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Parappa the Rapper is the gaming equivalent of marmite.
However, whether you love it or hate it, its release way back in
1996 popularised a genre that, despite never truly becoming widespread, has inspired many imitations and spawned one of the most
popular attractions of many arcades; the Rhythm game. The genre has
evolved from its humble beginnings on the PlayStation Controller to
the Dance Mat-based craze that swept through Arcades in recent
years. Although jumping up-and-down has fitness and comedy benefits,
it is still the domain of hyperactive teenage girls and drunk
people. Unfortunately the former do not spend any real amount on
videogames and the latter, well they probably can’t remember why
they did it anyway. Naturally, when a genre shows promise like this,
somebody will want to capitalise on the popularity and make a
version for the videogame buying public and we all know what that
means; bring out the gangstaz, the bling and the Hip-Hop and
urbanize it. Enter SONY Computer Entertainment Incorporated,
renowned masters of taking a genre and making it “hip”. The game?
B-Boy.
For those not in the know, a B-Boy, or B-Girl, is a person devoted
to Hip-Hop and frequently the gymnastic style of dancing known as
Break-Dancing. Sounds like a great basis for a more mature Rhythm
game does it not? The premise of B-Boy is hardly Oscar
winning, you play as an up-and-coming B-Boy learning the ropes from
a seasoned professional. After you have created your character in a
similar manner to THQ’s
WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2007, you start the game with only
four basic moves from which all other moves are defined. After
mastering the basics in a brief Tutorial, it’s up to the player to
carve-out a name for themselves in the local dance scene by winning
dance-off battles. In order to do this, players are graded primarily
on timing. The players avatar is surrounded by a ring that shows the
rhythm of the song, with small rotating notches illustrating the
start of each bar and the drumbeats, with a yellow gauge showing the
breaks. The four Face Buttons initiate each of the basic Stances,
with a
 combination of the D-Pad and Face Buttons used to pull-off
more complex moves. In order to sustain these moves, the player must
tap the R1 Button in time with the drums. Bonus Points are earned by
initiating new moves at the start of a bar, keeping time and
“freezing” during breaks. However, as expected, advanced techniques
are not available to the player at the start and must by learned
from opponents during battles. These moves can then be attempted in
the game’s HUB, with each move given several Levels that can
attained through practice, with higher Levels allow players to
pull-off moves for longer and with greater style.
Each battle has a series of rounds in which the player and opponent
are judged on a range of aspects including mastery of basic Stances
and rhythm. As the competitors show-off their skills they earn
Medals based on their performance, it is then up to their opponent
to take the Medals by outperforming their opponents in the judged
categories. The player with the most Medals at the end of the rounds
is considered the winner.
Although the actual rhythm-based gameplay is fairly amusing, it
doesn’t really keep the attention of anyone but fans of
Break-Dancing due to its fairly repetitive nature and limited
variety of music. The player’s moves are also not directly linked to
the player’s input, making the player slightly uninvolved in
proceedings, although this slightly-delayed system allows the game
to show-off some impressive Motion-Captured animation which is
almost flawless throughout. The Career Mode is also quite bland,
with challenges lacking any variety other than the judged topics and
increased difficulty.
Although the Character Models are exceptionally well animated and
nicely detailed, the backgrounds are all uninspired ghetto-themed
locales with small, average looking crowds. There are also
occasional Camera issues, some of which can be more than slightly
detrimental to a players performance, as from time-to-time the
critical
 Rhythm Bar can become obscured, making changes far more
difficult. Although the music is of a good standard, it will likely
only appeal to a niche due to its lack of diversity. The sound
effects and Voice-Acting is also decent, but since their instances
are few-and-far-between, they are hardly a selling point.
B-Boy is a novel twist on the genre, but is unlikely to
become as big a seller as perhaps SONY Computer Entertainment
Incorporated would have hoped, due to it’s limited appeal to the
vast majority of Rhythm game fans. However, despite this, it is the
only Break-Dancing game available and is of a good enough standard
to find sales to fans of the art. There are better Rhythm games
available, but B-Boy is about the best of the Hip-Hop bunch. |
