Um Jammer Lammy

Um Jammer Lammy (ウンジャマ・ラミー, Un Jama Ramī) is a spinoff of PaRappa the Rapper featuring a guitarist lamb named Lammy. It was released on March 18, 1999 in Japan, and later that year it was released in the USA and PAL regions. The game was rereleased on the PlayStation Network in Japan in 2008, then a year later in the USA. The game was heavily promoted in Japan.

The arcade version, Um Jammer Lammy NOW!, was made in collaboration with Namco and featured updated visuals and a modified song list. The arcade machine also featured a special guitar controller, called the Guita'rn Table, and some of the levels were modified to make them easier to play.

Umjammerarcade — Um Jammer Lammy NOW! Arcade Cabinet

Plot[]

The game begins in Lammy's dream. After barely arriving in time for her concert, she discovers that Chop Chop Master Onion has become the new vocalist of her band, MilkCan. His lyrics foreshadow the events of each level in the game, and once it is completed, he points out that Lammy's guitar has transformed into a vacuum cleaner (although she does not seem to recognize it), and then gives a rather nonsensical speech ending with the phrase "Dojo, casino, it's all in the mind".

Lammy then wakes up from her dream and realizes that she only has 15 minutes before her concert starts. She begins to rush to her concert but is obstructed by Chief Puddle's fire crew trying to put out a large burning building. As she tries to get past, he notices Lammy and tells her to help put out the fire. Although nervous at first, Lammy notices a billboard for Joe Chin's Casino and remembers Chop Chop Master Onion's speech in her dream, giving her the confidence to put out the fire as her guitar is "in her mind".

After Lammy puts out the fire, Chief Puddle gives her pizza as thanks, but this causes her stomach to briefly expand. When she remembers her shortly upcoming concert, she again begins to rush but quickly gets tired, and is mistaken for a pregnant lady by Cathy Pillar to be in labour. Once Lammy digests the pizza, Cathy realizes her mistake and asks Lammy to help put the delivered babies to sleep. Seeing a few of the babies playing again reminds her of Chop Chop Master Onion's speech, giving her confidence.

Once the babies are asleep, Lammy slips on a skateboard and lands on a low flying plane. The plane's pilot, Captain Fussenpepper, is suffering from rapid personality changes and confusion and is clearly in no fit state to fly the plane, so Lammy must act as co-pilot. An announcement mentioning the plane's onboard casino reminds her once more of Chop Chop Master Onion's speech, giving her the confidence to fly the plane without crashing (although the cutscene after shows the plane land in a car parking lot).

Unfortunately, Lammy accidentally leaves her guitar on the plane, so she heads into Paul Chuck's shop to buy a new one. He points out how greedy she is being for her unreasonable wants out of a guitar, and so he refuses to make the guitar unless she helps him saw down the wood. Lammy initially protests as she is running out of time before the concert, but, after overhearing a segment of the song "Casino In My Hair" on the radio, she remembers Chop Chop Master Onion's speech yet again, giving her confidence.

Immediately after getting her new guitar, Lammy sprints out of the store, only to die and go to hell after slipping on a banana peel (or in the US, her belt gets caught on the door and she flies so far that she gets sent to an island). Teriyaki Yoko agrees to bring Lammy back to life for her MilkCan concert as long as she plays well enough as a guitarist in Teriyaki's own performance. Teriyaki hands her a guitar and she is reminded by absolutely nothing at all that her guitar is in her mind (even though her guitar is actually in her hands), giving her the confidence to play for Teriyaki.

Once Teriyaki's performance is over, she sends Lammy back to the living world using what looks like a fax machine, although as Lammy is leaving, she has a brief encounter with her evil doppelgänger, Rammy, who is angry that Lammy replaced her in the concert. Once Lammy arrives for her concert, she starts to explain what happened, but so do Ma-san and Katy, indicating that they have been on similarly hectic journeys. Then, they play a song at their concert and the game ends.

PaRappa's Story[]

PaRappa, PJ Berri, and Sunny Funny help Katy prepare for the upcoming MilkCan live concert. But PaRappa and PJ quit after taking Katy's descriptions of the other band members too literally, so they decide to start their own rock band that falls short, mostly due to PJ's obsession with the güiro.

