ParaParaParadise
ParaParaParadise (パラパラパラダイス), oft mit PPP abgekürzt, ist eine von Konami entwicklete Para Para Simulation. Para Para ist eine japanische Tanzart zu Eurobeat Songs. Hier werden zu Songs vorgegebene Routinen mit den Händen und Armen getanzt.
Gameplay
Die Arcade Version von Para Para Paradise besteht aus einer octagonalen Plattform mit motion detection sensors über ihr. Der Spieler löst die Sensoren mit den Armen aus, wenn der entsprechende Pfeil auf der Bildschirm erscheint. A second cabinet can be hooked up to the PPP machine that has a small 13" LG CRT TV and a DVD player. This DVD player is perfectly synced with the game cabinet and will show the Para Para Allstars dancing to their routines. This allowed people to learn routines outside of home video, clubs, and if the game was before PPP 2nd Mix. PPP 1.1 and above can be linked to a second machine for 2 player mode.
There are two game modes that will allow you to practice Para Para dance routines; Para Para mode, featuring arrows corresponding to the routine and a (optional) dancing girl in the background showing you how it's done and Training Mode, a mode that breaks each song into parts. For example, part A of a song consists of 10 seconds. These 10 seconds will first be played before you to show you how it's done, then the same sequence will play again with you being able to activate the sensors to practice the routine. Once the entire song has been played through, the entire song will play in one sitting with you being able to activate the sensors. However, Training Mode costs an entire credit for just one song.
There is also Freestyle Mode, which has more arrows for you to "hit" in an attempt to freestyle the song; i.e., dance it as gracefully as possible. The arcade machines only have 2 Freestyle levels; Medium and Hard, whereas the home version features Medium, Hard (non-existent in the arcade version) and Expert (Hard in the arcade version).
The background generally features a dancing character such as a nurse, a ganguro and a girl dressed for Halloween but some versions allow videos of the dance group Para Para Allstars to be displayed. For the home version, you can choose either to have psychedelic and cute background animations such as hearts and fireworks or videos of the Para Para Allstars. In addition to that, you can also choose how the videos should be shown, being able to among other things flip the video (so that you won't have to mirror their moves yourself).
The music used in Para Para Paradise is exclusively fast-paced Eurobeat. The majority of tracks are "true" Para Para tracks from the Avex Trax record label, such as "Velfarre 2000", "Anniversary" and "Boom Boom Fire". A large portion of the song are Eurobeat remixes of other Bemani tracks such as "CAN'T STOP FALLIN' IN LOVE". There are also two songs that are so called J-EURO remixes, remixes of J-pop songs ("Aishiattemasu" and "Deluxe", both by Key-A-Kiss).
In both the arcade versions and the home version, you are able to use miscellaneous modifications, like those of the Dance Dance Revolution series. By hitting both arrows (on both versions) on the song selection screen, you will be presented with a menu. You can modify the display (in the arcade version, you can remove the dancing character, in the home version, you can switch the background out for a video of the Para Para Allstars doing the routine of that song, but only in ParaPara-mode), the scrolling speed of the arrows, the visibility of the arrows (Hidden, Sudden and both at once) and Random (the arrows will switch positions. For example, all left arrows will become up-arrows, all perpendicular up-left arrows will become right arrows, and so on)(only for the home version).
Versionen
Da das Spiel nicht sehr erfolgreich war, erschienen in Japan nur fuenf Versionen von ParaParaParadise; Vier Arcade Versionen und eine Version für die PlayStation 2.
- ParaParaParadise AC
- ParaParaParadise v1.1 AC
- ParaParaParadise 1stMIXPlus AC
- ParaParaParadise 2ndMIX AC
- ParaParaParadise CS
Zudem gibt es eine Koreanische Version: ParaParaDancing. Hier wurde eine handvoll Titel gegen koreanische Songs ausgetauscht. "Hold On Me", bei dem Original in japanisch, wurde ins koreanische übersetzt. Im Gegensatz zu der japanische Version macht ParaParaDancing Gebrauch von allen 8 Sensoren, jedoch nur immer 5 zur Zeit. Es ist möglich die aktiven Sensoren nach links, rechts oder hinten zu verlegen so dass andere Leute einen von vorne betrachten kann während man Routinen spielt.
