This review contains spoilers
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.
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.