Nana On-sha once again makes a banger rhythm game that pushes the boundaries on how you can interact with music. Rather than trying to gamify improvisation like parappa and lammy, the point of this is more experimentation through other songs. While the default tracklist for this game is decent enough, the real meat and potatoes comes from the ability to play this game with any music CD as your soundtrack, and the game algorhythmically generates a beatmap for that track. It basically becomes a game of experimentation as you try out different CDs with different genres of music to see what kind of map the game will make, and allows for the game to have infinite content. The charm of the vector graphics and vibri's character is just icing on the cake.

Vib Ribbon is an immense vibe as janky as the gameplay is.

The calibration is practically nonexistent and much of the longevity stems from its chart generator, but the eerie but effective visuals combine with its on-disc soundtrack to make a one of a kind experience.

It's not too fun as a game to play, but it's a memorable work of art.

Vib-Ribbon is one of the most charming and unique rhythm games I've ever played. The game uses vector-style graphics with the lines taking the shape of an audio waveform while Vibri hops, vaults, and rolls through blocks, loops, waves, and pits. I'm just going to say it right now, Vibri is adorable. There's something about her singing and frolicking to the sounds of the music while listening to happy J-pop music that I found endearing

Anyway, the game has 6 songs, 2 from each level, which are Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The only downside I have with the game is you can experience the whole game in about 30 minutes, but I have to admit, I was surprised by the ramp-up in difficulty in the later songs, but I didn't mind

The game may be short, but that's where your music CDs come in. You see the game's software loads into RAM, letting you use any music CD to play against, and can generate a unique level from whatever track you put in. This also works on the PS3 via the PS1 Classics, and while I haven't experienced it myself, it is really neat that you can do that

Vib-Ribbon is one of the most overlooked PS1 games, and if you're someone trying to find some more obscure game for that particular system, pick this one up on the PS3/PS Vita Store, or emulation, your choice. I hope that one day this will be rereleased on PS4/PS5, because I believe this is one of the games that made PlayStation back in the day, PlayStation. It's a shame that they don't make games like these anymore

A bonfire night classic.

There’s something so delightful yet so seemingly odd with something like Vib Ribbon. It’s a game that’s always stuck in my mind despite being a relatively obscure Playstation rhythm game with not much content to speak of.


You see i’ve been technically enjoying this game for quite a while now without even playing it. Starting with arguably the main attraction..the music. The soundtrack is this beautiful yet incredibly weird mix of J-pop, rock and electronic. It’s a odd abrasive listen with plenty of odd effects and insane tempo changes. It’s a lot to take in for such a short listen yet the vocalist and her affectious melodies and the child like endearing lyrcis really hold it all together. It’s a soundtrack that gives me a strong sense of bittersweet nostalgia and it’s wonderful while still being really impressive with the way it’s all put together.

Another is the visuals. It’s quite literally a barebones game offering these incredibly simple wireframe graphics. Yet it’s with the animations and character design of Vibri where this game really comes to life. The way this game is able to use literal basic white lines and still have so much charm and personality with Vibri is just brillliant. It’s an adorable game.

The gameplay as a whole (what i finally got to experience recently!) is pretty basic. Comes down to timing button presses (4 buttons total) which is the average rhythm gameplay yet having obstacles instead of notes or just button prompts is a easy and effective way to add tension in the game. Yet again making use of the limited art style. What’s interesting tho is because of the lack of prompts you have to memorize the command for each buttons. Sounds easy but near the end when buttons get combined it starts getting hard. It’s a pretty rewarding game and the way it encourages you to get commands right with Vibri changing forms is a nice touch.

Whats really incredible is the Cd functionality. On original copies (or some complicated emulation
shenanigans, Also Ps3 might work too) you can load ANY cd into your playstation and play like any album you want! I’ll admit the main setlist is great but very short. So this feature offers infinite possibilities to the game. I really want to try this someday. I can have interactive Kanye and Weezer cds.

As a whole this game is really awesome. Loved the visuals and music before but getting to play now is just cool. Vibri needs to make a comeback. Actually bring Parappa back too lol.

My one complaint is setting it up. So this game never came to America (Ps3 and Vita got it in America but not Ps1) so I had to emulate it. Fair enough i’m fine with that. Yet the game didn’t think I had the Vib Ribbon disc in. So I had to do some weird stuff on ePsxe where I had to like trick the game into loading by resetting. That was my solution and it works but still annoying. The game let me explore the menu but when trying to load the main setlist it said “insert vib ribbon disc) I clearly had the game in so idk why this happens. Also getting cds to work isn’t as simple as popping them in. Makes sense but again i wish it was so easier. It’s a bit of a complicated set up from what i can tell but one day I might try and figure it out.

light 4.5/5

Somebody play Dopesmoker in this lol

there is something so special about the atmosphere this game creates, an infectiously energetic lofi aesthetic that makes this just stand out even more
as a seminal precursor to many popular rhythm games. the original ost is so vibrant and happy that replaying those six levels to beat my high score was something I looked forward to. the songs were like electropop with a touch of plunderphonics and fishmans-like psychedelia at times. It's really great and a short play that I'd recommend it anyone to check out

Super charming PS1 oddity with an insanely energetic and fun original soundtrack, the whole thing plays out like a cacophony of pure joy and sunshine - it's wonderful! Vibri is also one of the cutest video game characters ever, such a lovely little vector rabbit. The game is very short but that's where your own CD collection comes into play, just pop an album in and try to hop, skip and jump through your favorite tracks in the game. Not as easy as you might think! It's nice that it's still possible to play custom CD tracks on the PS3 with this PS1 Classics release.

I wish there were more quirky little titles like this one on the PlayStation - or on any platform for that matter - these days. I could honestly see a new Vib-Ribbon with a "Tetris Effect treatment" and Spotify support working very well. You listening, Sony?! Two thumbs up for Vib-Ribbon.

Much harder to play than i was expecting. might just be that i'm very bad at rhythm games, but the timing combined with the annoying ass camera angles make for a challenge i would say makes the game too frustrating for me. But, it's simply too cool to get mad, i love games like this. i've spent a good amount of time seeing how songs play in Audiosurf, and i'll be doing the same with this game as i build up my collection of cd's over the coming years. Fun way to use your cd's, can just be a bit irritating to play depending on the song.

cd's i used during my first day with Vib-Ribbon:
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Summer Salt - Driving To Hawaii
Boys Age - Calm Time
Tyler The Creator - Cherry Bomb
Mr Deeds OST did not work :(

Unique looking rhythm game that needed more meat on its wireframe. I played the game on Normal mode and after two songs, the game ended. At first I thought I did something wrong, but after some research, there are only two songs per difficulty. That is disappointing.

This game needed more stages. It felt like a missed opportunity to not have more stages with more music tracks. There is an option that can allow you to insert a CD to make custom tracks, but I played this on a Vita TV (PlayStation TV) and I do not believe you can do that on any version of the Vita.

Vib-Ribbon is an unique looking rhythm game and a fine one to play if you want to kill some time. However, its length leaves something to be desired.

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