VGR PaRappa Rappa

As a Sega fan, I tend to have a longer history with Sega games and consoles. Even so, that never stopped me from playing other games "on the other side of the fence".

Since people have been asking me to review some good Playstation games over on deviantArt, I decided to give it a shot with an all-time classic...

VGR: PaRappa the Rapper (aka PaRappa Rappa)

From NanaOn-Sha/Sony

Played on PSX

Also available on PSP

Type Musical game

Year 1996

What is PaRappa the Rapper I hear you ask.
I mean, those of you way too young to have known the phenomenon he became during such a short time.

The game was the breakthrough title developed by NanaOn-Sha.
It's a studio founded by game designer and musician Masaya Matsuurain 1993.
They were also responsible for that other unique music game series Vib-Ribbon. And more recently they collaborated with Zoë Mode on their first adventure game (non-musical) Haunt.

PaRappa Rappa is actually the first "real" modern rhythm game.
It has quite a unique design to it (more on that below), uses animal mascots which were so often the norm for games in the 90s and all songs are in English (as well as the story itself) in all version of the game!

I gotta believe!~

The story is one of the more relatables there is.

It's the story of a guy, a girl and some problems he learns to deal with (including the local douche bag).

PaRappa is this hip hop dog, you see.
He's in love with Sunny Funny, but she seems to ignore him.. But they're made for each other! If only he could get her to notice him. This egomaniac rich guy Joe Chin is certainly not helping the whole thing.

So PaRappa on his journey to her heart, learns to fight in a dojo, crashes his dad's car, works to get some cash, learns his license, bake a cake, take a bathroom break and ends up rapping on stage.

Throughout this adventure he is accompanied by his pals PJ Berry and Katy Kat. He learns to deal with real life situations through rap with various mentors, including the famous Chop Chop Master Onion.

It's all in the mind!~

The game is almost educational, inspirational I want to say.
PaRappa raps through all situations, you'll remember for all time that to drive you need to Step on the gas or also that you need to keep your kitchen in check while cooking Put the cake in the oven for a while! Leave it there, come on, clean the pile!

PaRappa's motto is "I Gotta Believe!" afterall.
There might be this Joe Chin in his path, but things will work out in the end as long as he stays positive and focused!

The game plays like a digital "Simon Sez".
Basically said, the gameplay consists of QTE sequences you need to memorize/answer to.
For example the first stage will assign X for kick and SQUARE for punch. 
By pushing the correct buttons as indicated. The music will keep you in tempo, you need to have both the correct action and follow the rythm to work through the various segments.
The game starts easy enough but will quickly get more and more challenging both in the sequences as well as the timing.
You win points for style, if you do good you will keep your U rappin' GOOD ranking. Missing notes/vocals will make it go off, for BAD and AWFUL (and Game over!).
Once the levels are finished you can replay them, go freestyle to deviate into the COOL rating!

The game isn't all perfect though, there's some missync problems and the difficulty is quite hardcore (you need to be perfect sometimes, and learn the darn' buttons perfectly).

I need to go, just bad as you!~

The game isn't very long though. It's only six stages long.
Maybe a bit short if you ask me, but it's pure arcade fun!

There are four teachers, so therefore there are 5 styles of rapping.
PaRappa is quite the boss, perfectly able to adapt to various styles, from reggae to pop, house and even some old school!
The music is simply catchy, memorable!

The characters look all great and just as memorable.
The art style was done by Rodney Greenblat (check out his website!), an US graphic artist who's quite popular in Japan.
The characters are all done in flat 2D, which contrasts great with the 3D world they inhabit. The population seems to feature so many random faces from cartoon dogs, cartoon frogs, even cartoon objects such as hammers, flowers, etc.

The game is just pure fun!
Well-written, acted and sung. Excellent voice acting all around.

The gameplay is simple.
Featuring stunning graphics, which I find timeless thanks to the mix 2D/3D.
You can replay the game over and over. Once it's over you can either aim for the high scores, or try getting all the COOL ranks. Which unlock an alternate ending plus a  (tiny) bonus song.

Overall, it's a fantastic catchy entertaining game!
A true pioneer of the whole musical genre.
You will love it even if you don't like rap!
It sure was more original than what the genre offers today in the countless dull and generic Rock bands, Guitar hero, Singstars and all of their clones...

And it even has a moral!
Because when you got a problem, the problems won't get solved by themselves, YOU JUST GOTTA BELIEVE!!

The game became a quick hit back then. It was popular enough to warrant a "guitar"-oriented sequel in 1999, a true sequel in 2002 and even a short lived in 2001.
The 1996 original was released for PSP more recently. (though it didn't had nor fix anything, it's an exact copy of this version)

6 stages long, hours of fun and replay value thanks to its high quality.
What's not to love about "paper doll" cartoony singing characters!?

