Vib Ribbon

General= Vib Ribbon''' is the 46th episode of The Caddicarus Show.

Synopsis
For this third Bonfire Night special that has nothing to do with Bonfire Night, Caddicarus looks at a game about a wireframe rabbit that does loop-de-loops around a never-ending white line until she turns into a frog because she jumped through a spiky line instead of rolling through it. And she sings.

Just in time for the North American release of the game, Caddy reviews Vib Ribbon, a game by Nana-On-Sha, the team behind the Parappa the Rapper series and Um Jammer Lammy.

=Trivia= Vibri gets mentioned again in Caddy's Parappa the Rapper video, as well as his 60th episode, My Dreams PS All Stars Roster.

Caddy: Hmm, Halloween is over, so that can only mean one thing. It's time for a Bonfire Night special on my channel that has nothing to do with Bonfire Night! So what about this? (holds a copy of Vib Ribbon) It's a wireframe rabbit doing loop-de-loops around a never-ending white line until she turns into a frog because she jumped through a spiky line instead of rolling through it... and she sings (stock footage of fireworks plays while caption "happie bonfyre nite" written in Comic Sans MS appears, with Waltz of the Flowers being bass boosted in the end).
 * -|Transcript=

(Caddicarus intro plays)

Caddy: Greetings and salutations my beautiful people, and welcome to the Caddicarus show, where I always have to do the dirty deed of deciding whether or not my game deserves to be slaughtered or salvaged. Now, this video has been a long time coming, so I won't stall for a second more. After this particular game was recently released on the PS Store for Americans, what better time to talk about it? (silence) I thought not. So, let's sink our collective teeth (flips game copy) into Vib Ribbon, and see what the fuss is about.

Caddy: (shows photos and gameplay of Vib Ribbon) Released in Japan in late 1999, and then in Europe and late 2000 (Seriously, only (shows flags of Japan and the EU) Japan and Europe? What's up with that?) Vib Ribbon was a unique experimental and extremely innovative rhythm game developed by (shows NanaOn-Sha logo) NananananananaOn-Sha, who had made (shows PtR cover) Parappa the Rapper and (shows UJL cover) Um Jammer Lammy on the PS1 straight before this game's release. And add that little trilogy of rhythmic delight (explosion with Wilhelm scream), Vib Ribbon was always my favorite.

Caddy: (shows PS demo disc) Me and my sister played the demo of this countless times over, but due to the rarity of the game itself, I was never able to get my hands on a proper retail copy, until a few years ago, when it popped up on eBay for a crazy cheap price.

Caddy: (smoke effects with a grayscaled copy of Vib RIbbon, while Bring the Boys Back Home starts playing) And now, lo and behold, my children, for this is my gorgeous copy of Vib RIbbon that I- (BtBBH stops playing, color returns) Wait, there's a ##cking dirt on it! (disgust noises) (music continues, grayscale) that I love so very dearly. I love it so much that I can barely control my breathing whenever I see it. (breathes intensively) I'm a pathetic twat of a man!

Caddy: Either way, let's boot the game up and see what's in store for us! (harp cadence, with several squares tessilating) (Caddy looking at the camera) I don't know what Japan's hiding up its sleeves right now. (lines oscillating with a small orchestra piece) Am I dead? ("Vib Ribbon" written in both Japanese and English while a vector rabbit starts dancing)

???: Viiiiiib Ribbon, Ribbon, Vib, Vib, Vib, Ribbon, Ribbon, Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi VI (shows footage of Caddy smiling and bouncing his head) Viiiiiib Ribbon, Ribbon, Vib, Vib, Vib, Ribbon, Ribbon, Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi Vi VI (Caddy laughs)

Caddy: I mean, Christ, how anybody would know what's going on with this game by this point is beyond me totally, so I think the best course of action is to look at the how to play menu, and that's also a good idea because we get a thorough going over with this game's plot.

Caddy: (majestic music with a forest image with the words "Once upon a time... In a faraway land" written in cursive) Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young vector graphic angular female rabbit named (caption reads 'Vibri ') Vibri was walking down this white line, and then this happened. (closeup of Vibri smiling)

Caddy: So after understanding the plot, the first thing you notice is how ##cking bouncy and adorable this tutorial is. The music, Vibri's voice, it's not hard to get sucked in straightaway which is a really good thing because-

Vibri: (hits wall) (cymbals clash) Eek! This is what-

Caddy: Whatinthenameofallthatisholyisthat, thedeepestracesofmymindcan'tpossiblyfathomthedarknessofthemindthatcreatedthismonstrosity!

