You think PlayStation exclusives, the names that come to mind ring very appropo to the times. Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VII. It was a darker, grittier time for the mainstream gaming field, titles that tapped more into theatrical presentations were becoming widely embraced and would shape the field of the industry.

Then there's Parappa the Rapper, this overly cartoony venture that's unlike anything else seen at the time. Widely considered the first rhythm game, Parappa the Rapper was created by musician and game producer Masaya Matsuura and released exclusively for the PSX in Japan in 1996, before seeing a worldwide release in 1997. Despite its Saturday morning cartoon presentation, the game became quite a hit and was one of the more noteworthy PlayStation characters, though the platform never truly adopted a mascot. Parappa the Rapper follows the story of a young rapping dog who wishes to earn the affections of Sunny, a sentient sunflower he wishes to make his girlfriend, but doesn't feel like he has what it takes. Through six stages with increasing skill level, Parappa seeks to increase aspects of his personality (baking a cake for her birthday) and work ethic to vie for her attention, with mishaps along the way. Such as a bit where Parappa takes Sunny on a date, but ends up having to really go to the bathroom to avoid crapping his pants. This resolution is solved by out-rapping the previous teachers and advisors from other stages. In hindsight, this feels like The Amazing World of Gumball before its time mashed with the Nick cartoon, Doug.

In order to clear a stage, you must press the respective button when the timing calls for it.If you fail several times in a row or succeed, the "U Rappin" meter will drop or raise, depending on your progress. If you remain at "Bad" and "Awful", you'll have to replay the stage. By remaining in "U Rappin Cool", you'll have a chance to freestyle and earn extra points to your top score. I never was good enough to remain at "Cool" for any long period of time. 

How does one talk controls for this style of play? The teachers will prompt a bar one line at a time that you'll have to "rap" with the accommodating buttons. It takes a little bit to get used to playing Parappa the Rapper, because it relies on you nailing audio ques, it's hard to keep track on rather it's wiser to listen to the words being said, or the cadence. The teachers sound fine, but Parappa himself has a very stilted, robotic delivery, and it kinda throws me off. It's almost like listening to Parappa himself is detrimental, and I'd rather try to follow the instrumentals to nail the timing more accurately. The first stage with Chop Chop Master Onion serves as the perfect introductory, but later raps start getting more elaborate and genuinely frustrating. Sure, you may be doing these stages over and over, but the songs are all super catchy and endearing, it might not be too big a deal to continuously repeat them.

The graphics, I do get a kick out of, it's very different from a lot of PlayStation titles. The cel-shading on these paper thin character models give it a look that stands out, yet I feel that a certain number of gamers may have been turned away by its visuals initially, but perhaps were won over when catching someone play it in a living room. The cut scenes, which accompanied by a border featuring heads of the cast, are a lot of fun, the characters all move around like two-dimensional puppets. I guess that graphical clipping is to be expected with this animation style, so props for making something rather avant garde, especially compared to things like Resident Evil 2, where character models didn't have individual fingers or facial expressions. 

The songs, as previously mentioned, are all incredibly fun to sing along to, and helps Parappa the Rapper be one of the more appealing games on the PlayStation. The controls can be a little strange to get the hang of it, especially if you're playing this on the PSP, where there's some noticeable input lag. The game was ultra successful, and spawned a spin-off and a sequel. The sequels didn't change a lot, but are enjoyable enough. I think I'd enjoy a cartoon

Rhythm games can be very linear and have a very arcade appeal, so Parappa the Rapper might not be everyone's cup of tea. It is interesting that this character and franchise hasn't remained a fixture on Sony platforms, though he did appear in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. But with rhythm games being the norm, between the rise of Dance Dance Revolution in the late 90's and early 2000's, to the Hatsune Miku Project series from Sega and independent titles like Voez, perhaps Parappa is better as an establishing pillar rather than something that would become obsolete in itself.