Come, gather around kids and let me tell you the story of that old-time game platform, the Playstation 1!
Yup, those were the days back in the 1990s when Sony was still actually a force to be reckoned with. Not sure what they are up to now. But I do remember my old friend from Owase, Mie Prefecture (the rainiest city in Japan, doncha know?) coming up to my neck of the woods a few times a year carrying up a number of his game platforms including the PS1. He would stay over for about a week and introduce some of these games that were starting to come in big, and sure enough, some of our other old friends who had been on working-holiday visas back in Toronto in the early 1990s would drop by and play for hours. One time, one of those friends arrived and played "Biohazard" with my Owase buddy. They had already been playing for some hours when I decided to turn in for bed. Eight hours later when I woke up, they were still at it. They even told me that they had to turn off the PS1 for an hour or so since it was overheating.
Now on one of my Owase buddy's pilgrimages to the big city, he introduced me to "PaRappa The Rapper" which was created by artist Rodney Greenblat and PSY-S composer/arranger/musician Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）. I think Matsuura is probably now more well known as a video game designer and composer for game music but man, did he come up with cool music for PSY-S!
Anyways, he and I played the original "PaRappa The Rapper" when it came out in 1996, and I still remember the main character, PaRappa, crying out "I gotta believe!". Now in all honesty, I think my Owase buddy was far more proficient in his "rapping" since I have all the rhythmic ability of a limp strand of pasta. Basically, it ended up me watching him going crazy on the controls.
However, due to an interesting re-acquaintance a few days ago, I came across one of the first songs that was used in the game called "Romantic Love". Matsuura came up with this danceable Latin beat as PaRappa entered his training under Chop Chop Master Onion (no doubt, the sensei made his students cry under his tutelage). Well, the slow result was what I remember from the song as seen above.
The two guys that I've put up in the title line above are the voice actors Dred Foxx and Ryu Watabe as PaRappa and Master Onion respectively. Listening to "Romantic Love" at the right tempo was actually quite fun and I don't think even my Owase buddy got quite that good at the speed the song is playing above.
As for that interesting re-acquaintance a few days ago, I encountered this YouTube video with most of the PreCure warriors dancing the night away to "Romantic Love". Somehow, the song rang a few memory bells and after a bit of digging, I realized it was the song that I had tried to "rap" through but ended up being another word that rhymes with "rap". Amazing how reunions occur on this blog.
Ah, by the way, you can also read my other article about another beloved game on the PS1 with some grand music.
Ah, by the way, you can also read my other article about another beloved game on the PS1 with some grand music.
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