Caddy: Vibri then tells us that we can check the manual for more information about the game, which I suppose is a wise idea. PS1 games after all didn't have the space that we do nowaday, so relaying information elsewhere could prove to be quite effective.

Caddy: (puts the manual on his face) I am swiftly regretting every life choice I have ever made. (shows the manual) Okay, I've got to admit, this is ##cking awesome. Much like other (shows NanaOn-Sha logo) NananananananaOn-Sha, games the manual was actually equipped to be a large poster. Pretty fascinating. I mean, I seriously wouldn't hang this up in my office for fair ripping it to shreds, but you know, it's still pretty cool. Anyway from reading more into this, you can safely deduce that this is indeed a rhythm game, with Vibri constantly moving (arrow on line) forward on this white line, there are four different obstacles you face which require four different button presses to pass over.

Caddy: Rolling through squiggles with the X button, flipping through loops with an R button, jumping over blocks with an L button, and stepping over pits with the down button. All in all it sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? Weeeelllllllll... (clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "No, it isn't".)

Caddy: ...because you then get thrown in with merged obstacles, such as squiggly blocks which then require the X and L button, or dipped loops, which require both the down and R button, and in faster stages, they can get overwhelming sometimes. On the disk itself there are six songs to play through which were all performed by a Japanese group called Laugh and Peace, and these songs are all split into groups of two based on their difficulty. So, what the hell. Let's take a look at every song this game has to offer and slightly review each stage individually in the most mediocre fashion imaginable. (screen spins with negative colors) Yay. Before we do that though, a very cute inclusion to the game is the fact that Vibri out every menu command as you highlight them.

Vibri: Silver. Gold. High Scores. Back. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Silver. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Silver. Bronze. Silver. Gold. High Scores. Back. Bronze. Silver. (footage of old man typing extensively (I don't know the movie, sorry.))

Caddy: Now, as you'll notice from the main game screen,there are a lot of... (arrows appear) things everywhere. Things that are there to make the endless black void and white line a little bit more interesting. This down here is how far you are into the song that you're playing, the speed that Vibri's skips indicates the speed of the song, and this here is your score. I can't read it. Nobody can read it. ##ck this score.

Caddy: Also, if you hit enough consecutive correct beats without making a mistake, you eventually turn into (fireworks with the caption "QUEEN VIBRI") Queen Vibri! (photo of Queen Elizabeth appears) Why is [she] awfully happy with that? And you also get bonus points while in this mode, until you make the next mistake. Anyway, Song 1 of the game is a great intro stage. It's slow and it's steady, and it uses a lot of creative and abstract audio samples from pitch altered fanfare snippets to various retro camera sound effects hence the title of the song (caption 'Polaroid ' appears) 'Polaroid'. The melody and backing samples are catchy and well placed, and there's plenty of rubato in between each verse with the changing in tempo. The rhythm is simple, and the obstacles remain slow and simple to avoid, and in the final quarter of the song, it even vary gradually speeds the song up to show you that it isn't all that easy. Overall, a fantastic intro stage, and that speed up towards the end of the song is just a small taste for what is to come. (clip of Vibri laughing maniacally on a black background with white noise)

Caddy: Onto Song 2 called (caption reads 'Sunny Day ') 'Sunny Day', which has many more rubato tempo changes than before. The obstacles still remain simple, despite the increased tempo changes, and where the song is still pretty catchy, it isn't my favourite track, since the composition of the song isn't as creative as the other tracks we will be seeing, but what I do like a lot is that you can actually freestyle in between each part that there's no obstacles, and when that happens, Vibri can sometimes look horrific. (audio clip from The Nutty Professor) Somebody better call an exorcist!

Caddy: So with that, the bronze easy course is over. Then, we get a reading of our final score. By the way, the congratulatory song that Vibri sings to you when you hit the top three of the high scores is (photo of four puppies with the caption "Freaking adorable.") freaking adorable.

Vibri: Well done. Way to go! The bronze course score is 3794 points! And yes! It's a high score. Yippee!

