“Dojo, Casino, it’s all in the mind!”

[Um Jammer Lammy - PS1]

As soon as I completed Shenmue 2, I thought “Yeah! I kick ass! Bring on the next game from the List Of Games!” So I threw in Sega Rally, not sure why, I lost at the arcade mode, twice… And then I saw Um Jammer Lammy taunting me from collection of PS1 games.

Now back when Pa-Rapper The Rapper first came out around ‘97 I played through it round a mate’s house and it was awesome! So then I asked my Dad for Pa-Rapper for my birthday or Christmas (I forget), but he got me Um Jammer Lammy instead! At the time I was into Rap and Hip Hop and didn’t play the guitar. So I was immediately disappointed when I found out it was a guitar rhythm game, but I stuck it in anyway. It was way too hard; I put it on easy and the game ended after three levels. So I thought, this sucks, and never played it again.

Until recently when I kept hearing Shane Bettenhausen from 1Up/EGM mention on the 1UpYours podcast how Um Jammer Lammy is probably the best rhythm game, period. Ever since then I’ve been meaning to dig it out again.

No more easy-mode for me, this time I’m playing it properly and it rocks! It’s still super hard in places and I’m stuck at the forth level, but it’s still good fun. It reminds me of Elite Beat Agents on DS in the way that you can keep loosing, and not get frustrated. For me this is because you get a little further on each go. Slowly learning combinations, until you master it.

And one of the cool features that I haven’t seen in other rhythm games is the fact you are rewarded for improvisation. The scale goes from Awful to Cool. You can reach Cool from keeping good timing and a bit of improvising. But if you keep improvising you soon move back down to Bad. When Cool mode kicks in you get to play whatever the hell you want, which is a satisfying reward and a nice break from all the tricky combos.

The songs are catchy and on par with Pa-Rapper, Onion Man makes a re-appearance, and Isaac Hayes sings one of the songs! Basically if you like rhythm games such as Elite Beat Agents or Guitar Hero then you’ll love Um Jammer Lammy.

[Post by Robert Langley-Jones]