Um Jammer Lammy

"It ROCKS!"

In UmJammer Lammy, the sequel to Parappa the Rapper, you follow the adventures of Lammy (the shy, red-haired, guitar-playing lamb) as she puts out fires, cuts down trees, and still manages to get to her concert on time. You won't be disappointed by this quirky little game.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

UmJammer Lammy is a music based game. The whole point of the game is this. The game will play a line of music and show you a series of buttons. You have to repeat the line by pushing the buttons shown in rhythm with the song. Play poorly and the song will start to mess up (background music goes away and a quacking sound appears). But keep in mind that you can't just memorize buttons. Reactions play a small part, but having rhythm is more important. To do well, you really have to get into the song. Sing along with the song. Get up and dance along with the music. Sure, you'll look stupid, but believe me, it really helps rack in those points. But in order to score the most points, you have to make up your own music. In other words, if you mash buttons, every now and then you'll get lucky. Actually, there's more to it than that, but beginners and button-smashers will sometimes beat experienced players with pure luck.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

Paper-thin 2D characters in a 3D world. Bright colors and long, fluid video cutscenes featuring everyone's favorite cartoon lamb. The graphics are very impressive and a lot of fun to watch. While they may not have the realistic power of other games such as Final Fantasy 8, they are original and they perfectly fit the feel of the game. However, some parts are a bit grainy, and sometimes the frame rate slows down. But nevertheless, you got to admit that Lammy and Katy are hot, despite the fact that the two of them are even flatter than my girlfriend.

SOUND: 10/10

Of course, this is the most important aspect of this game since it is based on music. Even though most people seem to think that Parappa had better music than Lammy, I think that some of Lammy's songs are better, especially the last one. The variety of songs is impressive, ranging from metal rock, to Japanese pop, to Chop Chop Master Onion's rap, which sounds very much like his original one from Parappa. The songs rock! They're catchy, and they'll stick in your head, forcing you to hum them in public until someone unevitably asks you where the song came from, to which you'll answer, ''From a video game,'' which will probably result in a look of disgust as the person tells you to get a life. (Happened to me!) Even the voice acting is quite good. (Most of the time, at least.)

REPLAY: 7/10

Lammy's entire adventure, from the time she wakes up to the time she arrives at her concert, is supposed to span 15 minutes. After finishing this game, you'll swear that's about right. Actually it'll take much longer than that, but the game is too short, with only 7 stages. Fortunately, UmJammer Lammy includes 2-player cooperative and competitive modes, which make for great multiplayer fun. In 2-player cooperative mode, 2 people take turns playing lines, and the scores are added together. The competitive mode gives both players 300 points. They take turns playing lines and the difference in the scores is subtracted from the loser. Also, after beating the game, you can play as Parappa with new remixes and cutscenes for all the stages. However, the remixes don't sound as good and the cutscenes have a slower frame rate, leading me to believe that the game developers threw this part together in a rush. But at least it's better than nothing. There's even an extra sound test, where you can play all the songs, without the lyrics though.

UmJammer Lammy is one of the best music-based games I've played. If you like music or want to try something new, definitely play this game. You can beat it with one rental, but I think that it does have enough replay value to warrant a purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/00, Updated 06/23/00