Game music of the day: PaRappa the Rapper

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

May 28, 2010

Above: Instructor Mooselini and PaRappa in the PSP version of the game

Game: PaRappa the Rapper
Song: Instructor Mooselini’s RAP
Composer: Masaya Matsuura

Today, we’d like to highlight one of our favorite songs from PaRappa the Rapper for your listening pleasure. The PlayStation rhythm game was packed with catchy tunes, clever rhymes, and great artwork. It used a call and response format, which had players timing button presses to rap along with other characters. Maintaining a smooth flow was difficult at first; we remember failing at songs repeatedly as we did our best to help PaRappa, a rapping dog, win the heart of Suny Funny, a shy flower girl. But losing never sent us into a rage, because every track in the game’s soundtrack was so catchy and cheerful. Our favorite: Instructor Mooselini’s RAP, which kicks in when PaRappa is trying to earn his driver’s license so he can impress Sunny Funny.

TalkRadar fans may also remember that Capcom’s Community Editor Seth Killian pointed out that the melody in Instructor Mooselini’s RAP might have been plagiarized inTalKRadar 45. Have a listen to Turtles Have Short Legs, a song from the German experimentalist rock group Can – and let us know what you think. It sounds like a note-for-note rip-off.

Above: Turtles Have Short Legs by Can. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?

May 28, 2010

Game music of the day: River City Ransom
Fast-paced beats that will rock you with nostalgia

Soundtracks you didn’t know were stolen
Beautiful music blatantly ripped off from existing tunes