PaRappa the Rapper 2

PaRappa the Rapper 2 (パラッパラッパー2 Parappa Rappā Tsu?) is a PlayStation 2 rhythm video game and the sequel to PaRappa the Rapper, it is the third game in the series following UmJammer Lammy. Though the game boasts a number of new gameplay elements, it was not as well-received critically and failed to garner similar sales numbers as its predecessor.

The game plays similar to its predecessor and features 8 stages. The teacher will give a line of rap and PaRappa will have to repeat it, or otherwise improvise it. If he messes up his line twice in a row, he drops a rank from Good, to Bad, to Awful. Performing well two times in a row will bring the player up a rank. Players lose the level if they drop below Awful, or finish the level in the Bad or Awful state. Parappa 2 handles this a little differently from its predecessors, as upon dropping a rank, the teacher will say ‘Getting Worse’, and the song will go back two lines, and sometimes altering the lines to make them easier to play. If the player improvises a rap successfully two times in a row, it accesses Cool mode, where the teacher leaves PaRappa to do freestyle by himself. If PaRappa can reach the end of the level in Cool mode, he’ll earn a Cool ranking for that stage. This unlocks music tracks available to listen in a music player available at the end of the game.

Between every two levels (except for level 8), there is a minigame in which ‘Kotamanegis’ (little onions) from Chop Chop Master Onion’s dojo hold up plates for PaRappa to break. Hitting the plates earns PaRappa extra points to add to his previous level’s score, while hitting the Tamanegis when they are not ready deducts points.

When a level is completed, a versus mode is unlocked, playable with a friend or against the computer. In this mode, the two players are given a line to rap, and each player must try and improvise to get a higher score than the previous one. Beating their opponent earns a point, and three points win the game.

Upon completing the game, Parappa’s hat changes color to represent an increase in the stage’s difficulty, going from Blue, to Pink to Yellow. When playing through the game again, the lines are remixed. Completing the game in Cool Mode unlocks a music player where you can listen to any level with a Cool Rating on, along with the full version of the Stage 8 Intro song “Come a Long Way”, while completing the Vs. CPU mode on all difficulty levels unlocks the final song, “Say “I Gotta Believe!””, performed by De La Soul featuring Double. The player can change his hat color on the title screen by rotating the analogue stick, but the line changes will remain, meaning the player will have to start a new game from scratch in order to play the songs in the original layout.