and fun, or just absolutely maddening.” (37:10)
• Sam: “The concept of fun is Parappa. Like, everything about it was meant to be, like, fun and lighthearted and just, like, what just happened?.. So in that sense, it's still fun. Yeah, but it's not fun to play.” (38:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Kick, punch, it's all in the mind!” – Nick & Sam (05:05, 08:04)
• “I gotta believe!” – Parappa catchphrase; echoed by the hosts as a running joke (37:31, 37:51)
• “I'm a huge Um Jammer Lammy fan. That's where I think the series really found me.” – Sam (05:37)
• “The songs are totally good, totally catchy... It's very cool. Very clever.” – Daemon (30:53)
• “The coolest dog and I think his voice is really good. And boy, the voice acting in the game leaves a lot to be desired. Is there a Japanese version of it?” – Sam (27:59)
• “If you're the type of gamer that can get a lot out of a game from its sound and its art style and just its vibes... then it's probably worth, you know, spending 20 minutes with.” – Daemon (38:01)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [02:00] – Episode setup, historical context, hosts’ introductions
• [03:43] – Discovery of Parappa via demo discs; memories of 1990s PlayStation marketing
• [08:30] – Technical notes on playing the game across different hardware
• [09:00–10:53] – Game’s difficulties on modern platforms, original quirks and visuals
• [11:12–12:02] – The art style, potty humor, and short playtime (“six levels, 30 minutes”)
• [12:02–14:24] – Gameplay frustration and inconsistent rhythm mechanics
• [17:22–19:13] – Deep dive into porting/emulation problems and what went wrong over time
• [21:23–22:43] – Freestyling “cool mode” and rhythm innovation
• [23:20–24:30] – Parappa's dad and the game’s oddball character designs
• [28:55–29:25] – Host summary of Parappa’s story
• [30:53–32:06] – Musical innovation and sampling as a game mechanic
• [36:33–38:22] – Final verdicts: charm, nostalgia vs. playability, and what to do with Parappa today

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Conclusion: Is Parappa the Rapper Still Fun Today?

• Consensus: Parappa is a delightful artifact of gaming history; its soundtrack, art style, and innovative spirit remain engaging, but its gameplay is often frustrating, opaque, or broken on modern setups.
• Best enjoyed as: A cultural touchstone, a “museum piece,” or a YouTube video/watch-along, rather than an actual play session in 2026.
• Verdict quotes:
  • Logan: “Still fun to look at and listen to… not fun to play.” (36:33)
  • Sam: “Great museum piece… playing it makes it worse than watching it.” (36:41)
  • Daemon: “If you can get a lot out of a game from its sound and its art style and just its vibes, then it's probably worth... spending 20 minutes with.” (38:01)
  • Sam: “The concept of fun is Parappa... but it's not fun to play.” (38:06)

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Final Thoughts

Parappa the Rapper is celebrated for its personality, music, and foundational place in rhythm gaming, but clunky mechanics and outdated timing systems hamper modern enjoyment. The panel recommends revisiting its soundtrack, visuals, and zany cutscenes, but only the most curious or nostalgic players should struggle with its controls today.

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Next week: Let the crew know in the comments what classic game they should revisit next for "Is It Still Fun Today?".

Transcript

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[A]

Welcome back to Is It Still Fun Today? Our show where we revisit classic games in order to answer the question, is it Still Fun Today? I'm Damon Hadfield. Joining me today from gamescoop are Nick Limone and Sam Claiborne and the host of Nintendo Voice Chat, Logan Plant, joins us as well. Hey guys, we've got a good We've got a really good one for you today. Well, I guess that's what we're about to find out as we Continue to celebrate IGN's 30th anniversary, we're revisiting games that were released the same year IGN was founded, 1996. A few weeks ago we did the original Resident Evil. Check that episode out if you haven't yet. And today I gotta believe we are replaying the cartoonish wrap em up. Parappa the rapper released in 1996 in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Na Naon Sha, a studio that is apparently still in business but hasn't released anything I'm aware of in 10 years, Parappa is the first true rhythm video game, setting the template of timing button presses along with symbols that drift across the screen that would be used in everything from Konami's but many series. Dance Dance Revolution and of course Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It also has a distinct visual style with humanoid animal characters that appear to be flat sheets of paper. One wonders if Nintendo got any ideas for Paper Mario. It was tricky for PlayStation to market the game because it wasn't really like anything that had come before. But Parappa was a big hit, particularly in Japan, And the character became somewhat of a mascot for PlayStation and would appear in PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. So I had Frappa the Rapper. I loved it, but it's been probably 30 years since I played it. Nick, how about you?

