A game that basically improves upon its predecessor in any given way, this is what I love to see from a sequel/really high effort spin off. The gameplay as a whole feels far more forgiving and functional than with Parappa 1, but beyond that, the more surreal aesthetic this game takes on is far more appealing to me on the whole as someone who can really appreciate a healthy quantity of weird shit. The fact that it now feels possible to feasibly hit the notes without some seriously scuffed timing is an interesting element of the game in particular because it feels extremely clear that the designers realised that players would have greater capabilities this time around thanks to the working mechanics, and so they made things WAY harder than before. The player will get more regularly bombarded by extremely fast phrases combined with rhythm that goes far beyond the weirdness of the first game to the point where it sometimes feels like a challenge just trying to parse how you're meant to approach something. While this sometimes falls extremely flat, such as with stage 5 where it loses any sense of coherency to the point where it just feels artificially difficult, it mostly helps contribute to the vibe of the game and ends up being a nice challenge.
The same sense of sincere warmth can also be felt here, just through a different lens, being of someone rising above their own anxieties compared to Parappa more believing in himself to get through problems that were more outwardly affecting him and those around him. I appreciate this as it really adds to things for this silly narrative to have those moments of empowerment and general feelgood messages ingrained within it, and it's ultimately a huge part of why the aesthetic of this series is so unique. The amount of content here is pretty nice as well, not only having 2 different story modes that end up taking the player through effectively 13 stages, but then having a pretty neat co-op and competitive multiplayer mode as well, really getting the most out of what few tracks are featured here. The game will still probably only take you about 2 - 3 hours to get through all significant content, but that feels like a good amount for a game of this nature, keeping things feeling very clean without anything close to filler to be found, with even the weakest bits still feeling essential in some way or another. Overall I just really like this game, and while there's still some jank that comes through with actually playing it, it's not enough to stop it from being fun, and the immaculate vibes carry this up way higher.
The same sense of sincere warmth can also be felt here, just through a different lens, being of someone rising above their own anxieties compared to Parappa more believing in himself to get through problems that were more outwardly affecting him and those around him. I appreciate this as it really adds to things for this silly narrative to have those moments of empowerment and general feelgood messages ingrained within it, and it's ultimately a huge part of why the aesthetic of this series is so unique. The amount of content here is pretty nice as well, not only having 2 different story modes that end up taking the player through effectively 13 stages, but then having a pretty neat co-op and competitive multiplayer mode as well, really getting the most out of what few tracks are featured here. The game will still probably only take you about 2 - 3 hours to get through all significant content, but that feels like a good amount for a game of this nature, keeping things feeling very clean without anything close to filler to be found, with even the weakest bits still feeling essential in some way or another. Overall I just really like this game, and while there's still some jank that comes through with actually playing it, it's not enough to stop it from being fun, and the immaculate vibes carry this up way higher.