alt title(s): Um Jammer Lammy
I gotta believe!
—Parappa's motto
Released at Halloween of 1997 in the US,
Parappa the Rapper was a Playstation release that created a whole new genre of games. The main point of the game was to follow the adventures of a rapping puppy named Parappa who attempted to improve himself in order to impress the girl he had a crush on. How did he do this? By rapping his way to glory, of course!
The game worked like this: Every stage would have one character who would rap a song and ask you to perform certain tasks, like kicking, punching, etc. in time with the music. You would hit a button at the right moment as indicated on a bar at the screen below. Effectively, it was a video game version of Simon. Do well and you could make it through the song; do too badly and you would have to try again.
It was a very short and simple game (but fairly hard. At least, it was for this editor), but the unique premise and the unbelievably catchy songs made it an instant cult classic. The game is still highly regarded today, with a 88% on
Gamerankings
.
Parappa produced a spinoff in 1999 called
Um Jammer Lammy, which was essentially the same thing, but with more songs and a girl in a garage rock band called
Milk Can. A sequel was released on the Playstation 2 which once more focused on Parappa, but was widely considered to be inferior.
Pretty much every
Rhythm Game created, from
Dance Dance Revolution to
Guitar Hero to
Beatmania, owes at least a little to Parappa, if only for
starting things off.
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Both Parappa and Um Jammer Lammy examples
- Author Avatar: Rodney Greenblat, the character designer of the series, has off-and-on cameo appearances throughout the games, most noticably as a television reporter in Parappa 2.
- Anthropomorphic Objects: Ohhhhhhhhhhh yes.
- Animal Gender Bender: The first Parappa game featured a female moose with antlers, as well as the second one.
- It's even weirder in Um Jammer Lammy, which not only featured a female lamb with horns, but also a female ram. You'll see the what's weird about it if you Google "Ram".
- Big Eater: PJ Berri
- Lions And Tigers And Humans Oh My: Actually, it was more like, "Lions and Tigers and Humans and Inanimate Objects, Oh my".
- Variable Mix: When you start screwing up, so does the music.
- Widget Series: Parappa may seem fairly normal, even by japanese standards, but Um Jammer Lammy dives nose-first into full-blown widget territory.
- Normal?! Have you PLAYED Parappa the Rapper?
- Parappa's pretty nuts, but it's nothing compared to Um Jammer Lammy.
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Parappa- only examples
- Arc Words: "Dojo, casino, it's all in the mind."
- Animated Adaptation: Parappa gained an anime series that lasted for 30 episodes in 2001. It has nothing to do with rapping, nor does it utilize the series' famous "paper-thin" appearance. Lammy and Ma-San are also absent.
- Boss Rush: The first game's fifth involves engaging the four mentors from the other songs in a rap battle in order to get to the toilet. The sixth level in Parappa 2 had a similar premise, with you facing off with the five mentors in an 8-bit video game.
- Chainsaw Good: Paul Chuck and Joe Chin have competing chainsaw businesses.
- Nah, Joe was just selling bicycle chains which Chuck did NOT want used on his chainsaws. Joe also marketed an extremely cumbersome laptop.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: The Bathroom Rap... PERIOD.
- Downloadable Content- The PSP rerelease has downloadable alternate versions of the original 5 songs.
- Incredible Shrinking Man / Attack Of The 50 Foot Whatever: Parappa and Guru Ant alternate between growing and shrinking in the second game's third level.
- Interspecies Romance: Parappa's a dog who has a crush on a flower named Sunny. An animal is in love with a plant. Am I the only thing who thinks that's weird?
- Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded
Hairdresser Octopus: Hey, Take that
stupid hat off! What does it look like in there?
PaRappa: Aaa, I'm not sure myself.
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Um Jammer Lammy-only examples
- Balloon Belly: This was actually a plot point in Um Jammer Lammy. After level 2, Lammy eats so much pizza she's Mistaken For Pregnant by a nurse caterpillar with a vomiting problem who thinks Lammy is in labor. Lammy digests the pizza after being dragged into the maternity ward, so the nurse realizes that Lammy wasn't pregnant, but she insists that Lammy should rock the babies to sleep. No, really.
- Banana Peel: A tragic death if any.
- Berserk Button: Annoy Ma-San too much and she'll f**k you up.
- Bowdlerise: Um Jammer Lammy famously had an entire level's setting changed for the US release. Originally, her sixth stage takes place in Hell, after she dies from slipping on a banana dropped by P.J. Berri, and Teriyaki Yoko promises to restore her to life if she performs her concert. Instead, Sony had her be launched seemingly back in time through her previous encounters after her clothes snag on a doorknob, landing on a tropical island where Yoko is worshipped as an idol. This also affected a song lyric for Chop Chop Master Onion in the first stage
- Call A Smeerp A Rabbit: Word Of God says she's a lamb, but to this troper, she looks more like a goat or fawn.
- Medium Awareness: If you screw up on Teriyaki Yoko's level on Um Jammer Lammy, she'll say "Start all over! You should be banned from every game!", and Lammy will respond, "From every game? Even this one?"
- Non Mammal Mammaries: Kathy Pillar.
- Spin Off: Um Jammer Lammy, where Parappa could be unlocked as a playable side character.
- Stylistic Self Parody: The paper-thin art style is parodied in Um Jammer Lammy, when Lammy gets faxed at one point.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Cathy Pillar is the living embodiment of this trope, much to Lammy's dismay.
Close Um Jammer Lammy-only examples
