The little tiny shrimps just go everywhere!
They do indeed go everywhere. Andreas Wieslander and his band of intrepid film makers/musicians/gamers pay homage to Parappa the Rapper in this excellent video, which is a cover of “Cheep Cheep Cooking Chicken’s Rap” from the first title in the PaRappa series.
Of course I didn’t need to tell you that. You read the title of this post and automatically knew where it came from.
The picture helps a little too.
It’s nice hearing a videogame song cover that’s not the Mario theme for a change, but it’s not all fun and games though.
This project was actually part of Andreas’s bachelor’s thesis entitled “In Real Game”. It explores the notion that games can be promoted more effectively by focusing on the feel of a game, rather than its cosmetics, seeing as though the games that we remember most fondly are the ones that stand out (Such as Parrapa, or more recently Wario Ware/Katamari Damacy). From the report:
To get good reviews of your game is crucial for its sales numbers. A lot of effort and money is invested in showing the best qualities of a game for those in the trade of game industry. Focus is mainly on the qualities that can be compared and measured with other games, like graphic, sound and engine.
Considering that the games we return to over and over to play, are the ones where we like the game feel, rather than graphics and sound, there’s the possibility to focus on this game feel, when marketing games.
If you’d like to read the full report then it can be easily downloaded from Andreas’ website at www.chromatic.se
Whether you read the report or not you should check out the video anyway… Good work Andreas!
Update: Credited Sofia Azam for the photograph. Some of the performers are members of Space Suit Ballet Dancers.
That plain rocked.
The eeriest part was how they even hit the character’s inflection and tone. Proof that we’ve both played through Parappa way too many times…
Wasn’t it just awesome?
Truth is, when I play the game I always sing PaRappa’s parts and try to mimic his tone of voice too… It helps, honest!
I can just give a hint towards this page (www.spacesuitballetdancers.com) parts of the band and actors…..
Hej Loggert! thanks for your that lovely bass magic ;)
That was outstanding…and that game was one of the best. Ever notice how the best games are the good ones graphicly, but the entertaining ones? Maybe that just goes to proove if a game is fun, people can deal with sub-par graphics
You’re absolutely right, in fact Andreas’s report does touch upon that…
It’s also the very reason I started this retro blog, because most games we see these days are instantly forgettable, simply because not enough effort is focused on actually providing an entertaining game… It’s all about graphics and such these days, and while I don’t necessarily disagree with that, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice fun…
Rez is a great example; Stunning graphics and incredible gameplay. The two can co-exist if enough thought is put into it…