UmJammer Lammy

UmJammer Lammy is a spin-off of the rhythm video game PaRappa the Rapper, released on the Sony PlayStation. Instead of a rapping dog, it features a scatter-brained, insecure teenage female lamb guitarist called Lammy. Lammy has overslept on the day of her big gig and has 15 minutes left to get there. On her way, she encounters a number of bizarre obstacles and has to progress past them by playing her guitar. The game uses the same game-mechanics as PaRappa, where the player must copy a fixed sequence of button-presses shown to them in time with the music. The game features a catchy guitar-based soundtrack with everything from rockabilly to heavy metal.

Plot synopsis

The plot is widely acknowledged to be even more bizarre than the plot to PaRappa.

Lammy is the lead guitarist in the band MilkCan, which also includes Katy Kat as the vocalist, band front-person and bass player, and Ma-san as the drummer. While Katy is strong and assertive, Lammy is insecure, disorganised and unpunctual. However, whenever Lammy plays her guitar, her personality changes and she easily overcomes her shortcomings.

The game opens with Lammy being late for a gig, running to the stage door and ending up on stage at the last second, only to find Chop Chop Master Onion, the sensei from Parappa, at the microphone. He then leads Lammy through a song whose lyrics foreshadow the events that unfold across the rest of the game. At the end of the song, Chop Chop asks Lammy what she is playing, she then realises her guitar is actually her vacuum cleaner. Lammy begins to panic, as she believes she is nothing without her guitar, but Chop Chop explains that she doesn't need her guitar to be cool — "I lost my dojo, but the dojo remains IN MY MIND. It even has a casino. Dojo, casino, it's all in the mind.". Thus, whenever Lammy sees or hears a reference to gambling, she recalls that "My guitar is in my mind!" and she adapts whatever task she must perform into invisibly playing the guitar, therefore becomes confident again.

Lammy then wakes up, the previous level having been a dream sequence. She realises she only has 15 minutes to get to a concert with her band, Milkcan, at the Chop Chop Master Arena. She runs out of her apartment (returning to turn off all the appliances she left running, and kiss her teddy panda for luck), and runs downtown, only to find the pizza shop has caught fire, and fire marshals have sealed off the area. She tries to break through, but the Chief Puddle will only allow her passage if she helps put the fire out. Lammy begins to doubt, but she sees an advertisement for Joe Chin's Casino and realizes she can use a firehose in a similar way to her guitar.

After putting out the fire, Lammy and the firemen start to eat the well-cooked pizza. This makes Lammy fat. Lammy remembers she has to hurry to her concert, but she can't run very fast. She collides into a parade of pregnant rabbits and their spouses, and the head nurse Cathy Pillar mistakes Lammy for a pregnant teenager. After taking Lammy into her maternity unit, she finds Lammy wasn't pregnant after she's finished digesting the pizza, but insists she at least help bring hundreds of baby rabbits to sleep. Lammy sees some babies playing a roulette wheel and makes a connection between the baby rabbits and guitars.

After putting all the babies to sleep, Lammy dashes out and slips on a skateboard. She goes flying through the air, and lands on a low-flying jumbo jet. She discovers the pilot, Captain Fussenpepper, has forgotton how to fly. He is normally sedated and confused, but when a loose ceiling panel in the cockpit falls on his head he thinks he's a military hero and becomes angry and strict. The ceiling panel falls frequently causing Captain Fussenpepper to change personalities often. An in-flight announcement tells passengers in the onboard casino to fasten their seatbelts and Lammy can fly an airplane as if she is playing a guitar.

After landing the plane safely in a parking lot (and putting change in a nearby parking meter), Lammy dashes off only to find she's missing her guitar. She regretfully recalls that she left her guitar on the plane and, unfortunately, the plane has taken off once more. She then spots a guitar shop and tries to buy a guitar, but there are none on display. The hillbilly shop owner, Paul Chuck, then leads her out the back door to a wooded forest and hands her a chainsaw. Lammy and Paul Chuck then use their chainsaws to make a guitar out of a tree. Lammy accomplishes this because she hears the tune "Casino in my hair" on Paul Chuck's record player.

With her new guitar in hand, Lammy dashes off, but she slips on a banana peel left by P.J. Berri (from PaRappa) and sadly dies. She then realises she is in Hell. She is mistaken for Rammy, her grunge-rock rival, by the diva Teriyaki Yoko, and forced to perform lead guitar at a concert in Hell. Teriyaki then uses a "super teleportation device" (a fax machine) and faxes Lammy back to the real world. In the U.S. release of the game, Hell was removed and instead, Lammy is catapulted back in time when her clothes catch on the store's door handle, and she lands on a tropical island where Teriyaki is a respected idol.

Finally, Lammy has made it to the concert. MilkCan gives their best performance ever.

At the end of this level, both Rammy and PaRappa are shown in the audience. The player can now play all the levels again as PaRappa, rapping to hip-hop versions of Lammy's songs. There is no linking plot when playing as PaRappa (according to the title cards at the start of each level, PaRappa's levels are spaced out over the course of a week), but some short comic sketches featuring PaRappa, Katy Kat and P.J. Berri are shown in between levels. Lammy can also play each level either cooperatively with, or competitively against Rammy or PaRappa.

Stages

Stage 1: Chop Chop Master Onion

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, Chop Chop kicks all the walls away, allowing Lammy play on an outdoor stage at sunset.

Stage 2: Chief Puddle

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, she is thrown into the air by the fire-hose, and can see Joe Chin relaxing by the pool in his penthouse apartment.

Stage 3: Cathy Pillar

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, the singing rabbit says he dislikes the singing of the "flat bug" and Lammy plays alone.

Stage 4: Captain Fussenpepper

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, the plane blasts into space and Lammy plays guitar with the Martians, in her space suit.

Stage 5: Paul Chuck

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, a bear living at the top of the tree falls down and is shown to be wearing underpants. She then continues to carve her guitar at a rapid speed. Her guitar also has a different color scheme and looks slightly nicer than if Lammy scores GOOD.

Stage 6: Teriyaki Yoko

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, the zombie fans form an endless, circular tidal wave that Lammy plays inside of.

Stage 7: Katy Kat

If Lammy scores COOL on this level, she crowdsurfs.

Censorship

Presumably to maintain the game's E Rating, there were several changes made to the game during the game's localization from Japan to America. Most notably, the introduction movie before stage 6 has been completely altered. Instead of dying and going to Hell, Lammy snags her belt while running out of the guitar store and is slingshotted back in time onto an island. Most consider the US version's movie to be far inferior to the original Japanese version. Additionally, many lyrics were altered, especially in Stage 6, as all references to the devil have been removed. Stage 1's song has also been altered slightly, so that Chop Chop Master Onion's reference to going to Hell is altered to fit the new storyline, so he mentions an island instead. Paul Chuck's "chopping trees down for fun" lyric was changed to "Knowing that we're here for the fun".

Soundtracks

In 2000, the official game soundtrack was released, and in 2001, Make It Sweet was released only in Japan. Also released in 2001 was I Scream, a CD featuring PaRappa and PJ Berri rapping to the beats from Um Jammer Lammy.

Awards

E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game, Outstanding Achievement in Sound

Arcade game

In a joint creation with Namco, Sony of Japan released an arcade version of UmJammer Lammy which features updated visuals and a differing song list. Furthermore, similar to Konami's Guitar Freaks series, the game boasts a guitar-shaped specialty controller which gives the player a better sensation of playing a real guitar.

External links