Voost Kain
Banned
This Retrospective of Parappa will include the following games, as I do the next game I will add a link to each retrospective:
Parappa The Rapper: The Hip Hop Hero
Um Jammer Lammy aka. Parappa 1.5 (I mean Parappa is like half the game)
Parappa The Rapper 2
This particular thread is about the first game, Parappa the Rapper, I'll be going over the story, the gameplay and the actual rapping.
So let's get started:
Story:
The story is about Parappa wanting to be a "man" to gain the love of his female friend Sunny Funny. Yes that is her name.
This is Sunny Funny:
I mean I don't even know how this will work but whatever. It's a childrens game! Whoms gameplay isn't for children...
He also has to stop another movie star hero from trying to sweep her off her feat. You know that like 20 something year old adult going out with 12 year old girls. Um. Well look it's a CHildrens game!
Basically the first step to becoming a man is to learn how to fight. Which he goes to Master Onions Dojo. He then tries to impress Sunny Funny buy getting a drivers license which apparently police officer do driving instructions now(?), then when he wrecks the car, he sells a few things at a flee market because he has the funky flow from this Hippy Frog from Jamaica, which somehow gives him enough money to get a brand new car. Then finally, he has to make his own cake after the dog rival knock him down and makes him spill his cake by watching one of the worst rappers i have ever seen on TV. It all rounds up with trying to rap people to go to the bathroom when they could have went while he was ugh.. I'll get to that later.
So let's talk about the gameplay:
So basically how this game works is the following: IT IS NOT DDR IF YOU PLAY THIS GAME THINKING IT'S DDR AND PLAY IT LIKE ITS DDR YOU WILL NOT PASS STAGE 1.
Parrapa the Rapper is a game where you have to, as shown above, press the button that shows up on the sing-a-long bar at the top of the stream. The rapper goes first and you go second. But you don't just click the button when you head goes over it. That doesn't work in this game.
How you play Parappa is you have to press the button equal to about 5 miliseconds after the rapper says a statement.
So for example, if Mooselini says the word turn (terurrnnn) right when it show her flipping one of the buttons, when it is your turn you have to do it around the same time. Basically what I mean is you have to memorize how she rapped in your hewad, and when you get to the button you have to press the button a split second after she first started saying the word.
This means that is she pressed the X button for the word "Turn" (terurnnn) You don't press the X button at the same time period she said the word "Turn" because there is lack. Instead you press it where the "e' comes in, that's why I used the pronunciation "Terurnnn" as an example because you need to hit the button where she would say the "e" part, hence the bold. Not only do you have to do that but it also has to "partially" sync with the rest of the music in the background. So you have two forms of memorization. You basically have to rap the same as your teacher with a .5 second delay because the teachers rap slightly faster than when they shoe you the buttons being pushed.
This is a large problem because people play Parappa like it's DDR. This is a dumb thing to do, it doesn't work like that. The game makes you THINK that's how it works, but good luck getting anywhere using that method.
Now the second part of the gameplay is the bottom gif, which shows the Cool, Good, Bad, and Awful which depends on how U rappin. Cool imo, is completely pointless and breaks the flow of the game and the song. Although it's hilarious with the toilet level. A lot of people hate this system because considering Cool is an after though of most people you basically have one tier of passing and two tiers of failure. Cool basically removes the masters and you are buy yourself free styling and by free styling I mean pressing random buttons spoting gibberish.
If for example, you are good and mess up at the last second, you can get a failure for moving from good to bad. You can't beat levels without Good or Cool being the ending area. You are about to get the winning line like "now you got your license" only for that to change to "nope we gotta try again" and this will happen multiple times. WHen rapping awful sometimes the stage goes nuts which I think is an interesting detail. Sometimes the instructor will look at you angrily.
One of the best strategies for this issue is to aim for Bad but above Awful the whole time until the end. If you get good by incident ok. But you should only start panicking for getting a good score toward the end of the rap. Awful can actually end the stage early in certain cases, and you the next step up from it is bad so you would have to make double the effort to get to "good" so it's not worth it unless you want to see some of the details for doing bad. Which at times are hilarious. Before it changes your rank the game will flash the one you are about to be moved to, which gives you a chance to change up.
