Yusuke Takamura - Ribbit King (2003)

 

Composer: Yusuke Takahama
Console: PS2, GCN
Game Release Date: 2003-07-11
Bootleg Release Date: 2014-07-03 
Ripper: SplendidLand
Runtime: 1:28:17, 29 Tracks

If you're wondering why there was no post this past Monday it is because I just didn't feel like writing one. But, I feel like writing some now. I have so many favourite games on the PS2 that the statement "this is one of my favourite PS2 games" doesn't hold much weight. That aside this is still an excellent game and one of my favourite PS2 games. It is also one of the only 'sports' games I care for. I remember years ago I was trying to find this games soundtrack and didn't have the technical knowledge or drive to rip it. Fortunately, SplendidLand came through and came with surprises. 

Ribbit King is a PS2/GCN game developed by Jamsworks and published by Bandai. The game is a sequel to the obscure PSX game, Kero King. Ribbit King picks up where the last game left off on the planet Ribbetopia. I don't know if Kero Kero King has a story or not however Ribbit King does. You play as Scooter, an inhabitant of Ribbetopia who at the request of the Ribbetopia King must enter the frolf tournament and win the 'super ribbinite', a fuel source that powers Ribbetopia.

 
At its core the game is just an avant-garde form of golf. Instead of a ball you have a catapult with a frog on it. Depending on where you aim you can get extra points but hitting floating bubbles, terrain hazards, snakes that will try to kill your frog, whirlpool teleporters, actual shit and more. Each of the planets (courses) offers so much unique design and gimmicks that there is tons of replayability. 
I played it a lot when I was younger but was never able to get past the second fight with Pan-Pan on Hypnotron. I remember trying and trying to get past it and eventually gave up. It wouldn't be until years later when I did a re-run of the game in 2016 and finally got past it. I played it on Dolphin instead of PCSX2 (due to the state of PS2 emulation at the time) but as far as I am aware there are no major differences between the games. That run also has some strange things happen in it that made it even better.

In one instance I was able to destroy the AI on the ice planet without even getting the goal. I beat them on points alone, at one point being a thousand ahead. In another instance when I was playing multiplayer with some friends, they managed to Radical Larry the frog through a wall in Lavatron and ending up winning the match. Still no idea how that even worked. 
While I nearly died laughing as that happened that's not even the craziest thing that happened. The first final boss is tough, getting circa 500 points within the first move. 
The AI has mastery of outer space and is able to generate combos upon combos to rack up points. I did several matches against him, all losing quickly. Then I had an idea and apparently it's not something that occurred to the creators. I noticed that every round 1 he would do the exact same moves. He would even jerk to the exact position he needs to take to get the combos. The thing is, during all of the story matches Scooter goes first. So I decided, why don't I just do the move he does? And then I did. I ended up getting tons of points and screwing over his combo. Maybe it was because I copied his moves, but it screwed up the AI somehow. On the 2nd round, in the hypnotron level with the cubes the boss choked. He choked hard. He got the frog stuck at some cubes and the AI could not figure out how to get it out the cubes. I think it was only programmed to go for the well and as such it couldn't figure out it needed to go back and up a cube to get to it. It was the only instance I have ever seen of the enemy failing to get to the well. It was insane and after that he didn't recover, and I ended up beating the game. There is still another boss and true ending I have to do but I decided I was satisfied enough. I'll do another run when I feel like it. 

The game got good reviews, but we never got another one. I'm not sure if we do need another Ribbit King but it would be cool to see it re-released or remastered so the young generations could try it out. 
The games music was composed by Yusuke Takahama who is by far best known for his contributions on the Smash Bros series soundtracks. He got his start in the late 80s with music for the NES Bad Dudes game and from there went on to compose for a bunch of other games, both obscure (Meremanoid) and popular (Sonic Colours). 

The music is all sequencer & MIDI music with his own spin. I would call it very cartoony sounding and rambunctious. Depending on the setting some of the music is much more ambient and calmer. Takahuma really went above and beyond with his work on this. 

The rip was done by SplendidLand who ripped and put it all on YouTube. Below is a mirror link of my copy (with an alternate cover and tagged properly) but I will still link SplendidLand's playlist too. There is a DL link there as well. While ripping he also came upon some unused tracks in the games files. Those are available in both downloads too. 

YouTube Stream + Download: https://splendidland.tumblr.com/post/45416355172/i-ripped-the-ribbit-king-soundtrack-and-uploaded
Download Mirror: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvM1JvV3hMQUwjMDRJRjg1SUMxWmw4ZHVjc1llLWlfaW5XZHZkNGh0LU4yZEp1bVdXdG13aw==
p@ss: kerokero