At E3 this year, one tiny cult classic PlayStation game had a large stage presence at Sony’s press conference. Sony Computer Entertainment of America president Shawn Layden took the stage to wax nostalgic on Vib-Ribbon, a 15-year-old PS1 game that Layden had a personal investment in back when he worked at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
With his introduction at the conference, large projections of Vib-Ribbon’s Vibri the vector rabbit decorated the stage in a delightful display, but then that was it. It was a passing mention, with no announcement of a new game or revival. As a result, the audience was divided into two camps: one thinking, “So when are we getting a new Vib-Ribbon?” and the other, “What the heck is Vib-Ribbon?”
You see, for years, America had been denied Vib-Ribbon, a charming little rhythm game from the mind of visionary Masaya Matsuura, the creator of PaRappa the Rapper. The title was exclusively released in Japan and Europe in 1999 and 2000, respectively. As it wasn’t exactly a huge mainstream title, you’d probably only hear the name spoken in hushed tones by those “underground” gamers avidly importing weird Japanese games around the turn of the century.
However, more than a decade later, Vib-Ribbon has finally been given an official American release on the PlayStation Network, along with an apology from Mr. Layden, “It was not my intention to rub salt in the Vib Ribbon wound, but to express my admiration for it as the genre-busting title it is and was. My mistake was that I had assumed that everyone who had been around in the original PlayStation era would have had their chance to play the game. I had forgotten that the American gamer was effectively denied the opportunity. To mention it at E3 was to delight some and to squirt lemon in the eyes of others. For this, I apologize.”
Apology accepted, because now Vib-Ribbon is officially playable on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and even the PlayStation Portable, if you’ve still got one of those lying around. Was the 15-year wait worth it?
The Story
You play as Vibri, a digital rabbit made up of vector graphics, traveling along the “Vib-Ribbon,” a musical path that leads Vibri through “Music World.” Unfortunately for her, nightmarish obelisks haunt the Vib-Ribbon route, obstructing Vibri’s path, and it’s up to you to guide Vibri around the oppressive shapes towards the musical delight at the end of the rhythm road.
That’s actually a generous elaboration on the simplicity of Vib-Ribbon’s premise. There isn’t a story! There is no gripping narrative to attach context or motivation to Vibri’s journey through Music World. The history of the game’s release is more interesting than whatever the story is. Just know that you control a cute cartoon rabbit that loves music and hates shapes.
The Gameplay
So what exactly is Vib-Ribbon? It’s a rhythm game, as one can expect from the creator of PaRappa the Rapper.
Vibri automatically moves along a line that scrolls across the screen to the tempo of the music. Those oppressive obelisks I mentioned above are merely shapes that indicate what button you must press to pass them and continue the song undisturbed.
The game only uses 4 buttons to control the game: the L1 button, R1, Down, and X. Each button corresponds to a shape. When Vibri sees a box, you press L1 to have her jump over it. When there’s a triangular pit in her path, you press Down to have her step over it. Loops call for the R1 button to have Vibri slide through them, and waves require you to press X to roll over them.
However, this isn’t a platformer like Mario. This is a rhythm game. The shapes appear in accordance to the music, and in order to pass them, you must press the button on the music’s appropriate downbeat. It requires exceptional timing and a good sense of rhythm, and since this is a game from 1999, it’s a little less forgiving than modern games of the genre.
The game starts off pretty slow, easing you into the concept of matching the shapes to your button presses. However, things get tricky once the song changes tempo and shapes begin to combine with one another, requiring a combination of button presses. When a box shows up with a pit built into it, you press both L1 and Down simultaneously. A jaggy loop indicates a combination loop and wave, so you press R1 and X to traverse that. Including the shape combinations, there are a total of 10 patterns to memorize, and it’s imperative that you learn them if you want to advance to the more advanced stages, and most importantly, your own music CD collection.
If you’re unable to press the correct button prompt, Vibri crashes into the obstacle and begins her “devolution” process. After getting hit, the ribbon begins to move erratically. The more you get hit, the more warped the ribbon becomes. After 9 hits, Vibri transforms into a frog creature, and the ribbon resets to its normal state. After 9 more hits, Vibri devolves again into a worm. 9 more hits after that, Vibri gives up on her musical journey and you have to retry the song again from the beginning. However, if you’re able to successfully traverse 20 shapes in a row, Vibri will revert to her original rabbit state, allowing you reset the number of misses you’re allowed. If you’re able to pass 20 shapes in a row while in Vibri’s rabbit state, she will transform into a princess.