BTW Parappa has a hidden feature, is you press up on the D-pad during stages strange things happen.
Let's go over the Rapping Masters now.
Master Onion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reSJJ-QW1tw
Master Onion is the starting character, and the character on the demo discs that many likely have never eaten. He seems easy, but that's because the game misleads you because it acts like DDR for the start of his stage, kind of. Which leads to people failing.
He doesn't have very complicated notes to copy. So he's good practice for getting the timing down.
Mooselini Moose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TsqCNy6UU0
So the game gets hard right about here. From here on to get Cool you are going to have to do some crazy tricks and have a bit of luck. This stage is also infamous for you messing up at the last second and dropping from good to bad. This is the type of level where the strategy I mentioned above works best.
First thing you'll notice is that to learn how to drive, the hood must fly off for you to see the gas pedals. Also Cars run on rapping and now engine apparently. Parappa also drives in the middle of the road, and the car swerves if you rap bad.
This level starts the rapping fast issue. So because of this you'll have to press the buttons faster. Otherwise, it's still straight forward if you know what you're doing.
Also there's barely any rhyming at all in this level. Also when the hell did she leave the door open? ALso why is a cop teaching driving?
Prince Fleaswallow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU69ntXGhVI
Ok so the game usually becomes a major issue here for most people. This is where they start stringing buttons right next to each other, having the rap speed change randomly meaning how slow or fast you press the buttons changes, and you still have to be in sync.
The best solution for this is to try and stay on bad because it seems that stops it from changing as much. Giving you time to correct yourself, But you'll have to be fast to hit good as the last second. I also forgot to mention when you rap bad there's like this annoying duck noise that is only amusing for the first few minutes.
Also this is where Parappa sells stuff at the flea market to buy a new car. I'm not sure how those few coins did that unless they are actually real gold.
Also "this pump comes with a trunk" and I "I never sold every thing, everything" are pretty bad lyrics Nor do they Rhyme. Like the guys style though. Funky Funky flow. But this game devices you into thinking it will be a slow song, and then he starts rapping super fast as shown in the Gif and video. Asshole frog. AT least Flow and Snow rhyme.
Cheap Cheap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDvt85lzpUc
Cheep Cheep is the worst rapper in the game. Sounds like a cross between a drunk whore and Microsoft Sam. Her lines make me cringe, but are also hilarious. She is here to help Parappa make a cake. If you do awful she flies from the TV turns red and starts yelling at Parappa. Oddly when you do good and finish her section he asks how she got out the TV and hey just kind of wipe that. My Immersion!
This Chickens level combines the speed issue with the last stage, with the but it almost all rapid speeds. You also can't go in sync with this stage because Microsoft Chickens voice has to much lag so you have to be off to get a good score otherwise you won't pass this stage.
Also you can't play this stage on easy. Not that easy really solved any of the previous problems. If you do awful and she has to stop, she hatches an egg and her baby chick swears at you.
But of course She ain't got no time for nobody. Crack Crack Crack into the bowl (is that was she is on? That makes sense)
Bathroom Masters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGvn-nFeS4
I hope you're ready because although they only repeat to verses twice, you are now rapping against all four masters to fight to get in the bathroom starting with Master Onion. Why Cheap Cheap, Prince formerly known as frog don't go in while Parappa is messing with Onion and Mooselini makes zero sense to me.
Also in cool mode you just chase a toilet down a train track. Very odd.
Anyway this stage I'm going to split up because you need to come in with 4 different strategies as each that works on one does not work on the other. We are lucky they only have two verses (repeated twice)
Onion Bathroom
Lines "Kick Punch Turn and Chop the Door" "Or I will Fall to the Floor"
My strategy for this one is basically at the end start doing it fast. Because the next one will trip you up. Otherwise it's straight forward.
