modes and focused on guitar play, but very similar gameplay. A bonus mode was included in which the entire game could be replayed with PaRappa as the protagonist, complete with his own versions of the game's stages. An arcade version of the game produced by Namco was also released. A direct sequel, PaRappa the Rapper 2, was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001 in Japan and 2002 in North America and Europe. Several media adaptations outside of the video game industry were also developed, including an eponymous anime television series which aired in Japan between April 2001 and January 2002, which served as a tie-in to PaRappa the Rapper 2. PortsPaRappa the Rapper was released for PlayStation Portable in Japan in December 2006 and in North America and Europe in July 2007 for the game's tenth anniversary. The port, developed by Japan Studio and epics, features ad hoc multiplayer mode for up to four players and the ability to download remixed versions of the existing songs. In conjunction with the PSP release, Sony, for a limited time, freely released the soundtrack. In a 2008 Famitsu interview, Masaya Matsuura revealed that a brand new song created for the PSP release, "Believe in Yourself", was cut due to development time constraints. A remaster of the game by Japan Studio for PlayStation 4 was released on 4 April 2017. The port features graphics of up to 4K resolution, and includes all the downloadable songs from the PSP version. A playable demo was released on 3 December 2016, celebrating the game's 20th anniversary. Homebrew developers found that the PS4 port was actually the PlayStation Portable version running inside an emulator and with high resolution textures. In 2016, Sony's mobile studio ForwardWorks announced they were working on a smartphone version of the game; no further details have been released since then. In popular culturePaRappa the Rapper was featured as a challenge on the video game-based show GamesMaster in 1998. The game was also referenced in the web series Video Game High School'', where the character Jenny Matrix is pressured into playing a level of "PAROPERA THE OPERA" during a talk show. Notes References External links 1996 video games Golden Joystick Award winners Interactive Achievement Award winners Music video games NanaOn-Sha games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games PlayStation Portable games Rhythm games Single-player video games Sony Interactive Entertainment games