something about revisiting this made me really grossly emotional. i listened to this ost on a loop for ages before i ever even had the chance to play the game (when it dropped on the ps3 store, cant remember what year that was), so the soundtrack registers more in my mind as one of the definitive shibuya-kei EPs that happens to have a game associated with it. i remember when i finally got to play the game one of the first things i did was put all the CDs my musician friends had made and sent me into my ps3 to play along with their music. this time around i'm able to burn and play my own music the same way.

i guess the song is called overflowing emotions for a reason. thanks vibri <3

Hydrogen tanks or battery packs at will, C-pillars, 390 liters of cargo capacity, over five different four-cylinder engines available, 72 different sitting variations, and the pièce de résistance : the "sandwich structure", an inclined cabin floor that made the whole thing roomier and the car shorter than its competitors while providing more safety in the case of an accident.

The brand-new Mercedes-Benz A-Class W168 (first generation) only needed top-notch advertisement to go along with, and who else than Masaya Matsuura, game designer, but most importantly key member of Japanese quirky New Wave and Synthpop band PsyS was more suited to provide some ?

They had everything, from technological innovation to a racing/rhythm game from the game designer of PaRappa the Rapper, what could possibly go wrong ?

Uh...
It can't turn.

That car sucked so bad when it came to emergency maneuver NanaOn-Sha simply aborted the project and would go on turning it into Vib-Ribbon, a surreal rhythm game that unsurprisingly fits much more Masaya Matsuura's usual style, and was the bad press worth it.

Now, what might struck you at first when launching Vib-Ribbon is probably gonna be the minimalistic art direction, not only is it reminiscent of early (and most often for scientific purposes) computer graphics and provides great readability, but it also allows the game to be loaded entirely from the PlayStation's RAM, while such experimentations weren't anything new (see : the famous Banjo Tooie Stop n' Swop ), succeeding in them was much more of a rare thing,

By swapping the game disc with another music CD, the game will generate a whole stage based on the selected track.
How does it work ? Pretty easy, an obstacle is randomly generated whenever the track hits a pronounced frequency (note that this does not exclusively refer to either the drums or bass, as separating these frequencies was already a hard task for a game that had to fit in so little space, but it would also lead to very "bland" levels), which means you can play either your favorite songs or the most batshit insane stuff you could think of, making lots of rhythm games enjoyers' dream reality !

And it also works well with an emulator by simply turning your mp3 file into an iso one before switching between them, I tried it out with Ground Zero Revolutionary Pekinese Opera and Eliane Radigue's Trilogie de la Mort just to experience the full spectrum !
(I mean, there's even a video of Death Grips' Get Got, anything is possible).

Vib-Ribbon did not sell well at its release, but, unsurprisingly, quickly gained a cult following outside of Japan after it came out digitally for the PS3. Yeah, it might not have a lot going on outside of its fun gimmick, but come on, you can't tell me you're not even curious about it, at the very least for how adorable Vibri is.

I don't know, I've only played the three tracks that come with the game and I'm already fully in love with it. Soundtrack is absolutely incredible, the game's art style is fascinating and looks like a game I would see in a dream. And of course everything involving the way Vibri animates, speaks and sings, I can't say enough good things about it. Games like these are little miracles when they happen and should be treated as such.

One thing I was worried about when starting this game was the timing, since it's developed by the same developer as the Parappa games, which on PS1 definitely gave me a hard time when it came to strict timing, but I actually found this game a lot more readable and reasonable when it came to note timing, for the most part. There are some parts of the game's three tracks that felt like getting the timing right was harder than it needed to be, but I wasn't stuck on stage 1 for days like Parappa. When the game gets hard, I actually get excited instead of terrified, which is also an improvement. Depending on how I feel about custom stages and after my attempts to get perfect on the on-disc games, I might even give this a 9/10, I'm really glad I finally decided to play this, it's a joy.

Vib-Ribbon is definitely one of the simplest rhythm games ever made, but I'd say it's probably one of the most solid out there!

Its presentation is very simple. It's a black void with a vector graphics on it, but they managed to make it really charming, especially with the character you play as, Vibri.
She is a rabbit who's just having fun, and she's voiced in a similar manner to Vocaloids like Hatsune Miku, which add up to a very charming character.

