This game surprisingly caught my attention and it seemed that lately it became fashionable in recent years. The PS1 may been the console with the most amount of interesting obscure games, and the most amount of hidden gems, and while i dont think Vib Ribbon is by any means a masterpiece in this genre, it is probably one of the exponents of the genre despite its rarity.
While the game is very simplistic even in its limits, I think there are many things that could had been improved. It's one of those rhythm games where you have to remember each shape by memory, which I must admit I'm not a big fan of. I would have preferred that the shapes of the "notes" were similar to the controller buttons or at least that there was an option to see above the buttons, because even with plenty of time to learn the mechanics I feel that part of my rhythm is ruined by having to think for a millisecond which button I should touch next. Not helped in any way by the super strict timing and "earthquake" effect of all the lines, which while adding challenge and personality, just make the game a headache at times. As well as how the tutorial doesnt do a good job explaining the combination of two notes (maybe you are supposed to read the manual but this is 1999, not the 80s).
And.... despite all of those negative points... I kind of... love the game? For starters this is easily the best looking wireframe game ever made. For those who dont know, wireframe graphics are the most basic form of 3d that exist, and the game uses it on its own advantage, both for loading the entire software into RAM (i would talk about that later), and giving it a very unique style that was never seen before (and hell, even to this day). And the reason as to why i appreciate a bunch of simple lines that even in the late 80s machines would be possible to run, is that... wireframe was never used as an style. Wireframe graphics were originally used for technical limitations, because putting objects with x, y and z coordinates on a true 3d space was extremely demanding in the past. Even to this day, it seems that wireframe was simply forgetted. Consoles like the PS2 can render as many wireframe polygons as we can do texture ones on modern devices, yet we never seen a game that uses the wireframe mode at least partially. The wireframe technology (which determines the position of all the vertices of the polygon, as i like to see a 3d math precision) practically died and is never used besides some weird experiments. It is supported on the graphics card, yet is never used. Vib Ribbon is literally the only game that uses it for another reason than technical limitations and it uses it to its fullest potential. Vibri is incredible charming, has a lot of cool animations, all of the weird shapes and deformation of the lines adds to the charm, and the game runs at a constant 60 FPS with no loading times. Its even more fascinating the fact that this was made in a time where more and more textures was equivalent of "better looking" (thats why they werent many 2d games in the fifth and sixth generation compared to the others).
Of course this 3d wireframe technology was also used to let the game play any music CD, which can be seen as a "limitation", but again, is using that limitation to its own advantage, not just because to do the rendering as before. Which is extremely innovative for its time. Rhythm games were barely starting in the 90s to have this kind of "extra content" as DLC if we can call it like that... at the expense of making the experience extremely short of course... and i dont think that was an excuse... but lets leave it at that.
The only aspect i can criticize about the graphics, besides the constant "earthquake effect" that can be disorienting is that there is no use of colour, besides the score system which could had added a lot to the visual presentation...
Vib Ribbon is honestly.... a decent game. It has incredible good ideas for the genre that should be relevant even to this day. Artistically is almost sublime, and the use of the most basic 3d in a time were it was forgotten is admirable, even though it should had been ported to more devices and not just the PS1 to take advantage of its gimmick with the new discs, because without it, is one of the shortest games i ever played, with less than half hour of gameplay... But at least it compensates with the charm and good music.
Unfortunately it doesnt know how to introduce new players to its mechanics, but if you have some experience to the genre i really recomend it, honestly, if you had nothing better to do, you would get a lot of Vib Ribbon.
While the game is very simplistic even in its limits, I think there are many things that could had been improved. It's one of those rhythm games where you have to remember each shape by memory, which I must admit I'm not a big fan of. I would have preferred that the shapes of the "notes" were similar to the controller buttons or at least that there was an option to see above the buttons, because even with plenty of time to learn the mechanics I feel that part of my rhythm is ruined by having to think for a millisecond which button I should touch next. Not helped in any way by the super strict timing and "earthquake" effect of all the lines, which while adding challenge and personality, just make the game a headache at times. As well as how the tutorial doesnt do a good job explaining the combination of two notes (maybe you are supposed to read the manual but this is 1999, not the 80s).
And.... despite all of those negative points... I kind of... love the game? For starters this is easily the best looking wireframe game ever made. For those who dont know, wireframe graphics are the most basic form of 3d that exist, and the game uses it on its own advantage, both for loading the entire software into RAM (i would talk about that later), and giving it a very unique style that was never seen before (and hell, even to this day). And the reason as to why i appreciate a bunch of simple lines that even in the late 80s machines would be possible to run, is that... wireframe was never used as an style. Wireframe graphics were originally used for technical limitations, because putting objects with x, y and z coordinates on a true 3d space was extremely demanding in the past. Even to this day, it seems that wireframe was simply forgetted. Consoles like the PS2 can render as many wireframe polygons as we can do texture ones on modern devices, yet we never seen a game that uses the wireframe mode at least partially. The wireframe technology (which determines the position of all the vertices of the polygon, as i like to see a 3d math precision) practically died and is never used besides some weird experiments. It is supported on the graphics card, yet is never used. Vib Ribbon is literally the only game that uses it for another reason than technical limitations and it uses it to its fullest potential. Vibri is incredible charming, has a lot of cool animations, all of the weird shapes and deformation of the lines adds to the charm, and the game runs at a constant 60 FPS with no loading times. Its even more fascinating the fact that this was made in a time where more and more textures was equivalent of "better looking" (thats why they werent many 2d games in the fifth and sixth generation compared to the others).
Of course this 3d wireframe technology was also used to let the game play any music CD, which can be seen as a "limitation", but again, is using that limitation to its own advantage, not just because to do the rendering as before. Which is extremely innovative for its time. Rhythm games were barely starting in the 90s to have this kind of "extra content" as DLC if we can call it like that... at the expense of making the experience extremely short of course... and i dont think that was an excuse... but lets leave it at that.
The only aspect i can criticize about the graphics, besides the constant "earthquake effect" that can be disorienting is that there is no use of colour, besides the score system which could had added a lot to the visual presentation...
Vib Ribbon is honestly.... a decent game. It has incredible good ideas for the genre that should be relevant even to this day. Artistically is almost sublime, and the use of the most basic 3d in a time were it was forgotten is admirable, even though it should had been ported to more devices and not just the PS1 to take advantage of its gimmick with the new discs, because without it, is one of the shortest games i ever played, with less than half hour of gameplay... But at least it compensates with the charm and good music.
Unfortunately it doesnt know how to introduce new players to its mechanics, but if you have some experience to the genre i really recomend it, honestly, if you had nothing better to do, you would get a lot of Vib Ribbon.
