Parappa the Rapper: Is It Still Fun Today?

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 Hatfield, joining me today from Game Scoop, our Nikolomum, and Sam Clayborn. And, the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and Logan Plants 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 the we're about to find out. As we continue to celebrate Hygien's 30th anniversary, where revisiting games, there were at least the same year Hygien 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 got to believe, we are replaying the Cartoonish Rappamup Parappa the Rapper, released in 1996 in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment, and developed by Na Na on Shaw, a studio that is apparently still on business, but hasn't released anything I'm aware of in 10 years. Rapper 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, Hitahiro 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 Parappa the Rapper, I loved it, but it's been probably 30 years since I played it. Nick, how about you? 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 I packed with my PlayStation back in whatever I got. Everybody owned Parappa. Yeah, it was, it was, it was included as part of a PlayStation interactive, sampler CD, a demo disk. A demo disk. Volume four. It was a purple disk. And I just remember playing through everything into that armored core, they had crock, legend of the GABO. Was IQ on there? Thank you. Yes. I mean, Tomb Raider had a silly tiny little level on it, right? Yeah, Tomb Raider II, 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 animals. 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 country because of vegetables and that one demo disk. There is this level of like, there's a through line in a lot of Japanese media in their early 90s where I 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, I think still to this day, I could probably wrap every single part of a master onion song because it's just so ingrained in all the mind, kick punch. It's all in the mind. Yeah. All I've done with Parappa the Rapper, but I have since like, I've played Umjam or Lamy and like guitar ruminant things of that nature, but I've never actually gone and played through the Parappa the Rapper game. So you guys remember they did a game like this for the Wii? That was about a marching band? What? Oh, yeah. Yeah. My sister had that when we were growing up. Yeah. That game. What was it called? I'll be showing the bureau now. But I can't remember the name. Yeah. Yeah. They did a game like that for the Wii. All right. Sam, have you played Parappa the Rapper before? Yeah. 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 Umjam or Lamy fan. That's where I think the series really found me, but I need to play this 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 there were them sections were that good. That's the whole thing. It's 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 you pick what is because of that disc. And by the way, you know, getting AOL on every home on a disc and getting a crap of the rap in every home on a disc was like before we had social media, before we had a connected world. But that was the only way to do it. And certainly works. 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. All right. Logan, I like that we're having the Nintendo guy on a PlayStation episode. And you've never played prapper, right? Never played it. No. Very excited too. I love rhythm games. I love like guitar hero three 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. Yeah. I think that's really cool. And you're telling me that for 10 years, they've been working on a prapper sequel, it's gonna be massive. Open world climb. Yeah. Rap game. All right. Well, we were off to play prapper, the rap. Igen 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. And it's time for us to find out is prapper, the rapper is still fun today. And we're back. We have played prapper the rapper. You've wrapped along, Nick and I played it, the closest thing to actual PlayStation hardware, right? Do you want to explain how we played it? Yeah. I was playing on a Mr FPGA, which is emulating hardware stuff. And that was plugged into a retro Tink 4K. So we have 240 I being upscaled to 4K 60, really, really pretty. And I like to capture with a some CRT scan lines courtesy of the retro Tink 4K. For the. Through a PlayStation, correct, that you hooked up a PlayStation to this one. That is correct. Not like a three running a PlayStation one. Right. 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? Yeah, it's too bad. I think that's a polished up version of the PSP remaster, which was put out in 2006 for the games, which we gave us bad score to. Yeah. That was the one I think that we looked at in Game Scoop, Chris Roper gave it a 5.4 or something like that. Because the original is beloved. So it's just, it's a little unfortunate that there's no good easy way to play it on modern hardware. However, we, we revisited on original hardware. Is it still fun today? Well, well, it's charming. It's definitely charming. It's certainly charming. I love town, it's then charming. I love everything except play. Looking at it, listening to it. Yeah. But I mean, listening to it especially. Yeah. And it 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. Parava is not like any other video game that came before it at the time. Even so much. Tyler, do you have this next generation magazine available here? Next generation was trying to describe Parapa the Rapper to its readers at the time by likening it to Simon. Like the electronic game Simon. Oh, okay. Because you're not memorizing stuff. You are hitting buttons. Yeah, you're hitting, but yeah. Yeah. You're eating after it's given. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. 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. It says on the cover, Parapa the Rapper. Yes. It's another one of those quirky Japanese games. Yep. It is that. It is that for sure. Well, 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. 