Forgotten PSone classic Vib Ribbon available now for PS3 and PS Vita

By Will Fulton October 7, 2014

lost psone classic vib ribbon ps3 vita — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Vib Ribbon, a seminal rhythm game for the original PlayStation that was only ever released in Europe and Japan, now has a chance to find new audiences on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, as announced on the PlayStation Blog. The game was developed in 1999 by Masaya Matsuura and NanaOn-Sha, the team behind another oddball, early PlayStation rhythm great: PaRappa the Rapper.

Drawn in simple white vectors on a black background, the game uses its own soundtrack or whatever music you feed into it to generate an obstacle-filled line that serves as a track for protagonist Vibri, a rabbit composed of similarly clean white lines. Getting hit forces Vibri to devolve into lower forms of life until defeated, but successfully avoiding obstacles leads to her transforming into an angel, gathering more points until hit and returning to rabbit form.

Vib Ribbon had two sequels for PlayStation 2 in Japan, but neither saw Western release. Shawn Layden, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, gave the cult classic a shout-out at Sony’s E3 2014 presentation, and the outpouring of interest from fans convinced Sony to bring the game back for its newer consoles.

Vib Ribbon is available now for Vita and PS3 on the PlayStation Store, and will be coming to PlayStation 4 in the near future.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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