Anyone who's owned a PS1 is sure to remember the funky character Parappa the Rapper. With his bizarre set of friends, like Master Onion, Instructor Mooselini and Prince Fleaswallow, it sure was a fun adventure getting your rhythm right to advance to the next level.

Sigh, those were the days... Can you imagine, it's been ten years?!? Yeah, it's true! In fact, a tea party was just recently held in Tokyo to celebrate the tenth year anniversary of Parappa and the gang. And illustrator and visual designer Rodney Greenblat had some good news to boot, too.

As reaching the decade-mark for anything is a pretty huge deal, Sony will be re-releasing the original Parappa The Rapper for the PSP. Now, Parappa doesn't have to stay retro, 'cos he'll be getting ported to the more modern handheld. And it's all for good, too. Says Greenblat, "I think Parappa really suits a personal machine like the PSP. Please show Parappa to your friends or kids that don't know about it yet."

With the game going to the PSP, we don't think introduction would be any problem.

It's been ten years now since PaRappa rapped his way into the hearts of many a button-masher. Still can't believe it's been ten whole years? I can't either. I miss doing kung-fu with Master Onion and having driving lessons with Instructor Mooselini. So, with a decade's worth of reminiscing, why not hook ourselves up with the video of the upcoming PSP version (uploaded by 87th)?

Anyways, to celebrate ten years of rapping, PaRappa the Rapper was welcomed in Japan with Rodney Greenblat, the game's illustrator and visual designer. He randomly chose 70 fans from his blog site and invited them to a sit-down dinner (sorry, none of Cheap Cheap Cooking Chicken's seafood chocolate cake was served) and some photo ops. Before the party, he was interviewed and asked about designing the visuals with the Japanese audience in mind. Here was his reply:

No, because the game was made completely in English. Even Matsuura-san (the game’s director) wanted to do it in English. I think Parappa really suits a personal machine like the PSP. Please show Parappa to your friends or kids that don’t know about it yet.

Shameless advertising plug-in aside, the PSP version might be a port and doesn't look a whole lot different from the original version, but I definitely wouldn't mind having a portable copy of my childhood around with me. Good job, PaRappa. You can go on to the next stage now...