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 Simpy, be with some butt head and A on flux. So it's like, you know, it's weird, weirdo animation that doesn't really make any sense, but it's very amusing even to adults, right? Why that? It has potty humor, too. It does have potty. A lot of potty humor about it. Yeah. 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 don't believe this was a full cost game. I got a fact check that, but I believe it was a much cheaper game granted. I think it was like $4,999 or $3,999, so it's 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. If you just play, there's six levels, six songs, you know, each song is through to four minutes. So there's just even if you play through the whole thing. It's only like a 30 minute game and you will spend hours upon hours just repeating at least one stage where you're like What did I do wrong which one which one was a Nick the chicken stage for me was a chicken stage level four. Yeah, I'd see I Every single day stress comes in every way. I ain't got no time for nobody. My style is rich dope that in which We'll make a cake today that looks rich crack crack crack the egg into the bone crack crack crack egg into the bowl I'm I X the flower into the bowl And I X the flower went into the bowl 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 revisit all of you the masters that you've gone up to at this point. I don't know it just like I The game just hit a brick wall wall for me at that point it just seemed like to not work anymore Well, that's the thing that I had a hard time trying to figure out was like 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 you're 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 forgiving. Yeah, more than the smallest part of the screen Is that it's the smallest thing and immediately you the like your little paw wrap of the wrap a rhythm indicator We'll leave the screen after the teacher says and it enters the screen right at the start You have to hit the key right it doesn't give you any indication that you're gonna 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 bat up to good I was like I don't this doesn't sound good at all You had that on the like close to original hardware too because I didn't know if that was just kind of the JNK 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 symbol. I should try that Playing to that and then I passed every level on my first try doing it that way which is a shame because the music is awesome Yeah, but it's just totally out of whack if you look up the suggestion It's ignore to 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 I want you to feel That the kind of the the hip-hop vibes of each song and how they're different and then to 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 and 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 for breaking things and being out of sync And if you look up the conversation from that time and what it what it stretched out to you through the port Is that that one is the PSP version ported to the PlayStation Console and then it's still broken that was the still that's the still broken story line Now what Nick is just telling you though is that it was It all we 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 well They didn't fix that stuff when they poured it to PSP. Well, they made it worse Then they didn't touch it when they put it in PlayStation So like man and then proper to actually got a like a emulation port so it doesn't have that issue But that's all to say like crap has been done dirty and like there needs to be like Somebody should do a mod fan fix just like do one or the other like make it like lenient and let you wrap a little bit And listen to it or make it like you know right to the beat Perfectly for the button pressing. That's my Ted talk. Yeah, I don't know why that latency issue hasn't been solved On the PS4 version Maybe it needs to be handled by none on Shaw the original developer and like like I mentioned before they appear to be in business But haven't put anything out in a long time to Sam's point one thing I believe I was going down a rabbit hole researching why the games are the way they are in terms of how they play and As Sam said the the PS4 release of Power App of the wrapper is a port of the PSP version of course But it's also emulating the PSP on the PS4 so there's like a added layer of latency there too I seem so it's very interesting and I believe a bunch of people like decompiled it and discovered Oh, yeah, there's 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 that you press the button a little bit later maybe press a little bit sooner. Maybe you that's why I don't call it latency It's desinked. Yeah, 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 them well without the camera there I'm back Hey, they might have they might have you know never had this synced properly But they might have also desinked it to give it a little bit more This is this is the argument that people say about Rez evil. Oh, they they lock the camera and do it that way So you can't turn around easy because it makes it scarier like it is possible in theory that they would push things around a little bit So you had to feel a little bit But boy add latency and a level of emulation and like all this other stuff and like 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 where they tried This is the first time there wasn't supposed to be just a button tapper That's cool like where the heaven is a button tapper like it's it's totally accurate Well, they were so they were so close so 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 I'm Jammer Lamy is so much better and that would be their follow-up to this so it's like all they were so close They just do a little more time. I mean they're they're they're the first ones to do this Yeah, that's sort of like rhythm game, which is why it's interesting There's no tutorial in the inside the game. Nope. It just so just throws you into the first song and you kind of have to figure it out The onion man kind of explains the tutorial in his lyrics, which is interesting that you just need to listen along I feel that way with the driver's ed one - yeah, there's a line in that song where the teachers like hey You're gonna 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 learn by failure, which I think is interesting But I when I think it's cool I have a concept here that 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 free styling right? 