If you were one of the many people often hammering their thumbs on a PlayStation controller in the late 1990s, you are likely to remember PaRappa the Rapper, the rhythm action game that was released in North America in 1997 and practically started a new game genre. Plus, rarely can too much be said of the game’s wacky star, a rapping cartoon dog called PaRappa. Yes, seriously…
Rapping was very much the name of the game, which saw the literally paper-thin canine using his skills in this area in a bid to impress a girl called Sunny Funny. PaRappa’s catchphrase was “I gotta believe!”, which was pretty apt considering that Sunny Funny was basically a flower with a face, while one of the characters who helps out PaRappa, a karate instructor called Chop Chop Master Onion, had a big onion for a head. Let’s just assume that it was all deliberately meant to be utter crackers…
The popular game had obvious merchandizing potential – and, indeed, the fruits of the extensive PaRappa merchandizing include the masks and figures that you can see in the photo above. There was also a sequel for PlayStation 2 in 2001 – and, given the news just last November that Sony was looking into a return for PaRappa, we reckon that we probably haven’t seen the last of the quip-happy hound.