[C]

If you could believe it or not, this was. I've only played the first level of the game for probably hours and hours because packed with my PlayStation back in whenever I.

[D]

Everybody owned Paraffa.

[C]

Yeah. It was included as part of a PlayStation Interactive Sampler CD. A demo disc.

[A]

A demo disc.

[C]

Volume 4. It was a purple disc. And I just remember playing through everything in there. They had armored core, they had Croc Legend of the Gabo Q on there.

[A]

Intelligent Q is on there.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

And I mean Tomb Raider had had a silly, tiny little level on it, right?

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Tomb Raider 2, I believe. And I remember it scared me because it was very claustrophobic. But I really gravitated towards Parappa the Rapper as, you know, a 90s kid who grew up with Saturday morning anime. I was like, this is reminding me a lot of like Pokemon and Dragon Ball in a way I don't really understand. Like, I didn't understand the idea of, you know, Japan as a.

[D]

Well, especially as a country because of the. Because vegetables and that one love and that one demo dish.

[C]

But yes, there is this level of like, there's a through line in a lot of Japanese media in the early 90s where it was like, why are all these things kind of related in a way that I don't understand. So it was kind of coming to realization of that. And I think still to this day, I could probably rap every single part of Master Onion's song. Cause it's just so ingrained in me.

[D]

It's all in the mind.

[C]

Kick punch. It's all in the mind. Yeah. So, yeah, that's all I've done with Pot Rapper. The Rapper. But I have since, like, I've played, um, Jammer Lammy and like, Guitar Room and things of that nature. But I've never actually gone and played through the Power, the Rapid games.

[A]

Do you guys remember they did a game like this for the Wii that was about a marching band?

[D]

What?

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[F]

My sister had that when we were growing up. Yeah, that game. What was it called?

[A]

I'll Be Showing the. But I can't remember the name. But yeah, they did a game like that for the Wii. All right, Sam, have you played Prepper the Rapper before?

[D]

Clearly, I've never heard of this. I spent this whole week playing Crash Bandicoot because I thought we were doing Crash. No. Yeah, I've played Parappa. And that demo disc was a formative memory of mine as well. I'm a huge Jammer Lammy fan. That's where I think the series really found me. But I need to play disc to refresh my memory because I really don't remember a lot of the instances of what happens. I do remember it being annoying, I don't think. I don't think their rhythm sections were that good. And that's the whole thing kind of like. I know, I know. But there's like a. What you have to do is you have to, like, really learn the songs. And once you know the songs, you're much better at it than just watching the visuals. And I'm a little bit like. Like, now that I know that, I think I'll enjoy it more. But I remember at the time just not it being hard. Like, I just remember being hard. Whereas, like, Guitar Hero came out right after and DDR was kind of ever present at the time, and there was all these, like, Rock Band and stuff like that. Like, all those games, like, kind of made me probably better at this type of game. So, like, I also think, like, you know, because this is the. I can't think of another beat Beat rhythm game that I played before this. So, yeah, I have memories of it being really funny and really cute and really accessible and ubiquitous because of that disc. And by the way, you know, getting AOL in every home on a disk and getting Parap of The rap in every home on a disk was like before we had social media, before we had a connected world. But that was the only way to do it. And it certainly worked because I think a lot of people know what this game is. Yeah, it's cute and I think it's difficult. That's my memories of it.

[A]

All right, well, Logan, I like that we're having the Nintendo guy on a PlayStation episode. And you've never played preapp, right?

[F]

Never played it, no. Very excited to. I love rhythm games. I love, like Guitar Hero 3 is one of my favorite games of all time. That game's just amazing. Rhythm Heaven Elite Beat Agents. Like, there's so many great rhythm games. And so I'm excited to play the first one ever, apparently. I think that's really cool.

[D]

And you're telling me that for 10 years they've been working on a Parappa sequel? It's going to be massive. Open world climb, everything.

[A]

Yep.

[D]

Rap game.

