Sony Computer Entertainment released the first details on Masaya Matsuura's Vib-Ripple this week, in the pages of Dengeki PlayStation, but this is one of those games we're going to have to see to understand. And perhaps not even understand after we see it.

As the title suggests, this is a PlayStation 2 sequel to Matsuura's PlayStation game Vib-Ribbon, featuring the return of that game's stick-figure hero Vibri. That game's medium was music, however -- Vib-Ripple builds its simple levels out of pictures, both shots from the game's stock selection and images uploaded by the player.

The game lets you upload images from a digital camera via the PS2's USB port. Japanese shutterbugs can also e-mail photographs snapped with their cellular phones and download them into the game with a Network Adaptor-equipped PS2. The goal in each level is to search out tiny characters -- "Peta Chara" is the proper term, a Japanese colloquialism for small, cute cartoon characters -- hidden in each level.

It sounds very simple, but Matsuura's games are always like that at first. We expect to get a better handle on the game at next month's Game Developers Conference, when Matsuura is likely to demonstrate it for an American audience. Look forward to that, and to the finished product's Japanese release this summer.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in 1UP.