Funky flow

by ERIK LEIJON

Oh, when I look back now, those summers seemed to last forever. Standing in your mama’s basement, finally getting to COOL rappin’ status on King Kong Mushi’s rap. Those truly were the best days of our lives, and Bryan Adams correctly predicted the finger bleeding (even if he wasn’t talking about playing Playstation). Dammit if the pre-9/11, PaRappa the Rapper world wasn’t filled with awe and wonder. The ’00’s haven’t been slouches in the excitement department (which I can say confidently, now that I’ve made the leap to 1080i), but my lard-packed, slightly more jaded heart still palpitates like a pubescent awaiting that first kiss under the school bleachers when I play the recent re-release of PaRappa the Rapper (PSP/SCEA, SCE Japan). Ohhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhh, just like back in the summer of ’97.

Back then, a coke was worth a buck, not a buck 25, a nation fell in love with Madeleine Albright and PaRappa was the first music-rhythm game ever released. With only six levels, and only eight new remixes and a lame multiplayer mode thrown in, PaRappa for the PSP isn’t quite a robust package when compared with newer titles—yet, it’s still worthy of standing alongside games 10 years younger.

What makes PaRappa such an ingenious creation, one that went from quirky Japanese game, deemed too eccentrically Japanese to be enjoyed by Westerners (even though the raps were always in English), is the sight-and-sound tag team of Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Greenblat. The former, a Japanese game-developer and musician, who penned nine unforgettably catchy tunes, and the latter, an American graphic artist who drew the cover of the first They Might Be Giants album, combined forces to create the perfect audiovisual package.

Everything about the game deviates slightly from the norm, which is why its worldwide success was so unexpected. Even the campaign, featuring an old Asian dude rapping the game’s lyrics (“in the rain or in the snow, got the funky funky flow”), didn’t make a lick of sense, but was a precursor to a new generation of weird marketing statements (such as this one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Zo1hZffiY). The main character, a loveable two-dimensional pooch smitten with a flower named Sunny Funny, must rap his way through six challenges with five off-the-wall MCs with differing styles.

It’s a definite shock to make the transition from the easy flow of the Shaggy imposter Prince Fleaswallow to the scattershoot Cheap Cheap. The controls, at one time, were considered revolutionary: press a button at the right time and PaRappa will rap his verses. Pressing the buttons at the same time that their symbols pass along the top of the screen will allow PaRappa to rap the exact words (in his inarticulate style), but being able to freestyle while keeping the beat truly separated the best MCs from the duds.

There are eight remixes available as free downloads, but remixed by Ghislain Poirier (or even Richard Vission) they ain’t. The animations and lyrics remain unchanged in the remixes. Music rhythm games have exploded thanks to the Bemani phenomenon, and PaRappa deserves its rightful designation as trailblazer.

Decent Four

Decent offline multiplayer games are hard to find, so imagine my shock when I discovered Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (X360/2K, Visual Concepts) is not only a multiplayer beat-’em-up action game starring Marvel’s less interesting crop of superheroes, but there isn’t even an online mode. Apparently fibre optics isn’t one of their super abilities.

The gameplay is by no means bulletproof (or whatever superpowers the FF have), although the teamwork aspect works quite well if you can find three other Xbox 360 players willing to exit their homes for an hour or two. Silver Surfer is a decent movie-to-game adaptation.