I give it:

2.5 / 3 PaRappas!

Deleted Scenes - "Rayman 4"

I'm currently still playing through Rayman: Origins!
And loving every bit of it~

But before Rayman returned to his former glory in this all new mdern 2D hand drawn/animated sidescrolling platformer, the poor lil' guy was getting forgotten thanks to all those Ravin' Rabbids party games...
And the actual reason why Rayman reverted back to his roots to get back a bit of his former groove was mostly because how far had the apple fallen from the tree.

Now, everybody knows the first Rayman: Raving Rabbids game to be minigame collection for the Wii (and other systems since then), but originally it wasn't always gonna be this way.

The game actually started out as the real Rayman 4.
Right after Rayman 3, the production was launched at Ubisoft Montpellier.

The game was going to be another pure 3D platformer, this time around featuring more action and a free-roaming environment.

According to Michel Ancel, Rayman's creator, the foes would have been this time around these weird stupid rabbits that had been planning their revenge on Rayman & co since the first game, hence the revisiting areas from the past games as pictured around here.

The Rabbids would have been these antagonists who had planned an invasion since the first game ("decades before").

But then Nintendo started to show great interest in this project.
Ancel sketched out a quick concept for Nintendo's upcoming Wii, then titled "Revolution". One thing after the other, the experimenting went along, gameplay styles changed and every aspect of platforming was removed and replaced with minigames...

The final product ended up pretty far from its original design, but most was kept around and lived through the Gameboy Advance Raving Rabbids.

As you can see from all these concepts around, the game would have been a big mix of original new settings, moody atmosphere like Rayman 2 and 3's, and old levels reimagined from the 1st game.

The story would have seen Rayman facing off against The Emperor Rabbid. a brand new enemy who had kidnapped Rayman's girlfriend:

And there's a baby Globox above as well! (from Rayman 2!)

According to Michel Ancel, "Rayman will have to save the world, his girlfriend and the girlfriend of his old enemy and his old enemy too!"

Here's more on the game:

“It’s a real pleasure for me to be back working on an all-new Rayman,” said Michel Ancel. “After wrapping up my last game, the team here in Montpellier sat down to talk about having some fun with Rayman and his universe. We are running into a bit of a problem, though, because our game has been invaded by thousands of raving mad and vicious bunnies, who have apparently been preparing this assault since the very first Rayman game. We are now sending an SOS to all motivated gamers to help us get rid of them as fast as possible!” Here are a list of features you'll find in the new game!

• Combat the Ultra-Crazed Evil Rabbits – Take control of Rayman and his knack for attack to help save his world from the raving rabbids. They are mischievous, insane and completely out of control. There are several types of rabbids each with its own mischievous characteristics.
• Master and Ride Creatures – Tame and control various creatures such as sharks, eagles, rhinos, spiders and angelfish. Rayman can master each animal’s unique capabilities to help in his battle against the devious rabbits.
• Dress to Impress – Customize and disguise Rayman. Go punk, pop, rock or hip hop to infiltrate the bunnies and foil their devious plans.
• Explore the Colorful Fantastic World of Rayman – Explore amazing free-roaming environments and beautiful epic landscapes that mix real and fantastical styles to create a visually stunning experience.

The Rabbids design was more sinister-looking.
All different in shapes and sizes. Furrier. Bigger. Meaner.

Rayman would have gotten power-suits à la Mario instead of the power upgrades he gains in all the other games usually.

Anyways, it looked good on the concept.

Here's a trailer released by Ubi around an E3:



The game would have been released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS2 and PSP probably.

Anyways, in the meantime we'll still have the fantastic gorgeous Rayman Origins! :/

Though with Rayman back at the front scene, Ancel said he still planned on releasing another 3D Rayman platformer.
Last December he even went as far as confirming he would like to use this scrapped Rayman 4 as basis for the new game. Though I wonder how much will be kept, since Ubisoft is currently trying to keep the Rayman and Rabbids franchise apart for the foreseeable future.

And would that make now this scrapped game Rayman 5, will it be released some other day?

VGR PoP Forgotten Sands [PSP Version]

The Sands of Time Trilogy might have been closed with Two Thrones but with a new interest in the series thanks to a movie adaptation, Ubisoft thought it was a good commercial move to bring the series back in an all-new episode just for this time.

The game was released amongst most systems. In what I like to call the "Forgotten Sands chapters" (which would have made a much better title for this game IMO).