[A]

All right. Well, we were off to play Parappa the rapper. IGN gave it a 9 out of 10. EGM gave it an average 8.25 out of 10. So it was very well received at the time. It is time for us to find out, is Parappa the rapper still fun today?

[E]

Kick, punch.

[C]

It's all in the mind if you

[E]

want to test me I'm sure you'll find the things I'll teach you sure

[A]

to beat you nevertheless, you'll get a

[E]

lesson from teacher Now Kick, kick, kick, kick, Punch, Punch, punch, punch. Once more now.

[A]

And we're back. We have played Parappa the Rapper. We've rapped along. Nick and I played it the closest thing to actual PlayStation hardware. Right. Do you want to explain how we.

[F]

How we played it?

[C]

Yeah. I was playing on a Mr. FPGA, which is emulating hardware stuff, and that was plugged into a RetroTink 4K. So we have 240i being upscaled to 4K 60. Really, really pretty. And I like to capture with a some CRT scan lines courtesy of the RetroTink 4K.

[D]

This is through a PlayStation, correct, that you hooked up a PlayStation to this?

[C]

Yes, that is correct.

[D]

Not like a 3 running a PlayStation one disc screen.

[A]

It is available today on PS4, which I believe is the way that Sam and Logan played it. But this version unfortunately has some latency issues. Is that right?

[D]

Yeah, it's brutal, man.

[A]

Well, it's too bad. I think that's a polished up version of the PSP remaster which was put out in 2006 for the game, which We.

[D]

Which we gave a bad score to.

[F]

Right.

[A]

Yeah. That was the one, I think, that we looked at in Gamescoop. Chris Roper gave it a 5.4 or something like that because the original is beloved. So it's a little unfortunate. There's no good, easy way to play it on modern hardware. However, we revisit it on original hardware. Is it still fun today? Well. Well, it's charming. It's definitely charming.

[D]

It's certainly charming. It's 10 out of 10 charming.

[C]

I love everything except play.

[A]

Looking at it, listening to it. Yeah.

[D]

But I mean, listening to it especially.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's got loads of personality and style. The songs are good. It's the kind of weird game that could only come out of Japan, but it's still kind of amazing. I think that it was greenlit, at least for Western audiences. So, like, most video games are like another game that came before it. Right. New Game B is like Game A. And the publisher hopes that people who like Game A will buy Game B. Parappa is not like any other video game that came before it at the time. Even so much.

[D]

Taiyo.

[A]

Do you have this Next Generation magazine available here? Next Generation was trying to describe Parappa Rapper to its readers at the time by likening it to Simon. Like the electronic game Simon.

[D]

You're not memorizing stuff. You are hitting buttons.

[A]

Yeah, you are hitting buttons. Yeah.

[F]

You're repeating after it's given. Yeah, it's good.

[D]

I mean, I guess you do memorize it in short term. Yeah, it shows it, then you repeat it, then it shows it. Yeah, it is like that. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. It says on the COVID Parappa the Rapper.

[F]

Yes.

[A]

It's another one of those quirky Japanese games. Yep, it is that. It is that for sure.

[D]

I wish we could say that today because now we don't get to say that very often. I know we say, wow, another rare, quirky Japanese game we get to play here.

[A]

Well, what I think Sony saw in it at the time is it's, you know, there's all this weird animation coming out in the 90s. Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead and Aeon Flux. So it's like, you know, it's weird, weirdo animation that doesn't really make any sense, but is very amusing even to adults.

[C]

Right.

[D]

And it has potty humor, too.

[A]

It does have potty humor.

[C]

Yeah, a lot of potty humor about it.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

I. I also think that the CD format at the time, you know, compared to something like the N64 that was cartridge based, the CD format was much cheaper to manufacture. So I think I, I don't believe this was a full cost game. I gotta fact check that. But I believe it was a much a cheaper game. Granted. I think it was like $49.99 or $39.99 so still kind of pricey. But regardless, it wasn't like a full priced piece of software which I really appreciate the experimental nature of it. But then again, if I was a kid and I got this maybe an hour of play time, I probably would have been a little bit sad.

[A]

If you just play, there's six levels, six songs, you know, each song is three to four minutes. So there's just. Even if you play through the whole thing perfectly, it's only like a 30 minute game.

[C]

And you will spend hours upon hours just repeating at least one stage where you're like what did I do wrong?

