New Vib Ribbon game goes online

Game publishers currently seem to be in the habit of re-announcing games in order to bring them to our attention again, so although we first heard about a sequel to the wonderful Vib Ribbon way back in the mists of time when the PS2 network adapter was but a twinkle in Ken Kutaragi's eye, the company has dutifully announced the title for a second time this week - with, thankfully, a little more information this time.

In case you're not aware of Vib Ribbon, it was a particularly insane piece of software which appeared late in the lifespan of the PSone and consisted entirely of 2D, line-based vector graphics. Your task was to guide your wireframe character down a narrow ribbon by tapping the right buttons on the pad when obstacles appeared, all in time with some rather trippy music.

If this kind of rhythm action sounds familiar, then you might not be surprised that the man whose drug-fuelled fantasy this was is Masaya Matsuura, also responsible for Parappa the Rapper and Um Jammer Lammy.

Now Matsuura-san is working on a sequel, called Mojib Ribbon (probably Vib Ribbon II if we Europeans are lucky enough to get our grubby hands on it), which will utilise the PS2 network adapter and hard drive for online gameplay. What this will consist of we're not sure - direct head to head gameplay is certainly possible, but with the hard drive, there's also a chance that you could be allowed to swap your own custom tunes for the game with your friends.

The game is due for release this Autumn in Japan. No details of US or European launches have been confirmed. Here's hoping, though.