Welcome to Old Games That Don’t Suck Thursday.  Each week I’ll write about a game that somehow influenced by life as a game developer and which I can totally recommend to you because the game is flippin’ sweet.  It also has to be old or at least forgotten about until recently.

Parappa the Rapper originally came out for the Playstation, a system I never had a chance to explore.  Since I was a N64 kid myself (and only when over at friend’s houses) I never had an opportunity to play Playstation until much later in life.  And even so I never had a chance to play Parappa the Rapper until the PSP relaunch of the game (via the Playstation Store).

I was very happy to see it’s arrival so I could finally have an opportunity to play it.

Parappa the Rapper flies closer to Elite Beat Agents than Guitar Hero or Rock Band.  The beats go in-tune to the lyrics instead of the musical notes.  Each stanza in the rap has keys associated with specific lyrics that must be repeated after the “master” raps it.  In this way you don’t have to memorize key presses but rather keep in-tune and pattern.  Almost like a timed game of Simon.

Beyond the core gameplay, an incredibly interesting part of Parappa is the improvisational part.  The game gives you the “Good” rating for hitting all your lyrics but will give you the “Cool” rating if you continue to play extra beats and find in-rhythm ways to play extra notes.

The problem with Parappa is the length and unforgiving nature.  The game is only six songs long.  Granted these are long, fully-animated songs but after a couple hours I already played each song a few times.  Also, the songs are completely unforgiving.  You may have five or six notes to hit in a row and if you don’t nail each of the notes your rating will drop quickly.  Levels can also not be completed unless you pass with a “Good” rating or better meaning I was playing the last two levels over and over again.

But what Parappa does best is style.  The game is phenomenal in originality and fresh character design.  It has that “PS1″ look but the game is lovely all around.  The cutscenes are nice and the world Parappa embodies is slick and satisfying. 

Check it out on PSP or at your local used game store for PS1.  It’s a fun diversion from the plastic guitars and is probably one of the long-lost gems of the PS1 era.  Hoping for a sequel!