Meet Rodney Greenblat, PaRappa's "Mother"
July 07, 2005
Gamasutra has an excellent interview with graphic designer Rodney Greenblat, one of the creators behind PaRappa the Rappa
and UmJammer Lammy for the Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
Don't recognize those titles? Don't feel so bad. The original PaRappa was a huge success in Japan, launching the PaRappa character up to near Mario-levels of popularity. Read Greenblat's insightful thoughts on the development of the series, including a look at why he believes the PaRappa series came crashing down to Earth in a massive flame-out of Sony executive ignorance and greed.
I really lost my voice because there were so many other people. [The show's producers] decided that they wouldn't let anyone from the game team side work on the TV side, they didn't want to pull anyone from the game development for the TV show development. And then they wanted to slate the show for little kids, 5 year olds or something, mostly to sell toys.
I find it somehow satisfying and comforting that Japanese gaming executives can make decisions that are just as stupid and greedy as their American and European counterparts. In the rush to turn PaRappa into "the next Mario", Sony smothered the character and aimed him at the wrong demographic. PaRappa was popular among teens and college kids; Sony wanted to sell toys to kids. The rest (like PaRappa himself) is history.