Climb Inside the Head of Parappa's Papa

Bob Mackey — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

I really miss Parappa the Rapper. In fact, I miss him so much that I'm willing to overlook the travesty that was Parappa the Rapper 2, which ruined the franchise by fundamentally breaking the rapping mechanic--if a seasoned Parappa vet can't even rank "Cool" on the first level, there's a serious problem. But that's all water under the bridge at this point; I can still look back at the original Parappa and its sequel, Um Jammer Lammy (one of my most favorite games), and remember them fondly as I possibly don my Parappa hat in a moment of silence. Now that the character-based music game genre is dead in favor of titles featuring "real" songs, all I'm left with are my memories at this point--unless, of course, Parappa creator Masaya Matsuura's newest music game, Major Minor's Majestic March can tap into the unique, feelgood charm that defined his earlier work.

Matsuura's been off the radar for quite some time, outside of his iPod game, musika, so I've been a little worried about how in-touch he's been keeping with the current state of the music games genre. Thankfully, my fears have been quelled by an excellent in-depth interview with Matsuura, posted today by the always-wonderful Gamasutra. In it, the grandfather of music games talks about the state of the genre, Major Minor, and his thoughts on music in general. Definitely an interesting read for anyone looking forward to his new game, or old fans wondering just what the hell he's been up to for most of the decade.

Related Links:

U Marchin’ Good!: The Return of Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Greenblat
No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!

Rock Band: My Anti-Music

Bob Mackey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Last Friday, Joe blogged about the curmudgeonly Nickelback and their outrage over how music games like Guitar Hero are supposedly preventing people from actually picking up real instruments and starting bands. As I said in the comments section of that post, if the world needs anything, it's fewer local bands; the town I come from is so lousy with them, you can't leave your car parked anywhere for more than ten minutes without your entire windshield getting plastered with an inch-thick layer of fliers. So I don't think we need to worry about rock and roll going anywhere anytime soon--and if anything, Nickelback is only contributing to the death of the genre, what with their general shittyness and all.

For me, though, Rock Band is my only real musical outlet. You see, between the ages of 16 and 17, I had about a year-and-a-half of guitar lessons--and while it didn't give me much of a musical foundation, I still picked up some fundamental skills that manifested into a sort of prototype Guitar Hero. I'd put on a song, try to play along with it to the best of my ability, and think "Damn, this would be pretty sweet as a video game." Of course, I'm not exactly claiming I had the idea first; everyone knows that GuitarFreaks predated Guitar Hero by a good seven years--I think my imagination was mainly stoked by my obsession with Um Jammer Lammy and the guitar controllers found on the Japan-only arcade release of the game.

So, essentially, I'm now reliving a far less authentic version of my teenage years; but it really doesn't bother me. I may be keeping Nickelback up at night, but at this point in my life, I don't really have the time or patience for playing "real" music. It's a little surreal to play songs in Rock Band that I actually know on the real guitar, but the instant gratification completely makes up for guilt over my stunning lack of musical discipline and my utter contempt for the act of stringing. And now, I'm pretty sure that I have some vague idea of how drums work! Oh, and speaking of drums: any of you aspiring drum players out there, heed my words. Your friends do not want to come over and listen to you drum along to that Rage Against the Machine CD. They're just too polite to tell you.

I'm no hypocrite; if all the kids out there were playing Freelance Writer Hero, I wouldn't even think to bemoan the death of my chosen art. Though I would question their idea of "fun."

Related Links:

Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."
Warner Music Wants More Royalties
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero

61 Frames Per Second : um jammer lammy

Climb Inside the Head of Parappa's Papa

Rock Band: My Anti-Music