Caddy: What isn't so adorable though, is that you can't actually pause the game: only quit or restart the whole song, which is (stock photo of a cartoon bull) bull, but Song 3 known as (caption reads ' Laugh and Peace ') 'Laugh and Peace' brings us to the silver course at medium difficulty. Immediately we begin with different instrumentation and slowed down samples, thrown into even crazier tempo changes, and this is definitely one of the more insane tracks on the game. I mean just listen to how slow it goes sometimes! (caption reads *Beginning speed*) (caption reads 'A few seconds later ') (song continuously says "Stop now", which Caddy mimics with his mouth in B&W) but for as slow as the song can get, it also introduces you to some of the most intense speeds in the game, and it even throws sliding overlapping obstacles at you to keep you on your toes. Now, I've really got to say the way that every single track in this game has its own drastic tempo change is fantastic. I mean, it feels natural in all of the songs, and so it naturally reverberates back to you, as the player. Like, umm, you could easily tap your foot to any of these songs and any of the tempo changes without being thrown off, which is really impressive, not to mention great for experimenting with all these difficulties shifts, like with all of the overlapping, umm, obstacles and all that kind of stuff. It's good stuff.

Caddy: Right, Song 4: (caption reads  'Universal Dance') 'Universal Dance'. This is easily the most intense song so far, with driving accents on every single beat. It's also the most consistent song with tempo and speed, which is good in this case, because now the game starts throwing crazy camera angles at you to trip you out. I mean, people could easily criticize the simplicity of this game's visual style, but for this kind of game I would say it was more minimalistic. It makes it much easier to process what the ##ck's going on on the screen. Not to mention I find them very charming as well. I mean, (psychedelic background with Lucy in the Sky WIth Diamonds played in reverse) just imagine for a second having colourful and sickening spinning backgrounds while trying to get through these stages that would be ##cking unplayable, but at least you can have your drug-induced trips for (stock image of a man giving a thumbs up with a cow's moo) free.

Caddy: Not to mention, the game looks very distinctive as well. I can't think of any other game from this era that looked like this. It's very very memorable, and you know what? If you can make (closeup of Vibri) a crudely drawn vector graphic angular lined rabbit cute, I think you've done a (Vibri giving the thumbs up) really good job. Anyway, Universal Dance, I'm sorry. Umm, this track is my least favorite. It's not as varied or interesting as the rest in both the song itself and the stage. I mean just look at this bit. This is... challenging... (caption reads 'Not really? ') not really? Although since we're in the heart of difficulties, now you will experience a few mistakes. Whenever you mess up in this game, Vibri screams an immeasurable pain.

Vibri: Eek!

Caddy: Just feel bad now. The screen then glitches up to make things more intense and harder for you, and then even more mistakes on top of that, turns you into different creatures each with their own special animations. You turn into a frog, and then into a worm. That's pretty cool. To get back to normal it's pretty simple. Just keep doing well without making any mistakes, and you'll eventually climb up back to health. Oh yes, and if you come second or first in the high scores, Vibri throws in another congratulatory line within the final score song.

Vibri: Well done. Way to go! Nice one! Congratulations. The silver score course-

Caddy: (stock person photo moves Vibri away from the screen) Yeah, yeah, we've- We've- We've heard the rest! You get the idea. Now onto the hardest difficulty: the golden course. Here we have Song 5, also known as (caption reads  'Overflowing Emotions' ) 'Overflowing Emotions', which is rather appropriate because (screen turns green with the caption ' I GET OVERFLOWING EMOTIONS FROM THIS TRACK ' in green) I get overflowing emotions from this track! It's easily my favey. It starts off with a pretty simple, but cool riff, and then turns into the most instrumentally, complex track in the game. With tons of jumps between multiple genres and tempos, and an ingeniously insane chorus, it's like an entire song change every time I hear that chorus but it fits so damn well. Also, it features some very creative sampling and creative drum patterns. (caption reads 'I love this track. ') I love this track. Just listen to the ##cking course it's ##cking insane.

(Translated into English)

Have fun, then get tired, lie down, and get up You've never been spoiled, so i'll let you be spoiled Even if you fall down and want to cry, don't cry You are really a baby

Caddy: Hard mode is also the best difficulty, because of how experimental the waves of obstacles get. There's the pre-mentioned overlapping obstacles, many tempo changes, more crazy camera angles, and more offbeat obstacles, and it's easily the most fun to play through. And you know what else is fun? trying to interpret the slightly broken English in these Japanese songs now for the most part. These guys do a good job of sounding English in some songs, (stock photo of a Japanese body suit) you know being Japanese and everything, but because I'm incredibly immature, I have my own little interpretations for some of the lines in the songs, because I seriously can't understand them sometimes. (caption reads 'Enjoy them, everybody! ') Enjoy them, everybody!