Like Untold tales or Missing chapters, all these games across the different consoles aren't the same but instead different episodes taking place in the 7 years gab between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

This is a review of the "PSP version" available exclusively for the PSP system.

[Forgotten Sands: Wii episode]

[Forgotten Sands: PSP episode]

[Forgotten Sands: HD episode]

[Forgotten Sands: DS episode]

VGR: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

From Ubisoft/Ubisoft Quebec

Played on PSP

Also available on /
 

Type Sidescrolling platformer

Year 2010

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PSP system is another "interquel" episode in the Prince of Persia series taking place in the time gap in-between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.
It is unrelated to the other Forgotten Sands game on the HD systems and can be seen as yet another separate adventure with no clear ties to the main series.

Since this episode was also developed by Ubisoft Quebec, reusing a lot of assets, graphics, sounds and event gameplay elements of the Wii Forgotten Sands, I like to consider this one its direct sequel.
Various elements since to agree with this idea, like the Prince having another genie-sidekick, facing lots of incredible creatures/magic (which he stated was a first on the Wii installment). Also he exits this tale more decided to prove himself, wiser - which could tie easily into the Xbox 360/PS3 episode.

This time around the story is kinda unique.
Fresh from his adventures in Azad, problems seem to have followed the Prince right away and not the other way around.
It sort of foreshadows what would happen to the Prince in Two Thrones, having a sort of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of a monster/destiny chasing our hero...which he ends up confronting himself.

A long time ago, a prophecy was written, in which a member of the royal family of Persian would bring an end to a mystical creature, Ahihud the dark spirit of fire.
Sensing his end come to a close, the creature decided to leave his hid and strike at all the royal bloodline throughout the lands.
Believed the monster to be only a myth, but yet in the light of the recent attempts on his family, seeking protection the noble King Sharaman decided to put all of his sons under protection in the city of Babylon. Hearing someone calling for him, one night, the Prince made a run for it and escaped his tower in the direction of a mysterious light...

The light turned out to be Helem, a djinn, and spirit of Time.

This PSP Forgotten Sands is closer to the original 1989 PoP than the recent 3D parkour-inspired Ubisoft episodes.

First of all it is what some call a 2.5D platformer, simply put, a sidescroller.
But the game is running on the same engine as the Wii version nonetheless (which featured lots of sidescrolling segments as well, probably developed alongside this game).

Which means the Prince is back to basics, no more camera angles-problems or loads of melee fights.
Running, jumping, climbing. The gameplay is all quite intuitive and easy to get a hang of.

As long as you explore Persia and get closer and closer to Ahihud, you will travel through magical lands and free more of the Helem's sister, the Daughters of Time.
They will grant you new powers and abilities, as it is the custom in most PoP games. But sort of like the Wii "interactive powers", no time remote this time around. Instead you will gain the ability to slow down or accelerate zones/elements/foes. It gives these powers a more straighter approach and confine them to gameplay instead of facilitating your game (time rewind serves to make the other PoP games bearable to novies afterall).

The game is also lacking the more "beat 'em all" approach of the franchise present in most modern PoP games.
It is all about the platforming experience.

There is some combats, duels mostly on 1-on-1 or up to more enemies sometimes...but they're still basically duels in which some random enemies will fly around/respawn/annoy you while the main objective will be to deal with the principal opponent.
There's not a lot of them, even the Prince will comically remark on the lack of enemies around this time.

Which is nice if you ask me, it was about time the annoying combats got shoveled in the background to bring back the exploration and platform to the scene.

Ahihud is trying to devour the magic that inhabits the land, what people call Elixirs.

(little throwback to the original elixirs the Prince used to drink in the earlier games)

Defeating monsters will grant the Prince Elixirs. Which are then used as currency to either upgrade his strength (attacks, combos..) or vitality (health bar, life..). 

You can also buy making off elements from the main menu, like unlockable artworks, concept arts, music...

The game is also unique to the Ubisoft produced Prince of Persias games, like the Wii version was, in the sense that it relies on a proper Life system.

What people complained about the fantastic 2008 game, it not proposing an actual life system and using Elika to respawn immediately, while actually the whole series of PoP never actually having proper lives/punishing deaths. Well, this time you have a certain amount of lives. You can save your progress and replenish your lives & health at fountains of water. Losing all your health will lose one of your lives. Losing one life brings you back to the beginning of the current room/screen. Losing all of them will kill you for good and a backtrack to the earlier fountain it is.

Exactly like the Wii Forgotten Sands actually.

There's some pretty fun and interesting bosses too.
Not too many of them, just the ones that were okay to have around here story-wise. Like a gigantic guardian Ahihud has around the palace, or the sand monster-assassin who was hunting down the Prince's relatives.

