| PaRappa the Rapper 2 | |
|---|---|
European game cover. |
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| Developer(s) | NanaOn-Sha |
| Publisher(s) | SCEI |
| Designer(s) | Masaya Matsuura |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Music |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E ELSPA: 3+ |
| Media/distribution | DVD-ROM |
PaRappa the Rapper 2 (パラッパラッパー2 Parappa Rappā Tsu) is a PlayStation 2 rhythm video game and the sequel to PaRappa the Rapper, although it is actually the third game in the series following UmJammer Lammy. Though the game boasts a number of new gameplay elements, it was not as well-received critically and failed to garner similar sales as its predecessor.
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The story line of PaRappa the Rapper 2 centers on Parappa, who has recently won a hundred years supply of noodles and has grown tired of eating them. When his girlfriend, Sunny Funny, serves him noodles one day, Parappa throws a tantrum, prompting Sunny to call him a baby and leading him to question his maturity. As Parappa tries to find an alternative meal at Beard Burger, he learns that someone is mysteriously turning all the food in Parappatown into noodles. After taking a brief lesson in 'Romantic Karate' from Chop Chop Master Onion, Parappa and his friends get shrunk by his father's invention, so he helps coach them back to normal size with the help of Guru Ant. Parappa gets drafted into the army and must complete a military boot camp training course with Instructor Moosesha. He then becomes an amateur barber after customers are being given afros by a schizophrenic Hairdresser Octopus caught under a hypnotic tune. Parappa and his friends discover an 8-bit video game called Food Court, which was being used to control Hairdresser Octopus, and reverse engineer it to discover the noodle's weakness, sweets.
Parappa and his friends launch a sweet-based attack on the Noodle Army, and soon confront their leader, Colonel Noodle, who is actually Beard Burger Master's son who had become sick of eating burgers. Parappa convinces him that noodles aren't the only food around. The game ends with a final party with returning hip-hop master MC King Kong Mushi, and Parappa learns that Sunny Funny already likes him the way he is. Things go back to normal and Parappa can eat anything...except cheese, of which he's won another 100 years supply.
The game plays similar to its predecessor and features 8 stages. The teacher will give a line of rap and PaRappa will have to repeat it, or otherwise improvise it. If he messes up his line twice in a row, he drops a rank from Good, to Bad, to Awful. Performing well two times in a row will bring the player up a rank. Players lose the level if they drop below Awful, or finish the level in the Bad or Awful state. Parappa 2 handles this a little differently to its predecessors, as upon dropping a rank, the teacher will say 'Getting Worse', and the song will go back two lines, and sometimes altering the lines to make them easier to play. If the player improvises a rap successfully two times in a row, it accesses Cool mode, where the teacher leaves PaRappa to do freestyle by himself. If PaRappa can reach the end of the level in Cool mode, he'll earn a Cool ranking for that stage. This unlocks music tracks available to listen in a music player available at the end of the game.
Between every two levels (except for level 8), there is a minigame in which 'Kotamanegis' (little onions) from Chop Chop Master Onion's dojo hold up plates for PaRappa to break. Hitting the plates earns PaRappa extra points to add to his previous level's score, while hitting the Tamanegis when they are not ready deducts points.
When a level is completed, a versus mode is unlocked, playable with a friend or against the computer. In this mode, the two players are given a line to rap, and each player must try and improvise to get a higher score than the previous one. Beating their opponent earns a point, and three points win the game.
Upon completing the game, Parappa's hat changes color, going from Blue, to Pink to Yellow. When playing through the game again, the lines are remixed. Completing the game in Cool Mode unlocks a music player where you can listen to any level with a Cool Rating on, along with the full version of the Stage 8 Intro song "Come a Long Way", while completing the Vs. CPU mode on all difficulty levels unlocks the final song, "Say "I Gotta Believe!"", performed by De La Soul featuring DOUBLE. The player can change his hat color on the title screen by rotating the analogue stick, but the line changes will remain, meaning the player will have to start a new game from scratch in order to play the songs in the original layout.
The Food Court Video Game was featured with Beard Burger Master, Chop Chop Master Onion, Guru Ant, Instructor Moosesha, and Hairdresser Octopus during Food Court. Anyone who can't complete it can eat nothing but noodles.
Like the previous game in the series, Um Jammer Lammy, Parappa 2 received some slight censorship in its North American release to avoid a Teen rating from the ESRB. Guru Ant's references to 'being the Lord' was changed to 'being the man' to avoid religious implications. Beard Burger Master's line, "tastes better than wine", was removed due to references to alcohol and was replaced with "so you better get in line." He is also edited slightly in Stage 6, where "warm the buns" is replaced by "toast the buns", possibly to avoid double entendre. These alterations are not present in the Japanese and PAL releases of the game.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 68% (44 reviews)[1] |
| Metacritic | 67 out of 100 (26 reviews)[2] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B-[3] |
| Allgame | [4] |
| Computer and Video Games | 6 out of 10[5] |
| Eurogamer | 7 out of 10[6] |
| GamePro | [7] |
| Game Revolution | C-[8] |
| GameSpot | 6.6 out of 10[9] |
| IGN | 7 out of 10[10] |
Unlike the first two games in the PaRappa series, which got generally favorable reviews, PaRappa 2 received generally mixed reviews. Metacritic gave it a 67 out of 100,[2] while GameRankings gave it around 68%.[1] GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann gave the game a 6.6, stating that "an almost total lack of innovation makes the game seem pretty dated when compared with other games on the market. ... Even when played to perfection, though, the rapping still sounds just as stuttery as it did in the previous game. While it was excusable then and perhaps even a little charming, it would have been nice to see the developers make better use of the PlayStation 2's higher specs." Though the game "features the same 2D graphical style as its predecessor, but it's not without its share of enhancements," he added, "The music in the game covers a lot more ground, genre-wise, than the original did, but none of it is especially funny or toe-tapping--with the exception of the level that takes place inside an old video game machine. PaRappa 2 isn't a bad game, but it doesn't have as much of the same off-beat charm that the original--and to a lesser extent, Um Jammer Lammy--had."[9] However, IGN's Doug Perry gave the game a slightly better score of 7, saying, "The game concept hasn't changed, leaning neither toward an evolutionary or even a moderate change in the way gamers play music games. ... [PaRappa 2 is] not as hard as Um Jammer Lammy (which may be good for some folks), and it certainly covers familiar territory when it comes to the essentials -- gameplay, graphics, and sound -- but it's still fun and happy-making."[10]
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