Um Jammer Lammy (1999, PlayStation)

Developer: NanaOn-Sha
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Clear Version: PS1
Clear Platform: PS1
Clear Date: 3/16/25

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Why should I care?
This sequel to the foundational rhythm game PaRappa the Rapper is completely insane and well worth a look despite being culturally overshadowed by its predecessor.

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Leave it to Lammy!

I really hoped that I’d be able to tell you why the first word of the title of this game is “Um” once I beat this game. Unfortunately, I cannot. What I can tell you is that despite lacking some nice rhythm game conventions that would develop over the years, Um Jammer Lammy’s inimitable style, catchy soundtrack, and wild cutscenes make it more than worth a playthrough.

Fortunately for all of us, the second two words of the title make sense. This game follows a day in the life of Lammy, an absent-minded, clumsy guitarist. She’s in a band called MilkCan, and their first big gig is today! Unfortunately, she overslept, so she has to haul ass to the venue to make it on time.

Before that, though, you enter her mind. She’s snoozing, and in her dream, she’s playing a gig with Chop Chop Master Onion, an onion-headed martial artist. At the end of the show, she realizes she’s actually been playing a vacuum cleaner and is mortified. She feels she is nothing without her guitar. Chop Chop Master Onion tells her that though he lost his dojo in real life, it still exists in his mind, and that’s enough. What’s more, his mental version has a casino.

Lammy awakens to find she only has fifteen minutes to make her show. Fuck! She books it out of her apartment and begins a day of being constantly waylaid by insane circumstances. Using the power of music, she helps put out a fire, land a plane, chop down a tree, and more. In none of these moments does she actually have her guitar. But she encounters the word “casino” in some way or another and is reminded of Chop Chop Master Onion’s words: “it’s all in the mind.” This instills her with confidence, and she wields fire hoses, chainsaws, etc as if they were her guitar.

Got all that? It’s so bizarre (and good). Frankly, there’s no way for me to do this game justice describing it just with text. I highly recommend just watching a longplay or something for a few minutes (or all the way through) to get an idea. Wild game. Its unique art style is the product of artist Rodney Alan Greenblat, whose vision is singular and beautiful.

If the game has a weakness, it is unfortunately its hit detection. Each song follows the same call-and-response pattern of PaRappa — a vocalist sings a line of the song, and Lammy plays the vocal melody back on her guitar. The original songs are fun and goofy, but they’re let down a bit by their mechanics. It’s never totally clear whether or not you hit an individual note correctly; the game just adjusts your current rating at the end of each phrase (from COOL down to AWFUL). Because the feedback isn’t provided on a per-note basis, it’s pretty tough to know what exactly you’re doing wrong, and the timing requirements seem pretty precise based on how frequently I seemed to be fucking them up. I know this wasn’t an issue with my setup, as I was playing on an original PlayStation connected to a CRT with a wired controller — lag should not have been a problem. I’m willing to forgive this issue since this is such an early example of the genre, but it does unfortunately make it a little less approachable today.

But good luck playing it today anyway! Unlike PaRappa the Rapper, which has received full native ports to both PSP and PS4, Um Jammer Lammy only ever saw a subsequent release as PS1 ROM on PSN back in the PS3/PSP days. Neither is ideal, since emulation will only make the demanding timing requirements of the game that much more frustrating. I didn’t hesitate to pay over $70 for a PS1 disc of this game, but I certainly wouldn’t expect most to feel similarly. And no one should have to do so anyway.

What a bummer! I’m sure PaRappa the Rapper is terrific as well (Lammy is actually my first exposure to the series), but this spinoff seems deserving of at least a downloadable re-release as well. Maybe some day!