[F]

Which one? Which one was it, Nick?

[D]

The chicken stage.

[C]

For me it was the chicken stage, level four.

[A]

Yeah, I see I.

[E]

Every single day Stress comes in every way I ain't got no time for no body My style is rich, dope, fat and witch we'll make a cake today that looks rich Crack, crack, crack the egg into the bowl Crack, crack, crack egg into the bowl M I X the flour into the bowl M I X the flour into the bowl

[A]

that one didn't give me much trouble. It's the one after that where you have to go to the bathroom and you have to you revisit all of the masters that you've gone up to. At this point, I don't know, it just like.

[E]

I need to go just as bad as you. What I had this morning, I don't

[C]

even want to say to you.

[E]

Kick, punch, die and choke the door Kick, punch, turn and tap the door

[A]

the game just hit a brick wall for me at that point. It just seemed like to not work anymore.

[C]

Well, that's the thing that I had a hard time trying to figure out. I was like, I, I know I have rhythm, I know I know how to dance, I can sing, I can do all these things. I've played guitar here, done all these things. But I think one thing that's interesting to go back and reflect on is this being the first rhythm game, right where the thing that you take for granted in modern rhythm games is that you get to see the thing play out. And the timing window to begin playing is usually a little bit more. Forgive.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

More than the smallest part of the screen.

[C]

It's the smallest thing and immediately you, the like your little paw rapper. The rapper rhythm indicator will leave the screen after the teacher says. And it enters the screen right at the start. You have to hit the key.

[D]

Right.

[C]

It doesn't give you any indication that you're going to hit this button first. You know, it just kind of, here you go, have fun. And the rhythm on it is completely wrong. You don't actually. I don't think I ever had success. Like in the later stages, hitting the button when the game told me to, I always had to hit it like at a different pace. And sometimes like the chicken level, for example, I just needed to mash the L and R buttons after every single verse in order to get my bad up to good. I was like, I don't. This doesn't sound good at all.

[F]

But you had that on the like, close to original hardware too. Because I didn't know if that was just kind of the janky PS4 version that Sam and I played because I actually found more success. And this is like a bad indictment for a rhythm game. Muting the sound and just looking at the symbols.

[A]

Oh, I should have tried that.

[C]

Yes.

[F]

And then I passed every level on my first try doing it that way, which is a shame because the music's awesome, but it's just totally out of whack.

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[D]

If you look up the suggestion, it's ignore. Just do the opposite of what you did, which is to ignore the visuals and just really feel the music. I'm like, that's actually really cool. If that were true. And then that would add to the idea of like, you know, the game wants you to learn the songs and it wants you to feel the kind of the, the, the hip hop vibes of each song and how they're different. And then like and if that, that as a goal is so much cooler I think then the idea of like Guitar Hero, which is like click the buttons. Exactly right. That's cool. They just didn't pull that off. But that's still fine because, like, I don't. I don't hate this game. It's just. It's not much of a game because it didn't solve, it didn't do either of those. It's like in between them for some reason. And so there's a through line that I want. There's a quick story here where the PSP game was famous for breaking things and being out of sync. And if you look up the conversation from that time and what it stretched out to through the port is that that one is the PSP version ported to the PlayStation console. And then it's still broken. That's the still broken storyline. Now what Nick is just telling you though, is that it was. It already had a problem with that chicken stage. And I think that was known at the time too. I remember that being a thing. So that. Then there was a previous story which is, whoa, they didn't fix that stuff when they ported it to psp. Whoa, they made it worse. Then they didn't touch it when they put in PlayStation. So like, man. And then Prepa 2 actually got a, like an emulation port, so it doesn't have that issue. But that's all to say, like, prep has been done dirty and there needs to be. Somebody should do a mod fanfix, just do one or the other, make it lenient and let you rap a little bit and listen to it. Or make it right to the beat perfectly for the button pressing. That's my TED Talk.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know why that latency issue hasn't been solved on the PS4 version. Maybe it needs to be handled by Nona Unshah, the original developer. And like I mentioned before, they appear to be in business, but haven't put anything out in a long time.

