ParaParaParadise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| ParaParaParadise | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) | 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Rhythm |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Input | 5 Infrared sensors; 3 buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Unique design |
| Arcade display | Raster, standard resolution, horizontal |
ParaParaParadise (パラパラパラダイス), often abbreviated PPP, is an arcade dance game made by the Japanese company Konami following the booming Para Para fad.
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[edit] Gameplay
The arcade game Para Para Paradise features an octagonal platform with motion detecting sensors above it. Players must trigger the sensors by moving their arms (or other body parts) under the sensors when a corresponding arrow reaches the top of the screen placed at the front of the platform. A second cabinet can be hooked up to the PPP machine that has a small 13" LG CRT TV and a DVD player. This DVD player is perfectly synced with the game cabinet and will show the Para Para Allstars dancing to their routines. This allowed people to learn routines outside of home video, clubs, and if the game was before PPP 2nd Mix. PPP 1.1 and above can be linked to a second machine for 2 player mode.
There are two game modes that will allow you to practice Para Para dance routines; Para Para mode, featuring arrows corresponding to the routine and a (optional) dancing girl in the background showing you how it's done and Training Mode, a mode that breaks each song into parts. For example, part A of a song consists of 10 seconds. These 10 seconds will first be played before you to show you how it's done, then the same sequence will play again with you being able to activate the sensors to practice the routine. Once the entire song has been played through, the entire song will play in one sitting with you being able to activate the sensors. However, Training Mode costs an entire credit for just one song.
There is also Freestyle Mode, which has more arrows for you to "hit" in an attempt to freestyle the song; i.e., dance it as gracefully as possible. The arcade machines only have 2 Freestyle levels; Medium and Hard, whereas the home version features Medium, Hard (non-existent in the arcade version) and Expert (Hard in the arcade version).
The background generally features a dancing character such as a nurse, a ganguro and a girl dressed for Halloween but some versions allow videos of the dance group Para Para Allstars to be displayed. For the home version, you can choose either to have psychedelic and cute background animations such as hearts and fireworks or videos of the Para Para Allstars. In addition to that, you can also choose how the videos should be shown, being able to among other things flip the video (so that you won't have to mirror their moves yourself).
The music used in Para Para Paradise is exclusively fast-paced Eurobeat. The majority of tracks are "true" Para Para tracks from the Avex Trax record label, such as "Velfarre 2000", "Anniversary" and "Boom Boom Fire". A large portion of the song are Eurobeat remixes of other Bemani tracks such as "CAN'T STOP FALLIN' IN LOVE". There are also two songs that are so called J-EURO remixes, remixes of J-pop songs ("Aishiattemasu" and "Deluxe", both by Key-A-Kiss).
In both the arcade versions and the home version, you are able to use miscellaneous modifications, like those of the Dance Dance Revolution series. By hitting both arrows (on both versions) on the song selection screen, you will be presented with a menu. You can modify the display (in the arcade version, you can remove the dancing character, in the home version, you can switch the background out for a video of the Para Para Allstars doing the routine of that song, but only in ParaPara-mode), the scrolling speed of the arrows, the visibility of the arrows (Hidden, Sudden and both at once) and Random (the arrows will switch positions. For example, all left arrows will become up-arrows, all perpendicular up-left arrows will become right arrows, and so on)(only for the home version).
[edit] Internationalization
Due to the lack of popularity in the game, Konami released only four ParaParaParadise games for the Japanese market; three arcade versions along with one version for the PlayStation 2.
The Korean version is called ParaParaDancing. It is different in that all of the songs that were in Japanese or mentioned Japan (such as "Ale' Japan", which was in English) were removed and a few new (Korean) songs were thrown in, one of which is a remix of popular Asian artist BoA's "Sara" and four of which are remixes of Korean artists S.E.S. "Hold On Me", originally in Japanese, was also covered in the Korean language for this edition.
The Korean version also introduces a few features never seen in the Japanese version; you can now use the modification "Random" (like in the home version) and you can also choose to switch sensors. While the Japanese version featured several sensors behind the player that were never used, ParaParaDancing makes use of all 8 sensors, although only 5 at a time. You can choose to flip the sensor use to the left side, right side or to behind you, making it possible to play the game while facing away from the screen for nifty Freestyling and ParaPara'ing routines. The cost of all of this was the dancing 3D characters in the background (although the resolution of the background animations are much higher than in that of the Japanese version).
[edit] Emulation and simulation
The developers of MAME have been working on a way to emulate the arcade machine on a computer.
| “ | I've been working on a Konami FireBeat driver for a while now. The hardware is a relatively simple set of stuff. There's currently only one game, Para Para Paradise, dumped. Currently it passes most of its bootup tests (except the RTC/backup RAM test). The test menu is also accessible, but cannot be operated since I haven't found the input ports yet. | ” |
StepMania has PPP simulation mode. Current CVS version (and upcoming 4.0 release) can use infrared sensors that Konami supplied with PPP game for PlayStation 2. Simfiles, however, are few and far between.
ParaParaParadise 1st and 2nd Mix CHDs (Compressed Huks of Data) for MAME are floating around the internet along with ROM files, but the emulation is barely preliminary.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Parapara Online - English site for Para Para.
