Rap Quest (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
130A playthrough of Rap Quest, a Game Boy game that was slated for release in 1992 before being canceled.
This is a late prototype of a game developed by Equilibrium to be published by THQ, apparently far enough along that it had been submitted to Nintendo for approval. Since there's so little to be found online about the game, I thought it would be fun to show it off in a playthrough.
Does anyone else remember all of the weird licensed-based games that showed up in Nintendo Power's Pak Watch preview blurbs but were later cancelled? From New Kids on the Block to The California Raisins, it seemed like everyone was trying to jump into the gaming craze. This was one of those games, and you don't have to squint too hard to tell who was the original star of Rap Quest.
Yup, this is the Vanilla Ice game "Rap City," or at least, what the game became once the rap star's social status went the way of 2020's health statistics. The connection is still blatantly obvious, though, so if you want to daydream about the days of high-top fades and girlies on standby waiting just to say "Hi," this will probably be worth its weight in gold.
So, maybe we should refer to this as Ninja Rap Quest?
We could all be like Go Game Boy, Go Game Boy, Go Game Boy, Go! Go!....no? Oh.
Maybe?
(Okay, the crickets can stop now. Point taken.)
It's a simple platformer that plays a lot like the Game Boy version of Dick Tracy. You search objects in each level for health boosts and keys (CDs) to open the way to the next area. After beating each boss. Vanil... I mean, Cool Q, learns special powers that he can activate with his fresh dance moves when he's standing on a power mat.
Using a combination of belly flop worm wriggles, slides, stomps, and punches, our rap-oriented Guile cosplayer can summon projectile bass clefs, don ice armor, freeze all enemies, or make them all float to the ceiling like refugee birthday balloons. It's a really neat system that's used to good effect in some of the puzzles in the last stage. I wish they had done more with that.
Given the focus on platforming, though, doesn't "Rap Quest" seem like an odd choice of title? The first time I popped in the game, I was anticipating some sort of Hit The Ice-style RPG hybrid, with music instead of hockey. Anyone else?
A huge part of the fun in Rap Quest comes from the attention poured into its looks. The player's character sprite might only be a small blob of pixels, but between his outfit, his hair, and his impressively well animated dance moves, he's immediately recognizable as Vanilla Ice.
The enemies also have some really cool designs, especially the ones that hide in the graffiti and neon signs. They way they reveal themselves has to be one of the neatest, most novel uses of animation I've seen in 8-bit enemy design. The level of creativity here is leagues beyond the banal tripe we got in the Wayne's World games.
The gameplay is... well, it's fun, but it's half-baked. The collision detection is sloppy and you constantly take unavoidable hits, but there are so many power ups hidden throughout the levels that you're rarely in danger of being killed. Even with semi-responsive controls and no continue option, the game is easy to plow through on your first try. Quick hint if you want to try it yourself: to search, hold select and press A to look right and B to look left. It took me a bit to figure that one out, so hopefully putting it here can save someone else the frustration.
It's not what you'd call a well-balanced game, but because it all goes by in such a relaxed fashion, Rap Quest's goofy theme and the animation are strengths that are easy to appreciate. By avoiding the infuriatingly cheap traps that many licensed platformers seemed to love (The Terminator, Bttf2&3, and Home Alone: that means you), the game manages to be a lot of fun despite its deep flaws.
Since it's almost Christmas, the ice theme seemed appropriate. I hope you all get as big of a kick out of this rarity as I did.
*Recorded using Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.*
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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