Vib Ribbon was - and still is - one of the most original games ever made
How's the music! They don't make it like that anymore
The graphics, while basic, are pseudo cool
It's the kind of creation that will be revered more than any other artistic endeavour in the year 2108
Hmmmm... First up you think is that somebody has
had just a little too much wine for their own good.
Then you think 'hmmmm', maybe they've used
something stronger.
Then you think, 'hmmmm' I'm getting in to this -
what the heck am I on?
And that's how it is with Vib Ribbon, probably the
most original Playstation game since Parappa the Rapper.
It is a seriously strange game and is basically a
line character moving along a single thread.
Your start-off character is like a spaced-out line
drawing of a toddler Bugs Bunny.
As your strength drops you change into a frog and
then finally into a fat-headed worm.
The aim of Vib Ribbon is to make your character
perform moves as it wanders along and comes up to various line
symbols.
There are door-like blocks to hop over, v-shaped
holes to cross, sharp-line barriers to get through and various
loop-the-loops to navigate.
There are only four buttons you need to control
your character with and while this may be easy (initially) the tempo
soon picks up and you find yourself frantically operating the
controller to keep your chappie going for as long as you can.
As you make mistakes and fail to follow the trail
you are penalised in strength and also face the prospect of the lines
becoming exceedingly jerky, making it harder to follow and easier to
make another error on.
Still, a bit of practice does wonders and within a
short time you'll be hooning along having a wow of a time.
Now, take a couple of minutes to familiarise
yourself with the buttons as this makes life a lot easier.
Being a don't-read-the-rules sort I had to put up
with the laughter of the darned rabbit having scored a world-record low
of eight.
Things got better with a bit of fiddling on the
controls and I scored 40 on my next go. The third attempt was a lucky
263 but after watching the how-to-play advice, a confidence-restoring
495 was achieved with one arm tied behind my back (almost).
The music in Vib Ribbon is like a cross between
techno pop and the chipmunks but after a while, or a couple of strong
coffees, becomes rather interesting.
In fact, it is downright addictive fun and as the
pace picks up you cannot help but really get in to it.
There is the stock-standard music provided with
the game but you can put your own CDs in to give the game a different
feel and look, as certain aspects of the game are affected by the music
- cool eh?
I can say that Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance
does zany things to the shapes on offer...
Vib Ribbon is truly an experience like no other on
the PSX, and you can be guaranteed to have an excellent time with kids,
teens or even adults at parties. Mind you, that damned wascally wabbit
does get on your goat and there were a few occasions when a shotgun, or
a vial of myxomatosis pellets, would have gone down a treat.