Moose Bathroom
Lines: "Did you check the Toilets on the Right?" "Did you check the Toilets on the left? which both are useless because there's only one toilet.
She will bring back the close together button pressed and fast rapping. I would aim to stay on bad here just because it will make it less likely you'll be thrown off by the next one.
Prince Bathroom
Lines: "In the rain or in the snow, I got the Funky Flow, But now I really need to go!" "The Toilet over there will bring you luck, so give up, I got no time to spare!"
This introduces double lines. This stage is really going for all stops. If you stayed on bad, this shouldn't be too hard at first. But you need to be aiming for cool at this point and throwing your own sounds in the blank spaces otherwise the last section of his and the start of Cheap Cheaps will be damn difficult. You want to have as much breathing room as possible. Remember you have to screw up more than once to change ranks, so go as high as possible.
Chicken Bathroom
Lines:"I am a Chicken from the Kitchen, and I Ain't Kidding, though nothing is Written." "Crack, Break, FIx the door you know, I gotta go, so yes, open up ya know"
Again, worst rapper (if you can call her that) in the game. Where are the Rhymes? WHy does she sound like drunk Microsoft Sally or whatever?
Anyway, the strategy here is the only time in this stage you need a delay. That's why I said go for cool, because it'll give you time to set-up. Though you don't actually want to hit cool, and the reason for that is keeping cool in this stage is odd and seems random, thus, if you do manage to HIT cool, which is unlikely, and you lose it, the game will through high speed at you for no reason for a bit.
Concert FInal Level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XISj03HREFo
For some reason Parappa gets his own concern because uh why not.
This is the end of the game, it's just a mismatch so there's no real strategy here. The main issue you'll be dealing with are these horrible cringe lyrics and this awful music, and they did not learn there lesson in the next two games either. The song about YOU GOTTA BELIEVE! which is the phrase Parappa does before he enters a new stage.
END OF GAME
Crack Crack Crack
Well that's it for the retrospective, discuss below and bring up anything I missed, or your memories about this pretty good game. Though has quite a few issues.
Parappa The Rapper: The Hip Hop Hero
Um Jammer Lammy aka. Parappa 1.5 (I mean Parappa is like half the game)
Parappa The Rapper 2
This particular thread is about the first game, Parappa the Rapper, I'll be going over the story, the gameplay and the actual rapping.
So let's get started:
Story:
The story is about Parappa wanting to be a "man" to gain the love of his female friend Sunny Funny. Yes that is her name.
This is Sunny Funny:
I mean I don't even know how this will work but whatever. It's a childrens game! Whoms gameplay isn't for children...
He also has to stop another movie star hero from trying to sweep her off her feat. You know that like 20 something year old adult going out with 12 year old girls. Um. Well look it's a CHildrens game!
Basically the first step to becoming a man is to learn how to fight. Which he goes to Master Onions Dojo. He then tries to impress Sunny Funny buy getting a drivers license which apparently police officer do driving instructions now(?), then when he wrecks the car, he sells a few things at a flee market because he has the funky flow from this Hippy Frog from Jamaica, which somehow gives him enough money to get a brand new car. Then finally, he has to make his own cake after the dog rival knock him down and makes him spill his cake by watching one of the worst rappers i have ever seen on TV. It all rounds up with trying to rap people to go to the bathroom when they could have went while he was ugh.. I'll get to that later.
So let's talk about the gameplay:
So basically how this game works is the following: IT IS NOT DDR IF YOU PLAY THIS GAME THINKING IT'S DDR AND PLAY IT LIKE ITS DDR YOU WILL NOT PASS STAGE 1.
Parrapa the Rapper is a game where you have to, as shown above, press the button that shows up on the sing-a-long bar at the top of the stream. The rapper goes first and you go second. But you don't just click the button when you head goes over it. That doesn't work in this game.
How you play Parappa is you have to press the button equal to about 5 miliseconds after the rapper says a statement.
