PaRappa the Rapper is the first game in the PaRappa the Rapper series, and the first game in the series in both chronological and release order, originally coming out in Japan on the 6th of December, 1996 and then coming to Europe on September 26th of 1997 and to North America on November 19th of the same year. It released for the original PlayStation, 2 years after its launch, to great fanfare and critical acclaim at the time due to its revolutionary new gameplay and short, but sweet story. It became a financial success in Japan, selling over 700 thousand copies in a year of it's release, and anywhere between 1 and 2 million copies in total, kickstarting the beginning of the PaRappa franchise.
Since then, the game has been ported to the PSP in 2006 in
Japan and 2007 in the rest of the world, featuring updated graphics,
16:9 resolution and new remixed songs alongside a brand-new
multiplayer mode.
This PSP port was used as the basis for a PS4 remaster created for
the 20th anniversary of the franchise, with the in-game graphics
now upscaled to 4K and higher quality audio, although the multiplayer
mode was removed from this "remastered" version.