[C]

To Sam's point, one thing I believe I was going down a rabbit hole of researching why the games are the way they are in terms of how they play. And as Sam said, the PS4 release of power Rapid the Rapper is a port of the PSP version, of course, but it's also emulating the PSP on the PS4. So there's like an added layer of latency there too, I assume. So it's very interesting and I believe a bunch of people like decompiled it and discovered, oh yeah, this is just the PSP port being emulated. So that's super fascinating. And again, to Sam's point, it seems like every single Level is just the rules are a little bit different this time. Maybe you press the button a little bit later, maybe you press it a little bit sooner. Maybe you.

[D]

That's why I don't call it latency. It's desynced.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

It has some kind of syncing problem that maybe is, you know, original or something. Or maybe they even pushed it around. Oh, do we lose Damon?

[A]

Well, we lost the camera there. I'm back. Hey.

[D]

They might have never had this synced properly, but they might have also desynced it to give it a little bit more. This is the argument that people say about res evil. Oh, they lock the camera and do it that way. You can't turn around easy because it makes it scarier. It is possible in theory that they would push things around a little bit so you had to feel it a little bit. But boy, add latency and a level of emulation and all this other stuff and that's where it doesn't work. But I think again, like getting back to the idea of like, did they try to make something unique and then were they trying this the first time? It wasn't supposed to be just a button tapper. That's cool. Like rhythm Heaven is a button tapper. Right? Like it's totally accurate.

[C]

Well, they were. Not that they were so close though, because like, obviously this is the first step of like, let's try a rhythm game. But then, you know, to varying degree. I think the game is super charming and I like everything else around it. But, um, Jammer Lammy is so much better. And that would be their follow up. So it's like, oh, they were so close. They just need a little more time.

[A]

I mean, they were the first ones to do this sort of like rhythm game, which is why it's interesting. There's no tutorial in the inside the game.

[C]

Nope.

[A]

It just throws you into the first song and you kind of have to figure it out.

[D]

Yeah. The Onion man kind of explains the

[F]

tutorial in his lyrics, which is interesting that you just need to listen along. I feel that way with the driver's Ed one too. There's like a line in that song where the teacher's like, hey, you're going to repeat right after me. And then it's kind of two beats instead of four beats that, you know, you need to be listening to to repeat back. So it is kind of a learn as you go thing, like Lear by failure, which I think is interesting. But what I think is cool is I have a concept here that's worth exploring in that after you beat them all the one time, it wants you to go back and get Cool mode by freestyling. I think there's something really neat to a rhythm game about, hey, these are the buttons you need to hit, but as long as you're hitting them on the beat, you can play whatever rhythm you want and then introduce your own button presses. As long as it's buttons that are in the phrase, that's super cool. And I could see a modern parappa that doesn't kind of play really badly being a really cool concept to revisit because other rhythm games don't really do that. So I'd like to see this come back. And I like the concept, but I was only able to get Cool mode on one level because it's so like, arbitrary how you trigger that. It's like some people on Reddit are like, oh, just button mash like crazy and you'll get it. And some people you need to hit square eight times in this bar. It's just super Logan.

[D]

That reminds me of in Ocarina of Time where you can just take out the ocarina and play whatever you want.

[F]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And then they gave you the pitch bending in that mode and stuff like that. Like they actually can mess with it. And I think you can use the D pad and parappa to kind of change stuff. And I don't really. Yeah. The cool mode thing is if this game worked, it would be. It would be a cool mode. But it is.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

I do like the. The state of the level being affected by your meter in the game. I think that's really fun and exciting.

[E]

Did you check the toilets on the left here? To check the toilet on the bl. Okay. Okay, you win.

[C]

And again, the best thing this game has going for it is its beautiful and weird kind of upsetting art by Rodney. Rodney Greenblatt. Yeah, is his name. I really like that art style combined with Masaya Matsuya's music. I think it's really fun. And it's like the perfect. It's a peanut butter and jelly style situation that all works for me. But all that said, the one thing that is nightmare fuel for me in this game is Parappa's dad. His. His dad is so scary to me.

[D]

He's gonna bite him.

[C]

Yeah, I just. He's so.

[D]

My dad's gonna bite me.

[C]

He's. He's so visually different from everyone else in the game. It's like he came from the. The evil dude in Roger Rabbit's like, you know, repertoire.