So for example, if Mooselini says the word turn (terurrnnn) right when it show her flipping one of the buttons, when it is your turn you have to do it around the same time. Basically what I mean is you have to memorize how she rapped in your hewad, and when you get to the button you have to press the button a split second after she first started saying the word.
This means that is she pressed the X button for the word "Turn" (terurnnn) You don't press the X button at the same time period she said the word "Turn" because there is lack. Instead you press it where the "e' comes in, that's why I used the pronunciation "Terurnnn" as an example because you need to hit the button where she would say the "e" part, hence the bold. Not only do you have to do that but it also has to "partially" sync with the rest of the music in the background. So you have two forms of memorization. You basically have to rap the same as your teacher with a .5 second delay because the teachers rap slightly faster than when they shoe you the buttons being pushed.
This is a large problem because people play Parappa like it's DDR. This is a dumb thing to do, it doesn't work like that. The game makes you THINK that's how it works, but good luck getting anywhere using that method.
Now the second part of the gameplay is the bottom gif, which shows the Cool, Good, Bad, and Awful which depends on how U rappin. Cool imo, is completely pointless and breaks the flow of the game and the song. Although it's hilarious with the toilet level. A lot of people hate this system because considering Cool is an after though of most people you basically have one tier of passing and two tiers of failure. Cool basically removes the masters and you are buy yourself free styling and by free styling I mean pressing random buttons spoting gibberish.
If for example, you are good and mess up at the last second, you can get a failure for moving from good to bad. You can't beat levels without Good or Cool being the ending area. You are about to get the winning line like "now you got your license" only for that to change to "nope we gotta try again" and this will happen multiple times. WHen rapping awful sometimes the stage goes nuts which I think is an interesting detail. Sometimes the instructor will look at you angrily.
One of the best strategies for this issue is to aim for Bad but above Awful the whole time until the end. If you get good by incident ok. But you should only start panicking for getting a good score toward the end of the rap. Awful can actually end the stage early in certain cases, and you the next step up from it is bad so you would have to make double the effort to get to "good" so it's not worth it unless you want to see some of the details for doing bad. Which at times are hilarious. Before it changes your rank the game will flash the one you are about to be moved to, which gives you a chance to change up.
BTW Parappa has a hidden feature, is you press up on the D-pad during stages strange things happen.
Let's go over the Rapping Masters now.
Master Onion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reSJJ-QW1tw
Master Onion is the starting character, and the character on the demo discs that many likely have never eaten. He seems easy, but that's because the game misleads you because it acts like DDR for the start of his stage, kind of. Which leads to people failing.
He doesn't have very complicated notes to copy. So he's good practice for getting the timing down.
Mooselini Moose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TsqCNy6UU0
So the game gets hard right about here. From here on to get Cool you are going to have to do some crazy tricks and have a bit of luck. This stage is also infamous for you messing up at the last second and dropping from good to bad. This is the type of level where the strategy I mentioned above works best.
First thing you'll notice is that to learn how to drive, the hood must fly off for you to see the gas pedals. Also Cars run on rapping and now engine apparently. Parappa also drives in the middle of the road, and the car swerves if you rap bad.
This level starts the rapping fast issue. So because of this you'll have to press the buttons faster. Otherwise, it's still straight forward if you know what you're doing.
Also there's barely any rhyming at all in this level. Also when the hell did she leave the door open? ALso why is a cop teaching driving?
Prince Fleaswallow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU69ntXGhVI
Ok so the game usually becomes a major issue here for most people. This is where they start stringing buttons right next to each other, having the rap speed change randomly meaning how slow or fast you press the buttons changes, and you still have to be in sync.
The best solution for this is to try and stay on bad because it seems that stops it from changing as much. Giving you time to correct yourself, But you'll have to be fast to hit good as the last second. I also forgot to mention when you rap bad there's like this annoying duck noise that is only amusing for the first few minutes.
Also this is where Parappa sells stuff at the flea market to buy a new car. I'm not sure how those few coins did that unless they are actually real gold.
