UmJammer Lammy

Infobox VG
title = UmJammer Lammy


caption=
developer = NaNaOn-Sha
publisher = Sony Computer Entertainment
designer =
engine =
released = PlayStation
vgrelease|JP=March 18, 1999|NA=August 17, 1999vgrelease|JP=April 12, 2001(PS the Best)vgrelease|JP=March 28, 2002 (PSOne Books)

Arcade
vgrelease|JP=vgy|1999|NA=vgy|1999|EU=vgy|1999
genre = Rhythm
modes = Single-player
Multiplayer
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=Everyone
platforms = PlayStation
media = CD-ROM
requirements =
input = DualShock Analog Controller (PlayStation), Guitar Hero Controller (Arcade)
arcade system = Namco Bandai System 12

nihongo|"UmJammer Lammy"|ウンジャマ・ラミー|Un Jama Ramī is a rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony for the PlayStation video game console. It was first released in Japan on March 18 1999, and was later released in North America on August 17 1999. It has since been re-released in Japan twice - first on April 12 2001 under the PlayStation the Best line, and again on March 28 2002 under the PSOne Books line. "UmJammer Lammy" is a spin-off of "PaRappa the Rapper", also released for the PlayStation.

In a joint creation with Namco Bandai Games, 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 and Activision's Guitar Hero, the game boasts a guitar-shaped specialty controller which gives the player a better sensation of playing a real guitar.

Recently, in March 2008, the game was released into the Playstation Network in Japan.

Summary

"UmJammer Lammy" stars an anthropomorphic lamb named Lammy, a member of the band MilkCan along with her other anthropomorphic friends Katy Kat and Ma-san. Lammy is the guitarist, Ma-san as the drummer, and Katy Kat as the band front-person, vocalist and bass player.

"UmJammer Lammy" opens with a nightmare Lammy has of 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 realizes 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 becoming confident again. Note that this is the only level in the game which is never available for multi player play of any kind.

Lammy then wakes up, the previous level having been a dream sequence. She realizes 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 fire hose in a similar way to her guitar.

After putting out the fire, Lammy and the firemen start to eat the well-done pizza. Lammy eats quite a lot in a short time, causing her belly to be round and distended from it. She then remembers she has to hurry to her concert, but her sudden weight gain made it so that she cannot run very fast. She collides into a parade of pregnant rabbits and their spouses, and the head nurse Cathy Pillar mistakes the bloated 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 put 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 forgotten 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 on board "casino" to fasten their seat belts 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 the Rappa") and tragically dies. She then realizes 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 makes it to the gig, only to run into Katy and Ma-san. It had turned out that "everyone" was late, so now united, the trio make their way to the stage, and rock the house in one final song.

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, or competitively against Rammy or PaRappa.

Gameplay

Basic Gameplay

"UmJammer Lammy" is based on the "PaRappa the Rapper" engine. "UmJammer Lammy" is a rhythm game which uses rock music, unlike "PaRappa the Rapper", which uses rap music. Each level has an original song which is sung by a different character. As the character sings, a yellow line appears at the top of the screen with an assortment of symbols taken from the controller (X, Square, Circle, Triangle, L button, and R button) to indicate which button the player must push to hit the beat. As the character sings the song, an icon of the character moves across this line. A separate purple line will follow it, either to the side of it or below it. This purple line contains the same pattern of symbols as the previous line. On this line, an icon of Lammy will move across. As the icon moves over a symbol, the player must push the respective button on the controller at the exact right moment, attempting to match the singer's beats. The game will continue going back and forth between yellow and purple lines until the level ends. If the player chooses Easy mode, the unique symbols will be replaced with one type of symbol, allowing the player to only use one button. However, the player cannot save in this mode. On top of that, the game will end at the completion of level six, and the player will have to start over from level one.

There are four ranks that the player can be at during the song - Awful, Bad, Good, and Cool. To clear the stage, the player must be in Good or Cool rank at the end of the song. The player always begins at Good rank, and depending on the accuracy of the player's button presses, he or she will either move up in rank eventually or steadily fall. If the player does too good or too bad, the rank will come close to increasing. Before the player can change in rank, it will first show that the player's rank will change if he or she does good or bad enough. If the player does as good or bad as he or she did, the rank will rise or drop. Depending on what the player's rank is, the song's quality will decrease, and the activity in the background will increase in some levels. As the player's rank drops more and more, the song will sound worse, and if he or she falls below Awful at any time in the level or is not at Good or higher at the end of the level, the level will end, and the player can then choose to either try again or quit.