[D]

Some of the designs like were pre existing and then some were made for the game. So it's like that's why they really don't match up. And then there's the. There's the 3D elements in the cutscenes which were like really futuristic and cool at the time. Right. And then there's the 2D elements. But this game really did like the Paper Mario thing where they really mashed them together and it looks like an adult. It's like an Adult Swim cartoon before Adult Swim. You know, it's like this like adult psychedelic, like weird experience where like you're going to get more, you know, being like a college stoner than like a kid playing it.

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[D]

It's very strange.

[C]

I'm surprised PlayStation or Sony overall was okay with this game releasing on PlayStation though, just given the fact that there was this mandate to avoid 2D games. Yeah, so I guess they got around by. Because the cake is in 3D and some stuff is in 3D.

[D]

Barappa's car goes off the thing in the distance and then comes back.

[A]

It was also. Yeah, it was also still early days for PlayStation and I think they just wanted as many exclusives as they could get. Right. Because they're both Nintendo and Sega were well entrenched. It was by Nona Onsha, which they don't think PlayStation ever owned them.

[C]

They were not.

[A]

But PlayStation did publish it.

[C]

Yeah, they did publish it and they also got support from Japan Studio.

[D]

Yeah, I think there was. That's what I remember reading is that there was some actual Japan Studio involvement.

[A]

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[D]

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[D]

You know like what Parappa was like. We're talking about this like it's some janky indie game that nobody cares about, but it was like a lead PlayStation.

[A]

It's like a mascot. Yeah.

[D]

And like it was on every demo disc. So everybody played this game. There is probably like, what would you say, like 20 million people at least played it in America just because the demo disc.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, probably.

[C]

And arguably one of the finest levels. First introductions to a brand new IP slash mascot is the Chop Chop Onion stage. I think it's.

[D]

Yeah. And that's the design. I like Chop Chop the onion man is a good design, but I think Parappa is a great design.

[C]

Oh, he's.

[D]

I think it's the cutest dog and I think his voice is really good. And boy, the voice acting in the game leaves a lot to be desired. Is there a Japanese version of it? All in Japanese?

[A]

I mean, I've never heard. I have to look it up. I have to look it up.

[D]

But yeah, because like the English is like weird and I don't know. Logan, did you notice that they censor it and yeah, Fast food restaurant.

[A]

Yeah, but I don't know why I think they say.

[D]

I think they're saying Coke. Coca Cola.

[A]

They censored Coke.

[F]

Okay. Yeah, because they're just.

[D]

They're censoring their drink orders.

[A]

Yeah, okay. They're censoring the brand names you're saying.

[D]

Yeah, because they're like, I want a Coke and a burger. And then the next guy is like, I want all the cookies and a Coke. And then the next person's like, I want a ginger soda. And then when they say ginger, and

[F]

then for app is like, I want water.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And then why is his stomach hurt if he just had water? I don't understand. None of the lore makes sense.

[F]

Starving man.

[D]

No, that part is brutal. I feel so bad for him on his date, man. It's just the worst. But she only likes him because he's grimacing, looking manly.

[A]

Because he's looking tough. Yeah. So this is the story. I thought this would be a good exercise. This is the story of Parappa the Rappa. Parappa is a dog who hangs out with his animal friends. And he likes. He has a crush on a flower, Sunny. He wants to win her affections, so he learns how to be a hero. And then he learns how to drive. But then he crashes his car and has to get a new car. And then he has to get a cake for Sonny. And then he takes Sonny on a picnic, and then he has to go to the bathroom, and then he performs a show on stage. And that's it at the school.

[C]

That's the story of whatever.

[D]

There's a through line of an antagonist that's a superhero and then also a lecturer and is rich. So he has a really long car and he has a really long cake. And I'm realizing now that's all a metaphor. He speaks for a long time.

[C]

He's the original Chad.

[A]

Yeah, he's a chat, definitely.

[F]

Chat. Yeah.

[D]

And voice. Voice terribly like, what? One of the worst, like, most neutral voices in it. It's almost Twin Peaks level of, like, delivery, where it's like, it's off the other side where they're like, keep it. That's weird. You know?

[A]

Yeah. But like, you're saying I actually like that.

[F]

Like, it's so weird and bizarre and I just, like, I missed games coming from Sony like this. They just really don't do stuff like this anymore. And it's sad.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

What were you going to say?