Also "this pump comes with a trunk" and I "I never sold every thing, everything" are pretty bad lyrics Nor do they Rhyme. Like the guys style though. Funky Funky flow. But this game devices you into thinking it will be a slow song, and then he starts rapping super fast as shown in the Gif and video. Asshole frog. AT least Flow and Snow rhyme.
Cheap Cheap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDvt85lzpUc
Cheep Cheep is the worst rapper in the game. Sounds like a cross between a drunk whore and Microsoft Sam. Her lines make me cringe, but are also hilarious. She is here to help Parappa make a cake. If you do awful she flies from the TV turns red and starts yelling at Parappa. Oddly when you do good and finish her section he asks how she got out the TV and hey just kind of wipe that. My Immersion!
This Chickens level combines the speed issue with the last stage, with the but it almost all rapid speeds. You also can't go in sync with this stage because Microsoft Chickens voice has to much lag so you have to be off to get a good score otherwise you won't pass this stage.
Also you can't play this stage on easy. Not that easy really solved any of the previous problems. If you do awful and she has to stop, she hatches an egg and her baby chick swears at you.
But of course She ain't got no time for nobody. Crack Crack Crack into the bowl (is that was she is on? That makes sense)
Bathroom Masters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGvn-nFeS4
I hope you're ready because although they only repeat to verses twice, you are now rapping against all four masters to fight to get in the bathroom starting with Master Onion. Why Cheap Cheap, Prince formerly known as frog don't go in while Parappa is messing with Onion and Mooselini makes zero sense to me.
Also in cool mode you just chase a toilet down a train track. Very odd.
Anyway this stage I'm going to split up because you need to come in with 4 different strategies as each that works on one does not work on the other. We are lucky they only have two verses (repeated twice)
Onion Bathroom
Lines "Kick Punch Turn and Chop the Door" "Or I will Fall to the Floor"
My strategy for this one is basically at the end start doing it fast. Because the next one will trip you up. Otherwise it's straight forward.
Moose Bathroom
Lines: "Did you check the Toilets on the Right?" "Did you check the Toilets on the left? which both are useless because there's only one toilet.
She will bring back the close together button pressed and fast rapping. I would aim to stay on bad here just because it will make it less likely you'll be thrown off by the next one.
Prince Bathroom
Lines: "In the rain or in the snow, I got the Funky Flow, But now I really need to go!" "The Toilet over there will bring you luck, so give up, I got no time to spare!"
This introduces double lines. This stage is really going for all stops. If you stayed on bad, this shouldn't be too hard at first. But you need to be aiming for cool at this point and throwing your own sounds in the blank spaces otherwise the last section of his and the start of Cheap Cheaps will be damn difficult. You want to have as much breathing room as possible. Remember you have to screw up more than once to change ranks, so go as high as possible.
Chicken Bathroom
Lines:"I am a Chicken from the Kitchen, and I Ain't Kidding, though nothing is Written." "Crack, Break, FIx the door you know, I gotta go, so yes, open up ya know"
Again, worst rapper (if you can call her that) in the game. Where are the Rhymes? WHy does she sound like drunk Microsoft Sally or whatever?
Anyway, the strategy here is the only time in this stage you need a delay. That's why I said go for cool, because it'll give you time to set-up. Though you don't actually want to hit cool, and the reason for that is keeping cool in this stage is odd and seems random, thus, if you do manage to HIT cool, which is unlikely, and you lose it, the game will through high speed at you for no reason for a bit.
Concert FInal Level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XISj03HREFo
For some reason Parappa gets his own concern because uh why not.
This is the end of the game, it's just a mismatch so there's no real strategy here. The main issue you'll be dealing with are these horrible cringe lyrics and this awful music, and they did not learn there lesson in the next two games either. The song about YOU GOTTA BELIEVE! which is the phrase Parappa does before he enters a new stage.
END OF GAME
Crack Crack Crack
Well that's it for the retrospective, discuss below and bring up anything I missed, or your memories about this pretty good game. Though has quite a few issues.
! Will sub to this and I cant wait for you to cover the rest of the games. Great work so far and strong usage of images and gifs I must say 