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Games Entertainment

PaRappa The Rapper Creator Interviewed 20

Posted by Zonk from the whip-out-the-beatbox dept.
Gamasutra has an interview up with Rodney Greenblat, graphic designer of PaRappa The Rapper. The article refers to the popular character as Sony's "Almost Mario", and digs into the rationale behind the game and its sequel. From the article: "In the case of Chop Chop Master Onion, he was just supposed to be a karate teacher. I came up with lots of designs of what a karate teacher might be, but the onion thing they just loved, so they changed the whole thing so he was the onion master. It just worked out perfect. I don't think they had an idea of what the driving instructor might be, and I just thought it would be so funny if she were this big moose, and I was thinking of Queen Latifah in a certain way."
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PaRappa The Rapper Creator Interviewed More

PaRappa The Rapper Creator Interviewed

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  • *chirp chirp*
    • Yes, feel the caring. :)
    • That's Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken

      Every single day, stress comes in every way
      I ain't got no time for nobody
      My style is rich, dope, phat in which
      We'll make a cake that looks rich

      Crack crack crack the egg into the bowl
      M-I-X the flour into the bowl
      Crack crack crack the egg into the bowl
      M-I-X the flour into the bowl

      Baking a cake, yes, means you gotta try
      I'm doing this for years, but don't ask me why

      Butter butter butter joins the bowl
      We're making us a cake that you never seen before
      Heat up the oven, no

  • Sounds like Sony is a pretty awful place to work. Each department stepping on other departments' toes.

    There seemed to be a lot of boneheaded mistakes too. Like targetting the cartoon at little kids in order to sell toys. No wonder the whole thing bombed.

  • Has anybody figured out the way improvisation is graded in any of the games using the Parappa engine (PtR, UJL, PtR2)?

    • I think that it just has to be in time with the beats but that it doesn't really matter what you hit button wise.
    • In my experience, it works best with Umjammer. I love the game and I played it to death, and still occassionally go back to play it just for fun.

      The improvisation never seemed to be understood. I used to check gamefaqs and try random searches on the net, but people basically discovered the same thing I learned on my own - you can hit less buttons to change up the rhythm, use different buttons, etc. But the actual mechanics are still very much a mystery. For example, play any of the Umjammer levels w
    • Here's my impressions:

      PtR - It almost seemed like you could go crazy on the beats... I recall getting into the beat of a song, and then trying different beats (cut 1/3, 1/4 or even 1/8 time of the actual song), with no regard to the actual buttons displayed. And in the end, I would have an unbelivable score (somewhere 10 times higher than if you just pressed the 'right' buttons).

      UJR- Can't remember as well (my roommate in college had it). I recall just completing it once and failing to improvise very we
  • So... um... can anyone explain to me what this is?

    • Re:Who? What? Huh? (Score:4, Informative)

      by kaptron ( 850747 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @07:34PM (#12999212)
      PaRappa the Rapper was a game for PSone that had you press button combinations in time with the beat, and it was a runaway success in Japan. Wasn't nearly as popular in the US, more of a "cult classic", I guess. The songs were pretty catchy and hilarious for their bizarre lyrics (lost in translation?). The interview is with the artist who designed the characters.
      • Wasn't nearly as popular in the US, more of a "cult classic", I guess.

        No, it was pretty popular in the US - a "surprise hit" in the same way Katamari Damacy was last year. Did it sell 10 million copies? No, but it did sell quite a few more than it sounds like you're thinking. (Around one million, last time I saw the figures.)

        It also popularized the whole music genre (it was not the first game in it - there were music games going back to the NES, although they were a bit different), and was directly r

  • Rodney Greenblat fun links (Score:3, Informative)

    by May Kasahara ( 606310 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @07:43PM (#12999250) Journal
    I've been digging his art [whimsyload.com] for a few years now, but more because of Puffy [geocities.com] than Parappa...

  • Almost Mario?!? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by natron 2.0 ( 615149 ) <ndpeters79@gmail ... minus physicist> on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @09:24PM (#12999728) Homepage Journal
    I do see it. Sure Parappa was a huge hit in Japan and has a small following here is the states, but I could never see him leading the Sony console line in adverts and such. I guess a mascot for the Playstation systems was never a big issue from the get go. Remember that scary Polygon Man they used when the PSX was first released. He did not last long...
  • Man I loved that game. Came out at just the right time. I missed many a class chilling with my friends, drinking and playing that game.

    To this day I still say "Don't get cocky it's gonna get rocky" when someone at work is taking perhaps a too cavalier attitude towards longterm quality issues. When I try to follow it up with "Time to take it down to the next ya'jocky" I tend to lose them though...

    -Pinkoir
  • her own Barbi. Missy Ellito gets a cartoon moose.

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