Vib Ribbon re-release confirmed on PS3 and Vita

The return of Vib Ribbon has now been officially confirmed.

Sony filed a trademark for the retro title earlier this month and has now revealed that the cult PSOne rhythm action game will be re-released digitally on PS3 and Vita next week at a price attractive to both Vibri virgins and the rare few amongst you who found a way to experience the Singing Spline back in the day”.

It will be the first time the game has ever been released in North America. Sony also says that it is working on a way to port the game to PS4, too.

The PS3 version will retain the original’s ability for users to insert their own music CDs and create custom levels from the music, too.

Marketing at the time was not a believer in this quirky game,” SCEA CEO Shawn Layden said of its original release back in 2000. What they did not understand was that Vib Ribbon, with all its retro madness, was also part of the new game continuum and, in fact, a very radical offshoot of that, which was worthy of praise. I could not get this into the hands of European gamers without having marketing support for the release.

Luckily, we eventually got the greenlight to release Vib Ribbon in Europe. Sure, it didn’t go platinum and it didn’t make a ton of money. But it did show, again, that PlayStation is the place where everything innovative, challenging, new and somewhat off-course can come to find a fan, a market, and a home.

The game released in Japan and Europe, but in the Americas not so much as a demo. Vib Ribbon is the ‘one that got away’ and back then, when we still had that old-school thinking around regional lockout, there was no simple way for those outside of Europe and Japan to even encounter the game. It faded, lost to the chronicles of gaming history.”