(Song 5 - Overflowing Emotions)

You're not a BABY or my HAT

I'm not your MOMMY

Doy you know? Can't you SEE

(white noise)

(Song 2 - Sunny Day)

Sunny day I wank my Wii

I wake up ASS CHEEKS

SO FINE DAY

(white noise)

(Song 1 - Polaroid)

Search in my C*NT

search in my HOUSE

I can't find sauce anywhere I want

(white noise)

(Song 4 - Universal Dance)

I just wanna shake my TITS

YOUR BREASTS ARE FUN BAGS

Caddy: (caption reads ' I apologize. ') I apologize. Song 6, also known as (caption reads 'Roll Along') 'Roll Along', combines everything gameplay-wise it can throw at you, and the song itself is pretty damn catchy to boot. It's the rockiest track of the lot, including a harmonica solo and even a crescendo in the form of a (caption reads 'XYLOPHONE CADENCE ' in red) XYLOPHONE CADENCE. (song slows down naturally, and when the xylophone cadence happens, Caddy slides his hand on a stock image of a xylophone)

Caddy: Also if you haven't been practicing up to this point, you will get a game over, but as far as the game over screens themselves go, they're pretty cool. Some are freaking adorable,

Vibri: Game over! Vibri can't go on... Only joking!

Caddy: ...and some are downright terrifying.

Vibri: Game over! Grrrrrrrggh!!

Caddy: Daaaaaaaaaah!!!

Caddy: The one I really hate though is when Vibri cries. It's- It's too cute, and it's too sad.

Vibri: Game over! Waah! Waah!

Caddy: Oh no! No! Oh, no, Vibri, no, Vibri, it's okay. Please. It's okay, Vibri. Don't cry. Look. Look, here, have- Have a tissue. (throws tissue at TV) So, it would appear that I've beaten the game. (suspenseful music) Or have I? The game didn't seem as innovative as I said earlier, right? Well, this is when you find out that due to this complicated process involving the disk loading something onto the PlayStation 1 RAM, you can actually play any CD in the world that you want in the game, and it will generate its own obstacles and everything to the rhythm and everything of the song. And nope, it's not randomly generated. If you pick the same song of the same CD every single time, it gives you the same course. The possibilities of this game are literally endless.

Caddy: Now, I would show you a few CDs that I experimented with, but because of ##cking copyright laws I can't actually play you any of this stuff, and that I got, (suspenseful music while the screen slowly turns red, with the caption 'DEATH ') so I guess you'll just have to use your imagination because that's, at the end of the day, is the human mind's strongest tool, and it will help you overcome anything, so in that sense, copyright doesn't really bother me that much. I mean, why would it when you think about it-

Caddy: Funny enough, though you'd think that's something a bit on the heavy side would actually give you more difficult results in the game, but surprisingly enough from what I tried personally, the game generally reacts more to the bouncy (caption reads 'And some other genres here! ') tunes of pop music in order to increase your difficulty. Although everyone saw what happened ages ago when I tried playing Jake the Peg, so I guess that goes to show you how unpredictable this game can get. (disgust sounds) Overall, this game. It holds a very special place in my heart, and for an added bonus, you can even take this game's disc, put it into any PC or any CD player, and rip and listen to the whole game soundtrack. Official soundtrack, as well, which is actually a trick you can find in a lot of other PS1 game,s and even for the "use any CD" feature of this game alone, I can't give this game anything other than the salvage. However, I feel as though, times really do have to change. Before I do that, you know every single time I've made a Bonfire Night video it's had nothing to do with Bonfire Night- But no more! No! This- This is gonna change. Okay, I'm going to make this video related to Bonfire Night in some way or another. Did you know what I've done? I ripped my own little track that I made onto a CD, and now I'm going to play it on the game for everybody at home. Happy freaking birthday. Stay beautiful everybody.

Caddy: Alright, okay, I just put up once I just put the CD in. So it should be the last track. I'm pretty sure it is. Okay, it's track 12. I think it is. Anyway, okay, let's give this a go. Ba! (laughs) I think I got everyone there. That was a good one there. Okay, okay, don't worry about it. (clears throat) Okay, let's do this, everyone. Okay. Ominous music! Ominous music, please. We need some ominous music- (ominous music) Ah, there it is. There it is. Okay. Okay. (clears throat)

Remember, remember

the 5th of November

the gunpowder treason that month

I know of no reason

why the gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot

Daaaaaaa! (beatboxing) (laughing)

(caption reads 'I FORGOT TO SALVAGE THE GAME ') (breathes intensively)

(outro)