The songs aren't as memorable, the story not as funny and picking at guitar strings just isn't as satisfying as spittin' rhymes in a rhythm game like this, but all that said, Um Jammer Lammy is a worthy sequel and a damn good time in its own right. It probably didn't leave a mark on me as much as Parappa the Rapper, because that game came along first and there was nothing else like it at the time. Um Jammer didn't have that fresh flavour and novelty factor to fall back on when it came out, maybe hence why it didn't sell anywhere near as well as PtR.
But if you look at the online discourse around the two games nowadays, it seems that folks heavily favour the riffing lamb over the rapping pup, so what do I know.
But if you look at the online discourse around the two games nowadays, it seems that folks heavily favour the riffing lamb over the rapping pup, so what do I know.
charming
The spinoff to the first Parappa game. The music is so much fun, and the switch from rapping to guitar, allows for more complicated rhythms to keep up with. Because of that, this ends up being the hardest game out of the 3 in the series. And I honestly like that since both Parappa 1 and 2 are honestly so easy that it's hard for me to come back to them often.
Also this game's story is so batshit insane. I love it so much.
Also this game's story is so batshit insane. I love it so much.
this one soo hard
♪ What! The! Fuck! ♪♪
PaRappa defined the rhythm genre. Lammy perfected it.
I've played PaRappa 1 and 2 before and now I've finally got around to playing this game. I can proudly say that not only is this the best rhythm game I've played, but also one of the best games I've played.
The gameplay is simple, you get a sequence of buttons to press and you have to press them in time with the stage's song. Simplistic, but really fun.
An improvement this game has over PaRappa 1 is that the timing in UJL is much better than in PaRappa 1. But it still has a welcome amount of difficulty, unlike PaRappa 2, which I felt was too easy.
I deducted half a star because the difficulty for stages 6 and 7 can feel frustrating sometimes, but otherwise a really great game that, along with PaRappa 1, became a pioneer for the rhythm game genre.
It also gave us the best cutscene of all time
I've played PaRappa 1 and 2 before and now I've finally got around to playing this game. I can proudly say that not only is this the best rhythm game I've played, but also one of the best games I've played.
The gameplay is simple, you get a sequence of buttons to press and you have to press them in time with the stage's song. Simplistic, but really fun.
An improvement this game has over PaRappa 1 is that the timing in UJL is much better than in PaRappa 1. But it still has a welcome amount of difficulty, unlike PaRappa 2, which I felt was too easy.
I deducted half a star because the difficulty for stages 6 and 7 can feel frustrating sometimes, but otherwise a really great game that, along with PaRappa 1, became a pioneer for the rhythm game genre.
It also gave us the best cutscene of all time
Fun, silly, a banger soundtrack
you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it, that's what this game says to me
you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it, that's what this game says to me
I know how it is. I've been in those awkward silences. Nobody wanting to say what's burning away at them. It's time to speak up - Um Jammer Lammy's FMV compression is fucking brutal. Really brings you back to the RealPlayer days. I get it, though. Nobody wants this to become the talking point. For Sony to get excited to fart out a new remaster with AI upscaled cutscenes and interpolated animation. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.
It's understandable, though. The PlayStation had changed a lot over the course of a few years. The team who once put out Destruction Derby were now the guys behind Driver 2. NanaOn-Sha have insisted that they were pushing the upper limits of the CD-ROM's capacity with SIX whole levels in PaRappa 1, and somehow they managed to squeeze out one more, multiple 2-player modes and a whole second campaign for UJL. None of those weird borders around the FMV sequences, either. It's 1999. We're ready to throw away those Mega CD-era crutches and embrace full-screen video. Those cowards at Squaresoft might have just thrown an extra disc or two in the box, but this is how the real game developers do it.
Um Jammer Lammy is an odd game. The original told a fairly typical coming of age story, whereas this seems more trivial. Lammy has slept in and only has fifteen minutes to get to her concert. PaRappa was faced with challenges that he'd need to overcome to grow up and win over the flower of his dreams, but each stage in UJL represents Lammy being interrupted from her journey to the concert hall. Irritations that she doesn't learn anything relevant from. It's a sillier, less heartfelt story, and the game feels less significant as a result.
The core gameplay hasn't changed, but there's been some neat refinements to the UI. It's much easier to tell when a teacher's phrase ends and your one begins, with consistent on-screen bar length, colour-coding and a neat use of the Dualshock's rumble when it's your shot. Timing seems much easier overall, too, with the button prompts pulsing when you're supposed to hit them. It's subtle, but it feels far more playable as a result. It's not uncommon that I'll get several levels into PaRappa without feeling I have any kind of handle on the timing, but all those little tweaks make UJL feel far more responsive and reliable.
