VIB RIBBON IS COMING TO PSN TOMORROW

Ahem.

Hot on the heels of a Twin Peaks revival, Sony's decided to make Monday even crazier by announcing Vib Ribbon is coming to PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Vita. It'll hit PlayStation 4 eventually, too.

Hallelujah!

When Sony mentioned Vib Ribbon multiple times at E3 earlier this year, the company seemed to be setting up a chance to right a great wrong: Vib Ribbon had never been released in North America. Instead, the tease came and went, and Vib Ribbon remained, essentially, lost to history.

This week, that will finally change.

"It was not my intention to rub salt in the Vib Ribbon wound, but to express my admiration for it as the genre-busting title it is and was," wrote SCEA CEO Shawn Layden in a blog post today. "My mistake was that I had assumed that everyone who had been around in the original PlayStation era would have had their chance to play the game. I had forgotten that the American gamer was effectively denied the opportunity. To mention it at E3 was to delight some and to squirt lemon in the eyes of others. For this, I apologize. It was not my intent to dangle the delight of Vibri in front of those who longed for but could not have. It was to make a point about having the courage, and talent, to break the mold. To do what your heart demands. To me Vib Ribbon--well, to be honest, Nanaonsha for that matter--has always been committed to that ideal. An ideal I wish to celebrate.

For the PS3 version, Sony's even managed to retain the ability for the game to generate new levels, based on the audio CDs you own. That is, if you still happen to own any audio CDs. It's unclear if that will be part of the PS4 version, but let's hope so.

"Sometimes games like Vib Ribbon require backing and belief that do not comport with the marketing wisdom of the day, or the forecasted financial upside. Sometimes you get behind a project because, well, you gotta believe," said Layden. "Vib Ribbon is finally making its way to North America, and the major catalyst was all of you who wrote, posted, blogged, tweeted that you wished to see this game come back and wanted your voice to be heard by the suits. Well, it has. Now I look to all of you experiencing this singular game for the first time."

Wow!

fantastic news!

AAAAAAAAHGHHH~!!! This is the most wonderful news! I'm going to invite 50 people over to my house so they can watch me play it!

WHOAAA that's kinda crazy.

1. what?
2. What?!
3. WHAAAAAAT?!

holy shit

Shawn Layden seems like a cool dude.

@patrickklepek Should have added the I WILL CUT YOU tweet from @alex at least.

Also this better not be NA only.

The best part of the blog post is the collage of angry tweets from games journos at E3, including our very own Wolf, Alex Navarro.

Enjoy it!

Cool and all, by they should have released it in NA on the PS1 back in the day to begin with. Good example of showing off how your company was not about ground-breaking new ideas, but instead closed to something they couldn't market to their liking.

FUCK!

Also, Twin Peaks?!

It's finally happening!!!! *insert Ron Paul laser gif*

I sorta wished it would never be released again.

Some things are best left to the hands of time.

I thought Homestarrunner coming back would be the weirdest return, I guess I was wrong.

Fantastic news!

Now where's Devil Dice?

Now everyone gets to play Vib Ribbon for 10 minutes and go "okay, enough of that."

This is the best news!

I know next to nothing about this game, but I'll probably try it out whenever it comes to PS4 (don't really feel like going back to the PS3).

@nonesun:

http://deadline.com/2014/10/twin-peaks-series-showtime-david-lynch-mark-frost-845804/

https://twitter.com/DAVID_LYNCH/status/519147574381379584

I remember buying this game when I was a kid. It wasn't very good.

Hmm, no shit. That rules.

They surely won't only put one PS1 game onto PS4 right?

Fina-fucking-ly

Anyone know if this in NA only or if it's coming to EU aswell, seems like a good vita game. Shame they haven't gone in and let you use mp3's

The sudden clamouring for this game seems really weird to me. If this game was this beloved where was all the hype for it pre-E3? A lot of this just seems like a bandwagon to me.

I'm wondering if "you gotta believe" is a nod to Parappa. Probably not.

@hassun: NA, Japan and Latin America this week. Europe next week.

MIND BLOWN

It is silly. Everyone that is holy-smokes excited for this will play it once or twice and probably not touch it again. Those who have never heard about it will probably care even less, to a negative degree scale I presume.

It was a novel thing at the time but it doesn't mean it was actually a great game per-se.

How is this the same Sony that put out the PS3???! Keep it UP, people!

That vib you like is ribbon back in style?

Well, that's silly.

No one actually gives a shit about Vib Ribbon, Sony. It's just the press being snarky assholes for a change.

@demoskinos: A big part of it is the fact that it's never been officially released in the US, I'm sure, so it's gained a bit of a legendary status. Some people also like to flex their knowledge of gaming minutae like obscure PS1 games that were never released in their territory.

I'll happily admit that I've never played it, but from what I saw of it on that UPF, it doesn't look like something I'd want to drop money on. Compared to all of the other rhythm games I've played in the years since, the gameplay seems really straightforward, and it only comes with six songs. Being able to use custom songs is cool, but I've gotten rid of almost all of my old CDs in recent years. :(

I just think it's kinda cool that Sony is listening to their customers again.

If lots of people buy this one.... maybe... they'll make a new one? Oh, one can only hope!

Yup.

It's cool they're releasing it since anything that isn't total garbage I'm all for releasing on the modern platforms (especially since it's a game that not many people had the first time around), but I'd bet a hefty amount that most of people flipping their shit over this have never actually played it. It's a neat gimmick that'll hold your attention for a short time, that's about it.

I'd never heard of it before e3, and having seen it played on the upf afterwords it doesn't look like it's something I'd play much. But if the price is right, when it comes to PS4, I'll still throw some money at it for the spirit of the gesture. Even if the game itself isn't going to set the world on fire, these kind of moves are interesting, and I'd like to see Sony continue to make more weird decisions. That's worth at least $10 to me.

Doesn't the PS4 not support audio CDs, or did they patch that in later?

They're releasing a game in NA that was never released here, how is that anything but good news.

I bought a expensive PAL copy and only played for a little bit, they will have to put leaderboards ala Audio surf so people play it longer.

Sony are making it real difficult not to like them these days.

@patrickklepek: Any chance you could include whether this'll end up on the European marketplace as well?

Him referencing Parappa in his blog post is the biggest "squeezing lemon in eyes" to me :( but you gotta believe!

Played the hell out of the demo version thought it was so different but never bought it as a kid :/ Looking forward to ps4 version!

I look forward to this becoming a mainstay on my Vita.

"For the PS3 version, Sony's even managed to retain the ability for the game to generate new levels, based on the audio CDs you own."

It's like it's 1999 all over again.

I saw someone on Twitter express some concern, citing how input lag on modern TVs (compared to CRTs) makes the PSN versions of Parappa and Um Jammer Lammy nearly unplayable (in their opinion, at least).

I look forward to hearing all of the duders say one or two things about this game then never again. It'll really cement how much they love it.

I'm going to stomp my feet loudly in my apartment until we get a new Parappa game. YA HEAR ME SONY!? I'M STOMPING SO HARD RIGHT NOW AND NOTHING IS STOPPING ME!

From the blog post it sounds like this is being released as a PSOne Classic, which would explain why it is available on PS3 / Vita but not PS4 for the moment.

This is fine, it is awesome to see this released in any form. Sure it would be great to have mp3 and leaderboard support but I'll take what I can get.

Good apology Sony.