If Parappa the Rapper is a low-level drug trip groove through an increasingly weird week, then Um Jammer Lammy is the ecstasy-laced fever dream weekend. The story follows Lammy trying to get to her band's gig on time but constantly running into characters who insist she helps them with their high-stress jobs. Things move at such a frantic pace that it's difficult to have any idea what's going on. Characters are constantly yelling, cutscenes have 5 edits every second, and, unlike Parappa's story beats, Lammy's hurdles are completely random and unrelated to her personally, so it's just a blur of complete chaos. Unfortunately, that carries into the gameplay itself.

Lammy's music is seemingly written to be intentionally confusing. Nearly every song is plagued by bizarre time signatures, button prompts that don't match the cadence of the lyrics, and segments that require a level of speed and button-mashing that Parappa never came close to. This game also amplifies a problem in the first game: the small delay between pressing a button and the audio of Lammy's guitar actually playing makes it absolutely impossible to keep time consistently. Most levels feel like they're won with dumb luck, especially Level 6 that features an atonal, arhythmic stage aria. Most times failure comes at the very last moment of a song, forcing you to start from the top and struggling against the game's design again and again.

Um Jammer Lammy feels like it learned all the wrong lessons from Parappa, which already had its own issues. Chaotic in every way, from story to gameplay, Lammy frustrates and annoys with each new riff screamed at you by another anthropomorphic psychopath. Much like Lammy's guitar, this game is out of tune.

I didn't really replay this in full but I've wanted to talk a bit more on it for a while now just because it's such a bizarre case. Today I ask, how far do pure vibes and comfort carry a game?

Pretty fucking far, honestly. I don't really like playing this one, but it is bar none one of my favorites.

This does not play like a perfect 10, or particularly close to one. It honestly plays kinda rough even, only worse in the age of emulators. This game, alongside the first Parappa game to an even greater extent, has pretty major issues lying in the sheer precision required. I'm not sure if it corresponds more with the actual music or the commands on screen, but a lot of the time the two don't really feel like they're on the same wavelength and it becomes really disorienting. This becomes borderline unplayable on emulators due to additional lag and input delay. These are super early examples of the rhythm game (especially Parappa) so I suppose there's not a lot you can do if you're basically the codifier for the genre, but in the current times it's really jarring to play after growing up with Rock Band 1 & 2 for example.

On the other hand, Um Jammer Lammy basically reaches perfection in every aspect relating to presentation. The visuals, characters, music, and goofy ass story are all incredibly charming and have pretty much occupied my brain all the time ever since my first playthrough. I really do just love it all too much to dock any points for playing kinda poorly. What actually made me replay a bit of it today was a good friend telling me Lammy reminds him of me, which as instantly turned me into a sopping wet puddle due to my intense brainrot over this series.

It's a bit difficult to recommend playing this, especially with it performing a bit lousy on emulators and going for high prices on physical copies, but I can't stress enough how fun it is to watch a playthrough online. It borders on essential media, at least in my eyes. Make sure to watch a playthrough of Parappa 1 and 2 also. Maybe the Parappa anime as well for good measure (though Lammy is missing in it smh)

Thank you ruining this game for me garfielf aka GARRET. He (redacted) all over his copy of the game and had a massive crush on the fucking goat.

Anyways this game is awesome it’s got rad music and a funny story.

Lammy goes to hell and rocks the fuck out


The album “Make It Sweet!” by Milkcan aka the soundtrack release for this game is awesome as well

Best Rhythm Game.
The Freestyling Mechanic puts the PaRappa Franchise above other rhythm games. And this is the best of the series.

Freestyling is also expanded as you now have more options like Pitch Bending and putting Effectors on your Guitar, some of which can be further manipulated like "Harm" and "Wah2" with the up and down keys. If you put the time in you will find that freestyling has an incredibly high skill ceiling and it truly feels like a game where YOU play the music instead of just pressing buttons at the right time. People figured out a way to play camel by camel in Stage 1's cool mode and that is so neat.

The Cutscenes are also really Trippy and have more of a Cinematic feeling compared to the PaRappa Games. Almost remind me out of something like Xavier Renegade Angel at times in terms of weirdness.

This game is great! It's also incredibly weird in a way that you've scarcely seen in other games, yet it's so endearing. For the most part, the songs are very enjoyable, the only one I really don't like is "Baby Baby!". That's only for the nurse lady freaking me out though and not loving the song, it's still fun to play. Unlike Parappa The Rapper though, the weakest level is still enjoyable here and it stands among many great ones. I'm a huge fan of the songs, charts, and stories for "Fire Fire!!", "Fright Flight!!", "Power Off! Power On!", "Taste of Teriyaki" (yes), and "Got to Move". Lammy herself is a really good character to lead the story since she's always so nervous and anxious, which always results in fun moments thanks to these traits and the zany events forming a perfect storm.

The gameplay is the same from Parappa The Rapper but without the janky delay or having any standout levels that don't work. The charts for each level are fun and engaging. They're more challenging than the first game, but still really enjoyable. They're not artificially hard like Cheep Cheep Chicken's level. Notably, Cool Mode is much harder to attain in this game than the first and I've personally only done it on Fright Flight and Taste of Teriyaki but it's not a detracting point that it's this way.

I ADORE the second-story/NG+ where you get to play as Parappa, even with the crunchy audio, it's still a great time.

If you either enjoy rhythm games, or the idea of an off-kilter cartoony story about an anxious rocker girl sounds fun, play this game.