[A]

You mentioned that Prepa is really likable and his voice actor is great. Even Next generation magazine was saying at the time, that was refreshingly optimistic, you know, and it had the message. The message that is believing in yourself. Right?

[C]

Like, you gotta believe.

[A]

Yeah. You gotta believe in yourself. Yeah.

[D]

And then that bathroom door will open eventually.

[C]

I was a little bit eyebrow raised, though. When he crashes the car with all of his friends inside, I was like, oh, yeah.

[A]

Just for daydreaming.

[C]

Power rap, you just killed four children.

[F]

And he's like, it has cartoon rules. It's power.

[D]

Rapid doors are just hanging out. Everything's just on the floor.

[C]

That's how they're in front of the jury. He's just like, I gotta believe, your honor.

[D]

Yeah, I gotta believe.

[A]

The songs are totally good, totally catchy. They're like, they're fun, goofy rap songs. Sonically, I think it's in the same wheelhouse as Beastie Boys and Tribe Called Quest and that sort of stuff. And I think it's really clever the way they chopped up Parappa's vocals individually into individual words and syllables, and that's what you're triggering. It's just like sample chopping in hip hop production, which I have done, but I wasn't doing in 1996. So it's very cool. Very clever.

[D]

Well, that positivity and the flower and everything reminds me of De La Soul. Right?

[A]

Yeah, it has a lot of DNA in it. Yeah, that too.

[C]

Also reading a little bit about Matsuya's, like, kind of perspective in what he wanted to cover. Instead of like mixing music and stuff, he. To him, the most interesting thing about rap was its sampling culture. And so that was a thing he really wanted to focus the game around. And one thing I really do like about this game, and Sam called it out earlier, is how the game wants to teach you to feel the rhythm as opposed to learn the button prompts when you hit the sample at the correct moment, Parappa sounds like the line that came correct, that came before. But if he does it incorrectly, he sounds unsure of himself or it sounds cut off a little bit. And I really, really like that.

[D]

Smart stuff.

[C]

Some levels, though, even if he sounds correct, it still doesn't give you any points. I'm like, what did I do wrong? I don't know what happened.

[A]

Yeah, ribbit, ribbit.

[E]

I can't hold it.

[A]

Last toilet with me of me already sold it.

[E]

In the rain or in the snow

[A]

I got the funky flow but now

[E]

I really got to go. In the rain or when the snow. You got the funky flow but now you really got it off.

[D]

There's a one thing that we all have the advantage of is we've been holding the PlayStation controller for 30 years now and we know really. I think this group knows really well. Triangle, square, circle X. I remember at the time being like this is so stupid. Why didn't they just do a B, X, Y like Nintendo. We've been playing Nintendo games for you know, 10 years or something by that point. And it just pissed me off. And then like now and now I used to think of it as like a total like cheap knockoff controller even. But that helped that I know the controller.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

I also to talk a little bit about just the UI elements of the game. I really like its overall presentation apart from the art style and art direction. I like how everything is kind of a miniature 4:3 aspect ratio inside like you're watching a movie alongside Parappa.

[D]

Was that original? I thought that might have been framing it because of my.

[C]

No, that was in the. That's in the original PlayStation 1 hardware as well. I like that and I like how just like the save and load elements of the game are like on a tape deck and stuff like that and that you are given the option of just using cute symbols when you're typing in your name. Like more games need to just bring that back of like you can put a funny little symbol in your name when you're.

[D]

They took that out of the PSP game.

[C]

Yeah, you got like a cute little half moon and stuff like that. Yeah, just really charming overall. And it really again if you were a kid back then, you probably got this game and this was the only game you were going to get for a while. So you really learn to savor everything the game had to offer and play through one. As Logan described, you learn the songs and then when you go back through and play through and earn cool status on each one. It's fun seeing the levels evolve and change based on hitting that cool status. You know the master, chop, chop, onion, whatever his name is. The dojo roof flies off and you know, powerappa takes the center stage and you get to freestyle. So all that stuff's just so cool. Yeah, it's very weird but it's. It's very cool.

[D]

It's also a score based game so like at its heart it has more DNA from an arcade game than it does from a home game. And you have to like think that that was a lot more common then like people had the context of games that you would play just to get better at them or just to get the score. Like a top down or side scrolling shooters that we all played like, Those usually were 20 minutes long and sometimes they were hard to get through, unlike Parappa. But like, you play them for the score and like, I think that this game was meant to be that. Which is fine.