Since this is a rhythm game, songs are one of the most important aspects of it, but I find it curious that there are only 6 songs, separated into 3 courses of 2.
They were composed by a band called Laugh & Peace, and they can be bizzare, but I'd say they're good songs. They were definitely made with the game's levels in mind, as there are parts where the song gets really slow or really fast.

But speaking of the gameplay, you only use 4 buttons on the controller. Each button corresponds to an obstacle on the course (i.e. R button for a loop), but there are also obstables that combine two obstacles, so you'll need to press both buttons at the same time.
It gets harder later on, but the timing for it always well made, and I had a lot of fun going through the stages!

And this brings me to, perhaps, the best aspect about this game.
Remember how I said the game only has 6 levels?
I lied.
So how many levels are there?

I N F I N I T Y.

Thanks to some great wizardy on NanaOn-Sha's part, the entire game is loaded onto the PlayStation's RAM, and with that, you can play any music CD you have, and it generates a level for you. And it's not random, too!
This provides the game with so much replay-value, and it could be considered a sort-of "physical DLC", if you will.

Overall, Vib-Ribbon is a very fun and charming rhythm game that I recommend everybody to check out!

Me: I played through 10,000 Gecs on vib ribbon.
Random horse: Nuzzles me
Me: laughs Easy now.

Do you think there's a dude who listens to all of his music through this game? Like "Yeah dude the new peggy is great but lemme tell you "Steppa Pig" makes a TERRIBLE Vib-Ribbon level!"

Maybe i should become that person...

Trying to get this emulated was probably the worst part of the game. ITS SO GOOD. Once I was able to get it running and figured out how to make files for custom songs for it I had a hell of a time. It's hard to explain other than it fired off every part of my autistic brain.

The gameplay is nice and simple, but I admit it can get to be a bit overwhelming at times. There are just times where I can't seem to get the timing right. This is made doubly frustrating when the tempo picks up or when I've messed up so much that the whole stage shakes and I can't read when I should press the prompt. If I mess up, it's a downward spiral for me. I think this game is also slightly made harder with the fact that I played with the English PAL version which means 50 Hz gameplay, baby (average PAL experience). I tried the NTSC hack with Duckstation and that seems to make the gameplay better but that messes with the timing of the high score dance. Seriously, why was this not released in North America? I guess we just don't deserve anything good huh 😔. Otherwise the gameplay is very basic but fun with its charming vector graphics.

I also want to quickly appreciate the bundled soundtrack. I have no idea where it came from or what its inspiration was but I am in absolute love with it. It's nowhere close to any other song I have heard from 1999. Instead, it sounds closer to the songs I listen within the indie scenes of modern day. And it works so well with the courses, too. No notes, the Parappa devs always got bangers.

Of course, the crowning jewel of this title is being able to load any music CD and it making a course based on that song. Genuinely insane for its time, and it's even more insane now with the prospect of being able to listen and download anything you want. I can imagine playing this game as it came out and having fun with burning mixes onto CDs to try and create the most challenging courses with my choices as I swap them with my friends as a way to challenge each other (and as a way to gauge who has the best music tastes). Of course, I can still do that very well with friends online, but there has to be some sort of charm of playing with CDs that I'm missing out on.

Even if I'm not playing the tracks due to them simply being too challenging for my current skill level, I enjoy seeing Vibri hop, skip, and roll along the obstacles laid out for her. Seeing her bounce along in a black void so carefree is soothing to me. Especially when I'm playing songs that I really enjoy and connect to me on a personal level. I can almost interpret that meanings onto Vibri, as if they were talking about her. In one track, she's a trans girl named J, and in another track, she's a phone line connecting online friends to each other. At the end of the day, though, she's such a lovely happy-go-lucky character that seems to be down to listen to any music you play for her. If anything bad happens to Vibri, I will kill everyone with my bare hands /lh.

Overall, amazing game that doesn't seem to garner much meaning but gathers its value from the fun that you make with it. Strict gameplay prevents me from giving it a perfect but I am addicted as hell.