That said, the game's cluttered, messy and a little incoherent. There are moments of characterisation that feel really underbaked, and like they were significantly established in the production material, but those cutscenes just couldn't make it into the 700MBs of space that the game was allotted. There's a running joke aimed at Joe Chin, PaRappa 1's pompous braggart, who has seemingly transformed into a tacky Donald Trump-style casino owner, stamping his name on cheaply-made products (likely the result of Rodney Greenblat's personal irritations, as a resident of New York), even though he has no place in the story and doesn't interact with any of the characters. They likely spent a lot of time coming up with ideas on what to put in a PaRappa sequel, and they just couldn't squeeze it all in. It doesn't feel like we spend enough time anywhere to get a sense of the world that they're attempting to establish. Those cutscenes don't grow on trees, ya know?
Then there's the music. If you hear Matsuura's work as a recording artist, you can tell that PaRappa was far closer to his comfort zone. He's done a lot of great work with funk, soul and disco, and when he focused on that, PaRappa 2 undoubtedly had his best compositions in a game. Lammy comes off like it's going to focus on rock, but it's all over the place. There's a kind of rockabilly thing for one level and a heavy metal pastiche, but there's a bunch of weird detours, plumbing the depths of the confused misfire that is Taste of Teriyaki. I was digging deep to try and link it here, but I once saw a mainstream music review site covering MilkCan's "Make It Sweet" (a sort of reimagined soundtrack where Katy sings all the songs) and it was deeply embarrassing thinking of someone judging these songs without the context of the game. Of course, they hated it. It's frequently quite intolerable. That said, Fire Fire and Casino In My Hair totally rule, and of course, the last level makes for one of the all-time feel-good finales to a game.
Rhythm action hadn't really made much progress as a genre until immediately after Um Jammer Lammy, when DDR, Pop'n Music and Beatmania really started to take hold. PaRappa gameplay's fairly tame in relation to the high-level challenge of the emerging rhythm arcade scene, and UJL hasn't really moved on. There's a little more ambition in some of the phrases, but tethering everything to that old COOL/GOOD/BAD/AWFUL ranking system prevents them from doing anything too interesting with song structure. Levels typically feature tricky phrases a third of the way through, and then hand you a couple of really easy ones right at the end to save you at the last minute. It doesn't really incentivise you to play the whole song well. You just have to get those last couple of phrases right.
It may sound like I've given Um Jammer Lammy a real hammering here, but none of these things are important. These games hinge on their charm, and Um Jammer Lammy is really endearing. The looser tone really lets Rodney go wild with his designs, and I really enjoy the background characters, from the guy with an accordion for a head, to the guy with a tree stump for a head, to the guy with a human ear for a head. Please keep an eye out for them. It doesn't really get a lot of credit for it, but it's a wide-appeal nineties videogame with non-sexualised female leads (even if SCEA opted to promote the game with tattooed midriffs), and as low a bar as that is, it's depressing how brave a direction that seemed at the time. Lammy, Katy and Ma-san are all fun and likeable, and for as little as we get to see of their dynamic, they each really seem to care for their friends. It's very sweet, and I think the message of finding conviction in your own unique style is really positive. Giving PaRappa his own post-game campaign was such a treat, though it does highlight that the gameplay works better when button inputs correspond to words as opposed to relatively abstract guitar phrases. Fans love him, and it's nice to see him hanging out with his friends in more relaxed situations. For all the niggles you can point out with the design or soundtracks, these games are really successful in creating a fun, optimistic atmosphere that's comforting to spend time in, and that's what keeps me coming back. The nice time.
It goes without saying that they don't make games like this any more. They never made games like this. Um Jammer Lammy was a fairly audacious thing to print on a PS1 CD-ROM. It retains its unique appeal. The progression of the PlayStation as a platform lent itself to creating more confident, thrilling blockbuster titles, but it also created little niches for the weird stuff to find a home in. UJL sits in a unique position between the platform mascot juggernauts, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, and the odd, artsy, experimental releases like Pet In TV and Fluid. It's on the border, noooooowwwwww. We're never getting anything quite like this again, but wasn't that a groove?
It's understandable, though. The PlayStation had changed a lot over the course of a few years. The team who once put out Destruction Derby were now the guys behind Driver 2. NanaOn-Sha have insisted that they were pushing the upper limits of the CD-ROM's capacity with SIX whole levels in PaRappa 1, and somehow they managed to squeeze out one more, multiple 2-player modes and a whole second campaign for UJL. None of those weird borders around the FMV sequences, either. It's 1999. We're ready to throw away those Mega CD-era crutches and embrace full-screen video. Those cowards at Squaresoft might have just thrown an extra disc or two in the box, but this is how the real game developers do it.
Um Jammer Lammy is an odd game. The original told a fairly typical coming of age story, whereas this seems more trivial. Lammy has slept in and only has fifteen minutes to get to her concert. PaRappa was faced with challenges that he'd need to overcome to grow up and win over the flower of his dreams, but each stage in UJL represents Lammy being interrupted from her journey to the concert hall. Irritations that she doesn't learn anything relevant from. It's a sillier, less heartfelt story, and the game feels less significant as a result.
