PaRappa the Rapper 2
Encyclopedia
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.
s 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.
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.
Beard Burger Master (voiced by Ethan Eubanks)
Chop Chop Master Onion (voiced by Ryu Watabe)
Guru Ant (voiced by Dean Bowman)
Sister Moosesha (voiced by Kimberly Queen and Aaminah Hassell)
Hairdresser Octopus (voiced by Freedom Bremner)
Food Court Videogame
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.
Colonel Noodle (voiced by Andrew Alonzo)
MC King Kong Mushi (voiced by Dean Bowman)
. These alterations are not present in the Japanese and PAL releases of the game.
gave it a 67 out of 100, while GameRankings gave it around 68%. 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." 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."
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
rhythm video game
Rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen...
and the sequel to PaRappa the Rapper
PaRappa the Rapper
is a rhythm video game for the Sony PlayStation created by Masaya Matsuura and his NanaOn-Sha company....
, although it is actually the third game in the series following UmJammer Lammy
UmJammer Lammy
is a rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony for the PlayStation video game console. UmJammer Lammy is a spin-off of PaRappa the Rapper, also released for the PlayStation...
. 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.
Plot
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 afroAfro
Afro, sometimes shortened to fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair...
s by a schizophrenic
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
Hairdresser Octopus caught under a hypnotic tune. Parappa and his friends discover an 8-bit video game
History of video game consoles (third generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega SG-1000...
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.
Gameplay
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
De La Soul
De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...
featuring DOUBLE
Double
Double or The Double may refer to:* Multiplication by 2* Look-alike* Body double, someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character* Doppelgänger, ghostly double of a living person* Polish Enigma doubles...
. 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.
Main Characters
Parappa the Rapper (voiced by Dred Foxx, a.k.a. John Simpson III)- The hip-hop hero, hoping to become a man in the eyes of Sunny Funny while holding off a noodle crisis.
Beard Burger Master (voiced by Ethan Eubanks)
- The deceased owner of Beard Burger, he teaches Parappa how to make beardylike beard burgers in the kitchen during Toasty Buns beard breakout mix.
Chop Chop Master Onion (voiced by Ryu Watabe)
- He appears in the television teaching Parappa and PJ Romantic Karate in Romantic Love. He also hosts a minigame in between levels.
Guru Ant (voiced by Dean Bowman)
- He's an ant where the people get so small and the legs are long during BIG. He is mellow when small, but is incredibly timid when he's bigger than his normal size.
Sister Moosesha (voiced by Kimberly Queen and Aaminah Hassell)
- She's a moose who is sister to Mooselini from the first PaRappa gamePaRappa the Rapperis a rhythm video game for the Sony PlayStation created by Masaya Matsuura and his NanaOn-Sha company....
. She wears a tutuTutuTutu may refer to:* Ballet tutu, a type of costume for ballet performances* Tutu , poisonous New Zealand plants of the genus Coriaria* Tutu , a 1986 album by Miles Davis* Tūtū, a composition by Liliuokalani of Hawaii...
and military pants.
Hairdresser Octopus (voiced by Freedom Bremner)
- He appears as an upside down octopus head and cuts hair in the barber shop during Hair Scare. He is red when under the influence of Noodle music, but is blue under normal conditions.
Food Court Videogame
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.
Colonel Noodle (voiced by Andrew Alonzo)
- He's the son of Beard Burger Master, as well as the game's antagonist. He sings "Noodles Can't Be Beat". Colonel Noodle was destined to become a burger shop owner from the day he was born. Unfortunately, his father Beard Burger Master was so into burger research that, similar to Parappa's situation, all Noodle got to eat was burgers. Discovering the noodles and enjoying them better than burgers, he decides to have the noodles take over the world.
MC King Kong Mushi (voiced by Dean Bowman)
- This Spider sings with the microphone at the end during Always Love!.
Other Characters
- Sunny Funny (voiced by Lea Alomar) - Parappa's love interest, who unwittingly calls Parappa a baby.
- PJ Berri (voiced by Armstead Christian) - Parappa's best friend who loves food and has a hidden agenda as PJ the DJ. He assists Parappa on his adventure. Parappa kisses PJ in Chop Chop Master Onion's song, leaving the latter looking uncomfortable.
- Papa Parappa (voiced by Armstead Christian) - Parappa's father, who is trying to find a solution to the noodle crisis.
- General Potter (voiced by John James) - Leader of the military and Sunny's father, working with Papa Parappa and training new recruits.
- Milkcan - Katy Kat (voiced by Shannon White), Lammy (voiced by Sara RamírezSara RamírezSara Ramírez is a Mexican-American singer/songwriter and actress. She is known for her role as Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy and as the original Lady of the Lake in the 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.-Early life:Ramírez...
) and Ma-san (voiced by Ryu Watabe), a girl group and Parappa's friends who somehow get involved in Parappa's mess. - Boxy Boy (voiced by Freedom Bremner) - A speaking boombox. He shows up in the middle of the opening cutscene of almost every level to offer a practice run of one of the lyrics. Getting three successful runs in a row allows the player to progress, though they can also skip the practice by pressing the Start button.
Censorship
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 entendreDouble entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
. These alterations are not present in the Japanese and PAL releases of the game.
Reception
Unlike the first two games in the PaRappa series, which got generally favorable reviews, PaRappa 2 received generally mixed reviews. MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave it a 67 out of 100, while GameRankings gave it around 68%. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Jeff Gerstmann
Jeff Gerstmann
Jeff Gerstmann is an American video game journalist and former editorial director of the gaming website GameSpot and the founder of the gaming website Giant Bomb. He began working at GameSpot in the fall of 1996, around the launch of VideoGameSpot when GameSpot separated PC and console games into...
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." However, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
'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."
External links
- PaRappa the Rapper 2 at GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
- PaRappa the Rapper 2 at IGNIGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
- PaRappa the Rapper 2 at PlayStation(Australia)
- Game highlights by The Rubber Chicken
- PaRappa the Rapper 2 at IMDB.com
- Instruction manual for PaRappa the Rapper 2