For 2 whole decades, this cabinet has been one of the most illusive in the history of arcade games. But now with the recent discovery of a surviving cabinet and the efforts to dump the game online for everyone to play thanks to Eric Yockey and Jonathan Ross, Um Jammer Lammy NOW! I can finally give my views on this incredible arcade conversion!

At first glance UJL NOW may seem like a straight arcade port of the PS1 classic, but on closer inspection, there is a lot more to it than that. Not only is every stage from the original game present, but you also have different versions of Stage 1 to play, such as 2P co-op, 2P versus, and PaRappa’s version, all of which were famously cut from the PS1 game. Some verses have been slightly tweaked to be made a little easier to commedate for the guitar controller, which is referred to as the Guitar n’ Table. J and C switches are used in place of L and R respectively. I cannot say for sure how it would feel to play with an actual Guitar n’ Table controller (unless I were to actually see the cabinet in person someday), but I can only imagine the extra learning curve it would bring to the UJL experience.

By far, the greatest aspect about UJL NOW! has to go to all the brand new exclusive attract cutscenes (with one or two exceptions) that are not in the original game in any way. These range from Joe Chin commercials to many interviews with the MilkCan members, Katy, Lammy and Ma-San. All of which have plenty to say and help add to the already amazing world building to this series. The dialogue in these cutscenes is especially fun and hilarious to listen to, as is tradition with the PaRappa series. It makes them fun to watch on repeat, if I was in Japan in 1999 and saw this cabinet, I guarantee you I would’ve been hooked on it. In many ways, this conversion like a pseudo sequel to the PS1 game story-wise as it is implied the MilkCan’s Got to Move song became a hit (this game even features a music video for said song), but also content wise because outside of the stages, everything here is brand new content. It just makes the cabinet’s discovery all the more incredible! I strongly recommend everyone to check out this game when you get the chance. You don’t want to miss out on it! Though I would recommend playing the PS1 game first if you haven’t already.

- N64:
I’ve only played this game just recently and I can immediately see why so many people love this game. It’s one of the most unique and charming platformers I’ve ever played, and it’s great to find another N64 game that’s worth owning! The soundtrack is immediately memorable and super funky, some of the best I’ve heard on the N64 for sure. I especially adore how the game is presented. It has a simple yet timeless visual style and the environments are great. Especially with how the hub world starts off foggy and destroyed, and as you progress, the area restores itself to the peaceful state it once had and Cross-Stitch’s laugh slowly goes away. I do have some gripes with the game however. The difficulty can be very inconsistent at times, and the controls take a lot of time getting used to, especially if you’re playing with the original controller since it actually uses every single button, including L. The bosses also require you to figure out how to beat them which is really annoying since the actual bosses themselves are pathetically easy, minus the infamous Fortress of Fear Boss, which has you climbing to the top while avoiding the monster’s electricity and making sure he doesn’t kick your ball to the bottom. I also find it annoying that you can’t tilt the camera up or down with the C buttons which may not sound ideal but it’s better than the zooming in and out feature which doesn’t help much. I know you can go into first person mode but it’s stand still only so it’s not that helpful unless you’re looking for garibs.

- PS1:
A very admirable attempt to improve on the original game. It looks prettier, the controls are much easier to understand and adjust to, there’s full camera control with the right analog stick (way ahead of most platformers at the time) that you can also tilt up and down making platforming less stressful, and some areas are made more forgiving (ex. Fortress of Fear Boss and Atlantis Bonus), I also dig the new FMV cutscenes and the CD quality soundtrack, even if they are unfortunately much shorter. Sadly this port does have some drawbacks, such as a worse framerate and more sluggish physics, which kind of break certain areas. For me, the biggest loss with this port is the presentation, there are some amazing details from the N64 game that are completely absent from PS1, the biggest one being the hub area music and environment changing as you progress, now it’s just a sunset changing to a blue sky with only the later music playing, however the earlier music can be heard in the level rooms.

- Steam:
A straight HD port of the N64 game, which sounds great except PIKO screwed up on this one. Mainly the sound issues. A lot of sound effects cut off before they finish and lack the reverb effects they had in the original. There are configuration settings but they are hidden in the document folders and there are no in-game settings to adjust them to. There’s no option to switch to the PS1 soundtrack which is kind of disappointing to me personally. The higher framerate settings severely break the game since it was not designed to go any higher than 20fps. Lastly, this release also includes the PS1 port, and the biggest crime is that you cannot turn on analog mode here, meaning you’re stuck moving in 8 directions and rotating the camera left and right with L1 and R1. The only real positives I can give are the widescreen looks excellent and the control scheme doesn’t feel as confusing as it used to. And also it does play just fine for the most part, so it’s not completely broken.




Between the N64 and PS1 game, I don’t think one is significantly better or worse than another, they both have their strengths and weaknesses, and I think they are both worth checking out. The Steam version is only for serious fans or if you have nothing else to play it on. However it does include some additional Glover ROMS, and even some for Glover 2, so it’s at least worth that. I’m kind of sad I never grew up with this game because I probably would’ve loved it as a kid. But as an adult I can still appreciate Glover’s incredible amount of charm and originality and that’s what keeps me coming back to these two games.