This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Remember back in 97’ when Sony Computer Entertainment released their first rhythm game entitled PaRappa The Rapper? How about that thin paper looking dog? Or even the famous line, “Kick, Punch, It’s all in the mind”? Well, he’s back and this time coming to the PlayStation Portable. Today at the annual Sony Gamers Day in San Diego, we had a chance to go hands-on with the game and were quite shocked with what we saw.

Gamers take on the role of PaRappa, a paper-thin rapping dog who is trying to win the love of Sunny Funny. Your job is to learn the moves of fighting, driving, raising money, baking, and so much more. To do this, the teacher will rap a line that consists of the buttons on the PSP handheld such as the D-Pad and shoulder buttons. Once the teacher raps a line, you will need to repeat it. There is a grading structure, so you must stay above good, avoiding the bad or awful areas.

PaRappa isn’t getting a makeover, but the game will indeed receive a couple more modes that will keep the replay value up high as it’s pretty much the original that was released back on the PlayStation. Some of the new modes consist of Ad hoc, in which players can connect wirelessly and share a demo level with four PSP systems simultaneously. Essentially it’ll download onto the gamer’s PSP even without the game, and then friends who don’t own copies of PaRappa will be able to play with you. Once the gamer turns off his or her handheld, the game will then disappear.

As stated, the game is basically the PlayStation original, but players will be able to download eight remixes from the internet. These remixes can be downloaded from the PSP or downloaded onto your computer and then transferred over via the memory stick. Visually, the aspect ratio was tweaked tremendously making it look really crisp and smooth on the PSP’s screen, but there weren’t any graphical modifications made according to a Sony representative.

Sound-wise, nothing has been changed or tweaked as far as we know. The sounds of the characters, background music, and interface remain untouched.

One thing that totally didn’t make sense to me was the fact that Sony plans to release this on the PSP as a “packaged title” instead of being made available via PlayStation Network. If you go on the PSN now, you will see other classic titles such as Cool Boarders, Crash Bandicoot, and Medieval. I understand there’s a bit more being put into PaRappa, but the extra items are mainly multiplayer, making a “physical” release unnecessary. 

Being on the PSP, the game does look really incredible. It’s very smooth, no glitches, the sound is spot-on, and the controls still function as they did in the original. No complaints there. Unfortunately, multiplayer wasn’t working at the time, so we were unable to check out the whole Ad hoc functionality and the downloading interface for the remixes.

I am happy that Sony is bringing this classic title back, but it just seems more logical to put it on the PlayStation Network (and why not include PaRappa 2 while they’re at it?) The game is due out in July and more than worth picking up. We will have a full review as release gets closer.