We expect that most people reading this will already be familiar with PaRappa the Rapper — NanaOnSha's quirky PlayStation rhythm game about a paper-thin rapping dog. But what you might not know is that the Sega Saturn also received a similar rhythm action game not long after PaRappa's release, in the form of Altron Corporation's Jung Rhythm.
Jung Rhythm starred a young girl named Vanilla Essence who dreams of becoming a famous star and meeting her idol — an eco-conscious musician named "Chorking". Much like Parappa the Rapper, it is divided into various stages, each based on a different scenario. These include getting ready for school, learning to fight, practicing art, singing karaoke, and performing with a bunch of funky fast-food employees. It was released in Japan back in 1998 and was sadly never officially made available to players outside of the country.
Now though, thanks to the efforts of the prominent hacker/programmer Derek Pascarella (and a crack team comprised of @wiredcrackpot, @JonGeorgievski, and @llinrac) there's a new English translation patch available, meaning it's easier than ever for people outside of Japan to give it a go (just don't the game to be a walk in the park too).
As Pascarella warns in his thread on the patch's release, the game is quite difficult to master given the timing required for entering your inputs:
"This game is hard! There's no two ways about it; timing your button presses to the beat can be a real challenge. It gets easier with practice though, so don't give up! There's even a "TRAINING" mode accessible from the main menu to help players hone their skills."
There's even a special "good" ending to unlock too, which is achieved by receiving a score of 465 or better on the final stage. But Pascarella has supplied a link to an FMV playlist, containing the relevant cutscenes (labelled ENC and ED2) for those who are struggling to pull off this difficult feat.
Want to give it a try? You can download the patch now from Pascarella's GitHub page.