Vib-Ribbon: Retro game of the day

Vib-Ribbon is a music rhythm game which was released on the original Playstation in Japan late 1999 and a year later in Europe. Similar to the likes of PaRappa the Rapper and Amplitude the player would progress through each song by hitting the corresponding button being displayed on screen. Amplitude being Guitar Heroes predecessor and a formula recently revisited in Harmonix‘s download only title Rockband Blitz.

Vib-Ribon was unique in that the game loaded into the Playstation’s RAM enabling the player insert any music CD of their choice which would then generate a unique level from any track. The graphics for Vib-Ribbon are very stylised and simple yet pretty looking. The backgrounds and main character, a female rabbit called Vibri, consist of straight, white vector lines forming angular images.

The game features four basic obstacles, blocks, loops, waves and pits. Obstacles in later levels could be combined into a more advanced forms for which two button presses at the same time are required.

Vib-Ribbon included six quirky songs by Japanese pop group Laugh and Peace, recorded in English they were also included on the game disk as standard CD audio tracks.