NanaOn-Sha followed their PaRappa the Rapper success with Vib-Ribbon. After design issues surfaced with the car and the ad plan was dropped, development continued as a stand-alone game. The game was initially commissioned as an advertisement for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class car. Reluctance to associate the game with any one music genre was a big part of why the game's visuals are so color-neutral and simple. Working with the band, Matsuura wanted a soundtrack that would encourage players to use their own music CDs. The soundtrack, according to Masaya Matsuura, was provided by a band called Laugh and Peace, with vocals by Yoko Fujita. Additionally, players can generate levels using songs from music CDs, with difficulty varying depending on the intensity of the music. The base game features six songs performed by an unaccredited Japanese singer which are divided up into bronze, silver, and gold courses containing two songs each. Earning a high score will cause Vibri to sing a congratulatory song based on their position. The player's score is tallied via symbols during gameplay, which is then converted into points at the end of the run, during which bonus points may also be rewarded. Successful actions will help Vibri recover back to her higher forms, and clearing enough obstacles in succession while in the rabbit form will evolve Vibri into Queen Vibri, increasing the player's score until Vibri is hit. Getting hit too many times while in worm form will end the game. Getting hit by obstacles too many times will degenerate Vibri from a rabbit into a frog, followed by a worm. Not pushing a button at the right time turns Vibri into a scribbled version of herself temporarily. Sometimes two obstacles will be merged, requiring the player to press two buttons at the same time (for example, a block and pit combination will require players to press L and Down together).

There are four basic obstacles block, loop, wave, and pit, which require players to press the L, R, X, or Down buttons respectively at the right time to navigate. Vib Ribbon is a rhythm game in which players guide the main character, Vibri, across a line filled with obstacles tied in correspondence to the beat of the song. The graphics for Vib-Ribbon are simple, consisting of straight, white vector lines forming crude, angular drawings of the level and the player character, named Vibri. The game was unique in that the software loaded into RAM, letting the player use any music CD to play against the game could generate a unique level from any track. Although the original PlayStation version was never released in North America, the game was re-released on PlayStation Network in North America in 2014. It was released for the PlayStation in Japan on December 12, 1999, and in Europe on September 1, 2000. Vib-Ribbon is a rhythm video game developed by NanaOn-Sha and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

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