Gameplay[]

Stages[]

There are 7 stages in the game. Apart from the main story mode, there are a number of alternate modes, including VS and Team modes (featuring PaRappa or Rammy) and the ability to play solo as PaRappa. The teacher's lines are modified in PaRappa's modes so that he can rap them, but otherwise the songs are identical across modes, with the exception of Stage 1, which is absent in PaRappa's mode.

Fever Mode[]

To players with keen eyes, there would appear to be sequences of buttons in the loading screens at the end of each stage. These are codes to a mode known as “Color Fever Mode”, or simply “Fever Mode”. Each stage has their own specific set.

When in Fever Mode, Lammy or PaRappa will be covered in a halo of colorful lights based on the code used. Green stands for codes that start with triangle, red stands for codes that start with circle, gray/blue stands for codes that start with X, blue for R1 codes, and Yellow stands for L1 codes; it is also possible to stack colors. Lammy and PaRappa have their own separate codes and their own codes are displayed during loading screens after the recently finished level.

Fever Mode can only be used during Cool Mode (during Multiplayer or vs., both characters have to be in Cool Mode), and once in Fever Mode, pressing buttons will give the player(s) up to thousands of points. Because of this, if the player's opponent happens to use Fever Mode, it is likely a guaranteed win for the opponent, unless if the player uses Fever Mode, as well.

Manual[]

Japan[]

North America[]

Regional Changes[]

One of the elements that Um Jammer Lammy is notorious for is the variety of changes made between its Japanese and American releases. Due to cultural differences surrounding religious imagery between the two territories, the sixth stage had to be completely recontextualized, and as such, everything in reference to its setting was changed. In the cutscene before Stage 6, Lammy is shown slipping on a banana peel, dying, and going to Hell. However, because of the references to Hell, this was changed in the American release to instead show her getting stuck by her belt to the doorknob of the guitar shop and then getting sling-shotted to an island.

The Stage 6 song itself has some minor differences, with references to the devil and a "mean" angel being removed, and the first level was also changed to replace Chop Chop Master Onion's reference to the level. Stage 5 had "chopping trees down for the fun" replaced with "knowing that we're here for the fun", to avoid a bad message being sent about chopping trees down being fun. This is also noted when the line "Chop all of 'em down, every single one down" is replaced with "C'mon and get down, way to the low ground". PaRappa's version of the stage is similarly changed, where "chopping down trees just for fun" is replaced with "rocking to the beat just for fun".

Demo[]

Early footage of Um Jammer Lammy from 1998 is archived on the YouTube channel "Rodney Alan Greenblat Video Channel", showcasing the earliest versions of the cutscenes for Um Jammer Lammy, received by Rodney Greenblat on VHS. Notable for being a general early look at the game, these cutscenes hold many differences from the final release, including, quite notably, one of many scrapped Lammy designs, and placeholder voice lines done by Ryu Watabe, of which Captain Fussenpepper's demo lines were left unchanged.

Trivia[]

Hidden within the audio files for the game is a PaRappa version of Stage One's song, which was later used as a new added stage in Um Jammer Lammy NOW!. The song is found on the Um Jammer Lammy Original Soundtrack, but the win/fail dialogue of PaRappa is only found in the files. Although this dialogue is unused, it can be heard by playing Stage 6 of PaRappa the Rapper and swapping the disc to Um Jammer Lammy. This stage is in Um Jammer Lammy NOW!.
- Winning COOL mode
  Chop Chop Master Onion: "I'm so proud of you. Congratulations."
  PaRappa: "Yeah... by the way; how've you been, teacher?"
Amusingly, in Stage 5's censored line, the subtitle director may have gotten distracted, as the subtitle says, "C'mon and get down, way single one down".
In Stage 4 and its cutscene, the cockpit has a mock-screen with PaRappa and a "Try Again?" graphic on the side.
This is the only game that does not have a lesson mode like PaRappa the Rapper 1 and 2.
This is the only game that did not see a remastered version after its release. However, the original version is available via the PlayStation Store on the PS3 and PSP, and on the PS Vita via PSP backwards-compatibility.
This is the only game without a pre-ending gauntlet like PaRappa 1 and 2.