[A]

That's interesting that you mentioned that, Sam, because rhythm games would go on to flourish in arcades.

[F]

First before.

[A]

Before Guitar Hero, there'd be, like, mainly in Japan. Yeah. Bimini and Dance Dance Revolution and that sort of thing. Maybe those developers looked at Parappa and I was like, well, we should make our own arcade games.

[D]

I meant to look up if Parappa ever had an arcade iteration.

[A]

Not that I'm old, not from what

[C]

I saw looking at the Wikipedia entry of Parappa, but one thing I did also think was wild, that I never knew before is when you finish the game, it teases PA Rapper too, that, hey, there's another game coming out, by the way. Enjoy. It's like, oh, it's like a game.

[D]

I scroll credits.

[C]

Yeah, it says that right at the end when he's, like, flying away and he's like, pointing towards the screen. It says, like, Pa rapper. The rapper 2. I was like, oh, okay.

[A]

Yeah. But they would do, um, Jammer Lammy first, and then they would do Prapitude, but several years later. Right. It was a PlayStation 2 game, I think.

[C]

Sounds right.

[D]

Yeah, it is. Yeah. Um, Jammer Lammy's PlayStation 1. And it has a. It has a great heavy metal song in.

[A]

Yep, it really does.

[C]

I mean, it. It works the way a modern rhythm game, like the way you assume a rhythm game would work.

[A]

They.

[D]

They learned and like Guitar Hero 1 was shortly after this all went PS2. Right.

[A]

Well, 2004, I probably want to say so.

[C]

And then you got Guitar man after. But that's a different developer. But I. I do like me some.

[A]

That's Konami, right?

[C]

Yeah. Guitar man rules.

[A]

Okay, so there's a lot we like about Parappa the rapper, but is it still fun today? Logan, what say you?

[F]

I'm gonna say it's still fun to look at and listen to today, but not fun to play.

[A]

Yeah. Sam, what do you think?

[D]

Yeah, it's funny and a great museum piece and everybody should just maybe even watch videos. But unfortunately, playing it makes it worse

[C]

than watching it and listening to it.

[A]

Yeah. Nick said you like everything about it, but playing it.

[C]

Correct. I got back from my vacation, I was like, ah, I'm going to unwind after unpacking by playing some paw. Rapper. The Rapper. And then I was just standing in front of my tv connecting my cable to My controller screaming, you just worked one level ago. What happened?

[A]

Yeah, it only has two speeds. It's either easy, breezy, and fun, or just absolutely maddening. Because the game that you've been playing so far, it just stopped working the way. And it expects you to do something completely different that you can't figure it out. And on that fifth song, you just have to do it 100 times and eventually you'll pass it. But you don't really know why it just happened to work that time.

[D]

I gotta believe.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, that's it. Just gotta believe. Wow.

[E]

I need to become a hero, too.

[D]

Hmm.

[E]

But how could I possibly do that? Yeah, I know. I gotta believe.

[A]

I don't know. Games are a mix of many different art forms. So if you're the type of gamer that can get a lot out of a game from its sound and its art style and just its vibes.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Then it's probably worth, you know, spending 20 minutes with.

[D]

I will say that, like, the concept of fun is parappa. Like, it is, like, everything about it was meant to be, like, fun and lighthearted and just, like, what just happened? Like. Like put a smile on your face. So in that sense, it's still fun. Yeah, but it's not fun to play.

[C]

Perfect. Let's play to throw up on TV while you're having dinner.

[A]

Sure.

[D]

Yeah.

[F]

I mean, I saw let's Play where the person doing the let's play couldn't even do it. Like, they uploaded this to YouTube and they were just failing left and right.

[D]

Yeah. It does make me want to go to Japan and go to old record shops and try to find, like, a soundtrack CD or something.

[A]

Yeah, the soundtrack is. It's actually legitimately good and surprising. All right, so a little bit harder to recommend than our previous episodes, which we've done on Ocarina of Time and the original Resident Evil. You should definitely check those out if you haven't seen them yet. What game should we revisit next for? Is it still fun today? Let us know in the comments. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Logan. My name is Damon. We will see you on the next one.

[E]

Oh, no. I can't believe it. My dad's gonna bite me.