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 like I can I can see a modern parapet it 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 Redditor like oh just button mash like crazy And some people you need to square eight times in this bar. It's just super awesome That reminds me of in an octane of time where you can just take out the octane and blow it every one. Yeah, yeah I know they gave you the pitch bending in that mode and stuff like that Like they actually mess with it and I think you can use the D pad and paraffo 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 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 To check the tone it's on the block. Okay. Okay. You win And again, the the best thing this game has going for it is it's beautiful and weird kind of upsetting art by Rodney Greenblatt. Yeah, is it a name? I really like that. I art style combined with Messiah Matsia's music I think it's really fun and it's like the perf 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 parapas dad His dad is so scary to me. He's gonna bite him. Yeah, I just he's so my dad's gonna bite me. He's so Visually different from everyone else in the game It's like he came from the the evil dude in Roger rabbits like You see that like some of the designs like we're 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 and the cut scenes which were like really futuristic and cool at the time right and then There's the 2d elements, but they 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 car to yeah before adults Yeah, you know, it's like this like adult psychedelic like weird experience where like you're gonna get more You know being like a college stoner than like a kid playing it. Yeah, it's very strange. 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. - Or 3D games, yeah. So I guess they got around by because the cake isn't 3D and some stuff isn't 3D. - Yeah. For Apple's car goes off the thing in the distance and then goes back back. - It was also, yeah, it was also still early days for PlayStation. I think they just wanted as many exclusives since they could get, right? 'Cause they're both Nintendo and Sega weren't well-entrenched. It was by Nona Ownshop, which they don't think a PlayStation ever owned them, but the PlayStation didn't publish it. - Yeah, they did publish it. And they also got support from Japan Studio. - Yeah, I think that's what I remember reading is that there was some actual Japan Studio involvement. - 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-- - It was like a mascot, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, and like, it was on every demo disk. So everybody played this game. There was probably like, what would you say? Like 20 million people at least played it in America, just because of the demo disk? - Yeah, yeah, probably. - 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-- - Yeah, and that's a good sign, I like Chop Chop. The onion man is a good design. I think Parappa's a great design. 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 Japanese. - I mean, I've never heard of it. - I had to look it up. I had to look it up, but yeah. So it's like the English is like weird. And I don't know, Flogue, and did you notice that they censor it in the fast food restaurant? - Yeah, but I don't know why. I think they say, I think they're saying Coke. Coke and Cola. - They censor Coke. - Oh, okay, yeah. - 'Cause they're just, they're censoring their drink quarters. - Yeah, okay, they're censoring the brand names, you're saying. - Yeah, 'cause they're like, I want a Coke and a burger. And then the next guy's like, I want all the cookies and a Coke. And then the next person's like, I want a ginger soda. And then when did they say ginger soda? - And then perhaps it's like, I want water. - Yeah. And then perhaps it's like, why is his stomach hurt? If he just had water, I don't understand. None of the Lord makes sense. - He's starving, man. - 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. - Look man. - He's looking tough. Yeah, so this is the story. I thought this would be a good exercise. This is the story of Prapah, the rapper. Prapah is a dog who hangs out with his animal friends and he likes, he has a crush on a flower. He wants to, 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 Sunny and then he takes Sunny on a picnic and then he has to go to the bathroom and then he performs a show on stage. And that's it. That's the story of Prapah or what I do. - There's a through line of an antagonist. That's a superhero and then also a lecturer and his 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 means for a long time. - He's the original Chad. - Yeah, he's a Chad, devil Chad. - And voice, Joe Chinn, voice terribly. Like one of the worst like most neutral voices and 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. - Yeah, but like you're saying. - And I actually like that, like it's so weird and bizarre and it just like, I miss games coming from Sony. Like this. They just really don't do stuff like this anymore and it's sad. - What were you saying, man? - You were mentioned that Prapah 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 the message is believing in yourself, right? - Just gotta believe? - Yeah, you gotta believe in yourself. - Yeah. - And then that bathroom door will open eventually. (laughing) - I was a little bit eyebrow-raised though when he crashes the car with all of his friends inside I was like, "Oh yeah, just for day dreaming." - All right, you just killed four children. And he's like, - And it's cartoon rules. - It's fine. - All fours are just hanging out. Everything's just on the floor. That's how they-- - In front of the jury, he's just like, "I gotta believe your honor." (laughing) - Yeah, I gotta believe. - Yeah. - I gotta believe. - 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 