In classic rhythm game fashion, you’re going for a high score. Princess Vibri will earn you more points, and adding a little flourish to your performance by pressing buttons when not presented with an obstacle will grant you bonus points. If you get a high enough score, Vibri will do a little dance for you at the end!
Unlike modern rhythm games, there is a very limited selection of songs in Vib-Ribbon. There are 6 original compositions for the game, and that’s it for the built-in songs. The game also lacks modern difficulty settings, so each song is a set difficulty and you cannot change it. Instead, the difficulty is ramped up gradually as you progress through each level. Each level is a pair of songs, meaning there are only 3 levels in the game itself, separated into Bronze (Easy), Silver (Normal), and Gold (Hard).
The small soundtrack would be kind of a bummer if it wasn’t for Vib-Ribbon’s other major feature: the game can generate music levels from audio CDs. Assuming you still have a CD collection, or you have some blank CD-Rs lying around to burn songs from your iTunes library, you pretty much have an unlimited amount of unique levels to play through. I popped in the soundtrack to Twin Peaks to celebrate its revival, and I was able to take Vibri on a musical voyage through Angelo Badalamenti’s nostalgic compositions and haunting melodies.
Make sure you’re very comfortable with the game’s more complex patterns, though, because some of the generated levels can be extremely difficult. Difficulty of the level depends on the complexity of the song. The Twin Peaks opening theme might sound pretty simple, but it was an ordeal getting Vibri through those precious lumber mill tunes. Shapes will begin to overlap and come at different speeds, making custom songs much more complicated than the built-in songs. You’ve got to have patience, because you’ll likely fail your favorite songs many times over before you get the hang of it.
The CD feature is limited to the PlayStation 3 version of the game. The game has not been updated to use digital songs on the Vita or PSP.
The Presentation
Vib-Ribbon’s visuals are very minimalistic. It’s vector-based, meaning that it’s a bunch of white lines and wireframes on a black background.
Despite the simplicity, it’s very charming. Look only to the game’s tutorial to see how much personality Vibri displays in her limited visual makeup. She speaks and sings in computerized Japanese, but the game’s text is fully translated, being an emulation of the European version of the game. Vibri is an adorable rabbit, even if she barely resembles one, what with her constant exploding into a mess of angular white scribbles as she crashes into obstacles.
The original soundtrack, while small, is also incredibly catchy. They’re all Japanese compositions, and though the English lyrics aren’t exactly the pinnacle of grammatical accuracy, and often difficult to distinguish as English in the first place, it’s still quirky and charming enough to bury into your brain for lasting audio pleasure. They seem to be built specifically for the game, as the game takes advantage of the songs’ constant changes in tempo. But, even if the soundtrack isn’t your thing, you can provide your own soundtrack built specifically by your own tastes through the custom audio CD feature.
The Conclusion
Vib-Ribbon is a wonderful, whimsical rhythm game, and it’s a crime that it has taken this long for America to be introduced to Vibri the rabbit.
The game’s main weakness is that it can feel pretty dated, because, well, it’s literally a game from 1999. The small soundtrack is made even smaller by modern standards because there are no selectable difficulty levels per track. The harder tracks aren’t exactly very demanding, either, so you can play through the entire game pretty quickly.
Even the audio CD feature, while cool, and making for limitless gameplay scenarios, is a relic of the past if you’ve gotten rid of your CD collection. Most of the difficult tracks will be coming from levels generated from your own CDs, and if you don’t have the patience to learn the game’s harder patterns, the lack of difficulty levels may be a huge turn off.
The CD feature’s exclusivity to the PlayStation 3 is also kind of a bummer if you prefer the portability of the Vita. For that, I’m actually going to give the game two different scores: one for the PS3 and one for the Vita/PSP.
The PlayStation 3 version gets a 4 out of 5.
The PlayStation Vita version gets a 3 out of 5.
Luckily, the game is “cross-buy” meaning if you buy any version of the game you get the other versions for free. The game is available now on the PlayStation Network for $5.99, and $4.79 for PlayStation Plus members.
This re-release of 1999 cult classic gives a teasing glimpse of what could be done if the game were to be revisited with more modern concepts. But, hey, there’s always hope for another Vib-Ribbon revival, even if it takes another 15 years.
By Alfredo Dizon, eParisExtra