Like the first Parappa game, "free styling" on certain lines will make the rank meter flash "Cool". If players are able to freestyle two Cool lines in a row, the teacher will leave and the player is free to freestyle to gain more points. If a player can keep in Cool mode by the end of the song, he/she'll get a Cool ending. However, if the free styling is bad, the rank meter will flash "Good" and if it continues, the teacher will return and normal play will resume.

ound morphers

At the end of stages 2-6 on Lammy's storyline, she is handed an obscure object with a property. These are Flanger (a fire siren), Harmony (a caterpillar rattle), Wah Wah (Capt. Fussenpepper's False Teeth), Distort (a piece of wood with a miniature axe) and Reverb (a lighter.) When playing as either Lammy or Rammy, players can press Select to cycle through the sound morphers, changing the sounds as they are played. Certain morphers, such as the Wah-Wah, can be affected further by activating the analogue mode on the Dual Shock controller and moving the analogue stick up and down.Besides the morphers, players can also morph the pitch of the guitar by pressing the L2 or R2 buttons while playing.These features are not available whilst playing as Parappa.

Fever Time

Entering a level after it has been completed once brings up a chocolaty screen full of symbols before the levels cut scene is loaded. If these symbols are input in the right order in the relevant level whilst in Cool mode, the screen goes hyper and several symbols fly all around. During the time this is up, players can hit the featured button repeatedly to gain massive points.

Modes

*Solo - Lammy: The main storyline featuring Lammy. This mode must be played to unlock all other modes. At the end of stages 2-6, Lammy receives a sound morpher. Players can use the Select button to cycle through the available morphers and morph the sounds of the guitar, but only while playing as Lammy or Rammy. This is the only mode in which Stage 1 can be played.

*Co-op - Lammy & Rammy: Unlocked after clearing Lammy's Solo Mode. A co-operative mode in which Player 1 plays as Lammy and Player 2 plays as Rammy. Each line is played alternatively by the players. After every 2 lines, the combined scores each player achieved during that line is added to the score and the rank changes accordingly. For example, if player 1 did well and scored 10 points in his/her line but player 2 did badly and got a score of -13, the total score for those lines would be -3 and it would count as a bad line. This mode can be played with either 2 controllers, against the computer or (once cleared) one controller.

*Vs - Lammy & Rammy: Unlocked after clearing Lammy & Rammy Co-op. Works in a similar way to the co-op mode, only the scores are differentiated and the difference is awarded and taken away from the respective players. For example, if Player 1 scored 10 and Player 2 scored 8 points, Player 1 would get 2 points added to his/her score and Player 2 would lose 2 points. The loser is the one with the lowest score at the end of the level, whoever hits below Awful first or whoever reaches 0 first.The game can be played with one or two controllers, or can be played against the computer with varying levels of difficulty.

*Solo - Parappa: Unlocked after clearing Lammy & Rammy Co-op. Parappa plays through rap versions of stages 2-7. The storyline involves Parappa and his friends PJ and Sunny helping Katy Kat out with her band's concert. Later on Parappa and PJ decide to start their own band, although PJ's definition of "rock and roll" leaves somewhat to be desired. There are also commercials for Joe Chin products.

*Co-op - Lammy and Parappa: Unlocked after clearing Parappa's Solo Mode.Works in the same way as Lammy and Rammy co-op, only this time, player 1 plays as Lammy with her tracks and player 2 as Parappa using his tracks, with the music alternating between the two depending on whose turn it is.

*Vs. - Lammy & Parappa: Unlocked after clearing Lammy & Parappa Co-op.Same as Lammy vs Rammy.

*Special Mode: Unlocked after getting COOL on a certain amount of stages. A player can listen to any of the songs from Lammy or Parappa's stages, in GOOD, BAD, AWFUL or COOL mode. However, Lammy's riffs or Parappa's raps are not featured. As the songs are played, the buttons can be used to make Lammy, Rammy, Katy Kat, Parappa, Ma-San and PJ perform actions.

oundtracks

In 1999, three soundtracks were released in Japan. In July, "Make It Sweet" was released featuring music from the game performed by "MilkCan" with vocals by Michele Burks as Katy Kat. In September, "I Scream!" was released featuring remixed versions of the songs and original lyrics performed by Dred Foxx as PaRappa. An original soundtrack was released in November.Fact|date=April 2007

Film

A 2d animated movie of Um Jammer Lammy and Parappa was into production for the big screen but production was shut down for unknown reasons.Fact|date=April 2007

Awards

*E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game, Outstanding Achievement in SoundFact|date=April 2007

External links

* [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/data/199155.html UmJammer Lammy at GameFaqs.]
* [http://www.gamespot.com/ps/puzzle/umjammerlammy/index.html UmJammer Lammy at GameSpot.]
* [http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Music_and_Dance/PaRappa_the_Rapper_Series/Um_Jammer_Lammy/ Um Jammer Lammy resources from the Mozilla Open Directory Project]
*moby game|id=/um-jammer-lammy
* [http://www.thatchickensite.com/letters/sniptrimdye/ Game highlights by The Rubber Chicken]