Overall, it is easily my favorite of all the versions of the Forgotten Sands Ubisoft released simultaneously.


The game is quite long. There's some replay value, you can replay earlier levels to either complete a perfect score on them (based on time, collectibles and whatnot), find all the Elixirs or totally upgrade the Prince.
There's some fun portions of the game played in the "spirits realm", where you have to free Helem's sisters in magical settings which will make you use your grey matter to process through the traps using all of your powers.

The music is decent, mostly probably lifted off the Wii title like the character models.

The game starts kinda simple but it will gradually get harder and harder, until the final "boss level" which is also the most complicated and interesting level, design-wise. It will make use of all your abilities while losing them at first only to regain them one by one.

Great fun game, original, well executed. I wish the Xbox 360/PS3 Forgotten Sands could have been at least half as good as this...

I give it:

 2 / 3 Bruces!

Gamin' NEWS! Sonic and Mario at the lympics,

Here's a bunch of video game news fo' the day.
First of all, did you see it in store already? :P
Here's the launch trailer for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games on the Wii system.


MARIO & SONIC AUX JEUX OLYMPIQUES DE LONDRES... par SEGA

It's looking nice, like an improvement over the last ones (the 1st one looked so rushed...) but I'm kinda getting tired and bored of these minigames compilations..
Might pick this up at bargain's price.


Continuing with Sega, here's the announcement/trailer for Puyo Puyo !! 20th Anniversary.



This title promise to be very special, for fans and newcomers alike.
Like the best the series have seen so far in one Wii/PSP/3DS. Available on December 15.


Finally "Master the Max Cancel" trailer, a video for the upcoming return of the king of the genre, namely King of Fighters XIII!

I'm glad to see the KOF mechanics back in due form.
Cancels are back! and properly!

*hides KOF12 in the garbage can*

VGR Tron Evolution

With Tron recent revival, Disney decided to try capitalizing on this newly acquired fame for the series and make some profit out of this new mainstream appeal the franchise was getting.

Thus, they decided to make some tie-ins around the release of Tron: Legacy.
Both prequels.
Like Tron already had in the past - while there wasn't a movie around - a game and a comic.
This is a review of the video game that was released before the new Tron movie.

VGR: Tron: Evolution
From Propaganda Games/Disney Interactive
Played on Xbox 360
Also available on PSP, PS3 & PC

Type Action/Beat 'em all/parkour platformer
Year 2010

For the release of Tron Legacy, Disney revived the franchise with new tie-ins.

The first original Tron game was a product of its time. A first person shooter. The FPS genre was on a boom, following Halo and the likes.
So it never came as a surprise to see the new Tron game being a Prince of Persia-like inspired Parkour/platformer. A genre that was getting pretty popular recently (Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell Conviction, The Saboteur...)

This story arc called "Evolution" aims to fill-in the gap of time between both Tron movies, following Jeff Bridge's character Flynn in the years following the liberation of The Grid in the original movie.
This game takes actually place after the comic book "Betrayal" and serves as its direct continuation.

Our anonymous hero finds out about Clu's evil intentions...

Tron Evolution tells the story how the now clearly evil program Clu-2 became in charge of the grid and software engineer Kevin Flynn ended up imprisoned inside The Grid.

The story opens with some video footage of Flynn's filming. He's just discovered Isomorphic Algorithms, original spontaneous life, growing inside the virtual world of The Grid he has now created under his old arcade room. He isn't responsible for these ISOs, but feels the need to help them evolve as new intelligent life. They're able of free will and are disliked by Basic Programs inside the digital reality.

Flynn suspects Clu from the recent murder of some ISOs, so he decides to create a new Monitor program to help him.
The player gets to play as Anon, the security program written by Flynn to investigate this conspiracy.

Clu gets partially in charge of The Grid alongside Radia, the leader of the ISOs. One day when Anon decides to follow a female program, Quorra, trying to get in to see her mistress, a virus named Abraxas attacks..only to have Anon interfers.
After this affair, Anon gets to see Flynn and Tron ambushed by Clu and some of his guards. They are "killed" while Quorra also saw this happening. Both become fugitives in The Grid.

Now armed with the proof of what Clu has done our anonymous hero has to explore the Grid to put a stop to Clu before its too late and all the ISOs are destroyed...

Simple "classic" modern platform. Why change a successful formula?

The game is a third person action game. It even contains some racing elements.
It's basically a gameplay focused around acrobatic platforming and combat. The platforming is quite parkour-like. With some dynamic combat thrown in, plus some (light) puzzles added in the mix once or twice, it does make this game feel a lot inspired by the (more successful) Prince of Persia games to which this game seems to be riffing off.