The core gameplay hasn't changed, but there's been some neat refinements to the UI. It's much easier to tell when a teacher's phrase ends and your one begins, with consistent on-screen bar length, colour-coding and a neat use of the Dualshock's rumble when it's your shot. Timing seems much easier overall, too, with the button prompts pulsing when you're supposed to hit them. It's subtle, but it feels far more playable as a result. It's not uncommon that I'll get several levels into PaRappa without feeling I have any kind of handle on the timing, but all those little tweaks make UJL feel far more responsive and reliable.
That said, the game's cluttered, messy and a little incoherent. There are moments of characterisation that feel really underbaked, and like they were significantly established in the production material, but those cutscenes just couldn't make it into the 700MBs of space that the game was allotted. There's a running joke aimed at Joe Chin, PaRappa 1's pompous braggart, who has seemingly transformed into a tacky Donald Trump-style casino owner, stamping his name on cheaply-made products (likely the result of Rodney Greenblat's personal irritations, as a resident of New York), even though he has no place in the story and doesn't interact with any of the characters. They likely spent a lot of time coming up with ideas on what to put in a PaRappa sequel, and they just couldn't squeeze it all in. It doesn't feel like we spend enough time anywhere to get a sense of the world that they're attempting to establish. Those cutscenes don't grow on trees, ya know?
Then there's the music. If you hear Matsuura's work as a recording artist, you can tell that PaRappa was far closer to his comfort zone. He's done a lot of great work with funk, soul and disco, and when he focused on that, PaRappa 2 undoubtedly had his best compositions in a game. Lammy comes off like it's going to focus on rock, but it's all over the place. There's a kind of rockabilly thing for one level and a heavy metal pastiche, but there's a bunch of weird detours, plumbing the depths of the confused misfire that is Taste of Teriyaki. I was digging deep to try and link it here, but I once saw a mainstream music review site covering MilkCan's "Make It Sweet" (a sort of reimagined soundtrack where Katy sings all the songs) and it was deeply embarrassing thinking of someone judging these songs without the context of the game. Of course, they hated it. It's frequently quite intolerable. That said, Fire Fire and Casino In My Hair totally rule, and of course, the last level makes for one of the all-time feel-good finales to a game.
Rhythm action hadn't really made much progress as a genre until immediately after Um Jammer Lammy, when DDR, Pop'n Music and Beatmania really started to take hold. PaRappa gameplay's fairly tame in relation to the high-level challenge of the emerging rhythm arcade scene, and UJL hasn't really moved on. There's a little more ambition in some of the phrases, but tethering everything to that old COOL/GOOD/BAD/AWFUL ranking system prevents them from doing anything too interesting with song structure. Levels typically feature tricky phrases a third of the way through, and then hand you a couple of really easy ones right at the end to save you at the last minute. It doesn't really incentivise you to play the whole song well. You just have to get those last couple of phrases right.
It may sound like I've given Um Jammer Lammy a real hammering here, but none of these things are important. These games hinge on their charm, and Um Jammer Lammy is really endearing. The looser tone really lets Rodney go wild with his designs, and I really enjoy the background characters, from the guy with an accordion for a head, to the guy with a tree stump for a head, to the guy with a human ear for a head. Please keep an eye out for them. It doesn't really get a lot of credit for it, but it's a wide-appeal nineties videogame with non-sexualised female leads (even if SCEA opted to promote the game with tattooed midriffs), and as low a bar as that is, it's depressing how brave a direction that seemed at the time. Lammy, Katy and Ma-san are all fun and likeable, and for as little as we get to see of their dynamic, they each really seem to care for their friends. It's very sweet, and I think the message of finding conviction in your own unique style is really positive. Giving PaRappa his own post-game campaign was such a treat, though it does highlight that the gameplay works better when button inputs correspond to words as opposed to relatively abstract guitar phrases. Fans love him, and it's nice to see him hanging out with his friends in more relaxed situations. For all the niggles you can point out with the design or soundtracks, these games are really successful in creating a fun, optimistic atmosphere that's comforting to spend time in, and that's what keeps me coming back. The nice time.
It goes without saying that they don't make games like this any more. They never made games like this. Um Jammer Lammy was a fairly audacious thing to print on a PS1 CD-ROM. It retains its unique appeal. The progression of the PlayStation as a platform lent itself to creating more confident, thrilling blockbuster titles, but it also created little niches for the weird stuff to find a home in. UJL sits in a unique position between the platform mascot juggernauts, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, and the odd, artsy, experimental releases like Pet In TV and Fluid. It's on the border, noooooowwwwww. We're never getting anything quite like this again, but wasn't that a groove?