the preppas 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. - Well, that positivity and the flower and everything reminds me of Dala Soul, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - It has a lot of that. - Yeah, that too. - DNA in it. - Yeah, that too. Also. - We're reading a little bit about Matsuyaz, 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 the 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, parapas sounds like the line that came correctly that came before. But if he does it incorrectly, he sounds unsure of himself or it sounds like cut off a little bit and I really, really like that, except 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. - Yeah, yeah. ♪ Ribbit, ribbit, I can't do it ♪ ♪ Last time that put me up, we all are in the sun ♪ ♪ In the rain or in the snow ♪ ♪ I got the funky flow, but no ♪ ♪ I really got the flow ♪ ♪ In the rain or in the snow ♪ ♪ You got the funky flow ♪ ♪ But now you really got it up. ♪ - 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 would know it's 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. It would just piss me off. And then like now, and now I'm used to think of it as like, oh, like cheap knockoff controller even been out. That helped that I know the controller. - Yeah. 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 four by three aspect ratio inside. Like you're watching a movie alongside Parappa. - Was that original? I thought that might have been framing it because of my, that was in the original PlayStation One 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 talking about it. - They took that out of the PSP game. - Ah, 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 gonna get for a while. So you really learn to savor everything the game had to offer and you know, 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, that master, chop chop onion, whatever his name is, the dojo roof flies off and you know, Parappa takes the center stage and you get to freestyle. So all that stuff's just so exciting. - It comes with a moon. - Yeah, it's very, it's very weird, but it's very cool. - 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 than 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. - That's interesting. - That's interesting that you mentioned that Sam because rhythm games would go on to flourish in arcades first before guitar here, there'd be like-- - Mainly in Japan, or-- - Yeah, Bimini, Bimini in Dance Dance Revolution and that sort of thing. And maybe those developers looked at Parappa and they're like, well, we should make our own arcade games. - I meant to look up a Parappa ever had an arcade iteration. - Not that I'm aware of. - Not from what I saw looking at the Wikipedia entry of Parappa, but one thing I did also think was wild that I'd never knew before is when you finished the game. It teases Parappa too. Hey, there's another game coming out, by the way. Enjoy. It's like, oh. - But what does it say to them? - It's like a game, I struggle. - 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, Parappa, the Rappa too. He was like, oh, okay. - Yeah, but I would do, I'm Jammer Lamey first and then they would do Parappa too, but several years later it was a PlayStation 2 game. I think. - Sounds right. - It is, yeah. - I'm Jammer Lamey's PlayStation 1 and it has a great heavy metal song in it. - Yeah, it really does. - I mean, it works the way a modern rhythm game, like the way you assume a rhythm game would work. - Yeah, they learned. - And like, Guitar Hero 1 was shortly after this all went down. - Yeah, well, yeah, yes, too, right? - Well, 2004, I probably want to say so. - And then you got Guitar Roman after, but that's a different developer, but I do like me some Guitar Roman, yeah. Guitar Roman rules. - Okay, so there's a lot we like about Parappa, the rapper, but is it still fun today? Logan, what say you? - I'm gonna say it's still fun to look at and listen to. Today, but not fun to play. - Yeah, Sam, what do you think? - Yeah, it's funny and a great museum piece and everything. everybody should just, you know, maybe even watch videos, but unfortunately, playing it makes it worse. - And watching it, and listening to it. Yeah, Nick said you like everything about it, but playing it. - Correct, I got back from my vacation. I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna unwind after unpacking by playing some paw wrap with a wrapper." 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?" (laughing) - Yeah, it just, it only has two speeds. It's either easy breezy and fun or just absolutely maddening 'cause the game you've been playing so far it just stopped working the way it expects you to do something completely different that you can't figure it out. And I'm not fifth song. You just have to do it a hundred times, and eventually you'll pass it, but you don't really really know why. It just happened to work that time. - I got it, I believe. - Yeah, I mean, that's it. Just got to believe. - Wow. I need to become a hero, too. (dramatic music) Hmm. - How could I possibly do that? Yeah, I know, I got it, believe. - 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 it just its vibes. - Yes. - It's probably worth, you know, spending 20 minutes with. - I will say that like the concept of fun is parapa. Like it is, like everything about it was meant to be like fun and light-hearted 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. - Perfect, let's play to throw up on TV while you're having dinner. - Sure. - Yeah. - I saw Let's Play where the person doing the Let's Play couldn't even do it. (laughing) - Like the upload of this video, too, they were just famed, left and right. - Yeah, it does make me want to go to Japan and go to old records shops and try to find like a soundtrack CD or something. - Yeah, that'd be great. - Yeah, the soundtrack is, yeah, it's actually legitimately good, it's surprising. All right, so a little bit harder to recommend than our previous episodes, which we've done on the 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. (upbeat music) Oh no, I can't believe it. My dad's gonna bite me.