There's no "real"  threat of dying here. Once Anon dies he's simply rebooted (some platforms away).
It isn't quite the no-death occurrence of the 2008 Prince of Persia, but it's no real danger either.
Also, there's no actual energy or health bar system. It gets empty, sure. But instead of recharging itself automatically à la Halo, you have to touch/jump over special marked elements of the level to charge it again.
Not quite automatic, and better in my eyes.

It's like they wanted to base this game's mechanics around that series, maybe bringing along the success they've known recently. And force a Tron-themed world around it by using minimalistic colors, tons of grey/black gradients and flashy neons here and there.
It makes the game look a bit boring and repetitive at first. (though you'll see some better more original levels near the second half)

The game, as the second "main" Tron video game, takes a bit from Tron 2.0 along the way.
(even if nerds will tell you it isn't canon anymore, etc.)
The way viruses look like and infect stuff is taken directly from Tron 2. So does some other elements from the design and even a bit in the gameplay aspect. (doors, HUBs, sounds..)
From the gameplay mechanic however, it is only lightly inspired by the much better progression system of Tron 2.0. There's a light RPG-like system where you can buy (in exchange for space storage units you'll gaing over the game) new aptitudes or follow your upgrades/levelling. New aptitudes for Anon/the defenses, his disk/attacks and even the vehicles you'll get to play with (a sin the classic Tron arcade game, the Light Cycles and the Tanks make both a comeback). Both the singleplayer and multiplayer modes (more on that below).
But weapons are only disks (variations of disks anyway). And it's pretty simple and doesn't offer much to play with (unlike Tron 2 software-inspired system).

The objective in the game is to "derezz" enemies and follow platforming sequences. It's sort of linear (moreso on the beginning, it gets a tiny bit larger later on).
You're never really lost since at first the game will show you the way to follow with "bits" laying the way. (after that, a tap of "select" will highlight 'em again in later parts)

There's a singleplayer mode, not too short and even kinda long for this kinda game, and a  multiplayer mode.
The multi is pretty generic, thrown in this only to avoid people complaining it isn't present. Pretty basic, you can play various modes online. Light Discs/Combat focused modes and vehicle modes. (both the Cycles and the Tanks)
It's all pretty basic. Deathmatches, Capture the Flags... Up to 10 people!
I only played it once or twice. It wasn't bad per say..but note fantastic either. Generic.

Speaking of which, the light cycles make a comeback as usual. But you'll only play actual races in the mutliplayer. The Solo campaign makes use of the Cycle only to flee a scene/escape enemies/follow something, etc.. There's still the energy wall created behind the bike but since you aren't actually competiting in races it won't play a part in the gameplay...

The story is decent, if you're a fan of Tron.
Kinda strange to follow if you missed the movies I'd guess... 

Good news, some actors from the movie reprise their roles for the game. (such as Olivia Wilde)

The music's easily the best part of the game. Pretty similar to Tron 2.0 overall. (in tone, in tunes...)
Classic Tron in some rare occasions and pure Tron Legacy in others.
It was composed by Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Kevin Manthei, and some music was lifted straight from Daft Punk's Tron Legacy soundtrack. (including a new exclusive track)
The score works great during the game.

Overall, it isn't perfect, far from it!
But it was fun. And one of those rare case when a licensed game isn't complete garbage...

The first half of the game is easily the worst, most repetitive, most boring part. But once you'll get the hang of it, you might even have fun with it! (particularly once you upgraded all your 4 discs and will get used to the combat system)

It gets a bit long though...

It seems like beneath this whole tie-in game, behind the deadline Disney imposed Propaganda Games to coincide with the movie, lied actually a good game. But due to restrictions (time? budget?) it got sort of rushed. Some parts of the game, while you'll be wandering around the city before the action kicks in, it seems that at some point this was a much trued to Tron 2.0 "sequel".
Perhaps the "real" game we would have gotten would have featured a free-roaming open-world city to protect?
Not linear levels, but an actual story focused Tron sequel/prequel?
Some bits here and there do hint at a much larger project...
Specially the way the story jumps at you at various points while you'll be walking around platforms, from combat-heavy zone to another, with no hint at a storyline..then, Bam! Plot happens...

This game's unrelated to the Wii/DS game Tron: Evolution – Battle Grids, which is another prequel to the new movie. Featuring a completely different story and gameplay (and visuals!).

Anyway, I woudn't recommed this game to everybody, due to it being cheap, simple, boring and repetitive.
BUT I'd suggest checking this out if you're a fan. You might even enjoy it.

I give it:

1.5 / 3 Quacks!