PaRappa the Rapper (PlayStation)

This game was one of the first modern music games, and was truly unique at its time. I was very impressed PaRappa when I first played it, but sadly, the gameplay is not on par with the style of the game. The main problem is that the game expects button presses coinciding with a steady rhythm, but PaRappas voice samples seem to be poorly edited, leaving too much of a delay before the actual sound starts. Of course, a little delay is almost inevitable, but it is actually hard not to try to offset it with pressing the buttons early, to make it sound more precise, which then fails the levels. And another thing, there is a key element in the gameplay, namely freestyling, that is not explained at all in the game, leaving the player to figure it out for himself, and you can actually play the whole game without ever understanding it. Anyway, gameplay complaints out of the way, the style of PaRappa the Rapper is something special; the weird cut-out characters are charming, and the irreverent humour is great. The music is very well produced, some cool beats, with some great humourous spins on various rap styles on top. Very enjoyable, but not necessarily for the gameplay itself.