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Vectorman
Text Review
Near the end of the Genesis’ run, Sega made every attempt to extend the console’s lifespan. The obvious examples of this are the Sega CD and 32X, ill fated add-ons that attempted to turn the humble Genesis into a poor man’s 32-bit console. It’s almost painfully clear that these attempts didn’t work. At the same time, Nintendo was keeping the SNES alive by releasing innovative games instead of add-ons. One of those games was Donkey Kong Country, a game with sprites rendered in 3D on an SGI workstation that looked as good as anything the 32-bit generation was producing at the time. Vectorman seemingly represents Sega’s attempt to use this tactic.
Much like Donkey Kong Country, Vectorman uses pre-rendered graphics to give the illusion of greater graphical processing power. For the most part this works. The animations are smooth and fluid, and the characters and backgrounds are comparable to early PlayStation and Saturn games. The main character, Vectorman, is comprised of spheres and looks unlike anything traditional sprite animation was yielding at the time.
The premise of Vectorman is that in the far future robots have been sent back to Earth in order to clean up the mess that humans have made of it. While Vectorman is away on a routine job dumping toxic waste into the sun, the high level robot in charge of the operation, Raster, is accidentally connected to a live nuclear missile thus driving him insane and transforming him into the evil robot Warhead. Returning to Earth unaffected by these events, it’s up to Vectorman to stop him.
Despite its unique look, Vectorman is largely a stock run–and-gun platformer. You move from the left to the right shooting enemies with blasts of energy from your hands. During this journey you’ll encounter televisions that serve both as checkpoints and as containers for power-ups that modify Vectorman’s projectiles, or give him limited access to special abilities. Interstitial levels have Vectorman transform into special forms to battle bosses.
Although graphically impressive, Vectorman is at its core a fairly average game. Unless you are a fan of fluid animation or pre-rendered sprites, there’s little reason to go seek this game out on its own although if you find it in one of the numerous Sega collections, it is worth playing at least once.
- Brian Easton
Developer: BlueSky Software
Publisher: Sega
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Sega Genesis, Xbox 360
Much like Donkey Kong Country, Vectorman uses pre-rendered graphics to give the illusion of greater graphical processing power. For the most part this works. The animations are smooth and fluid, and the characters and backgrounds are comparable to early PlayStation and Saturn games. The main character, Vectorman, is comprised of spheres and looks unlike anything traditional sprite animation was yielding at the time.
The premise of Vectorman is that in the far future robots have been sent back to Earth in order to clean up the mess that humans have made of it. While Vectorman is away on a routine job dumping toxic waste into the sun, the high level robot in charge of the operation, Raster, is accidentally connected to a live nuclear missile thus driving him insane and transforming him into the evil robot Warhead. Returning to Earth unaffected by these events, it’s up to Vectorman to stop him.
Despite its unique look, Vectorman is largely a stock run–and-gun platformer. You move from the left to the right shooting enemies with blasts of energy from your hands. During this journey you’ll encounter televisions that serve both as checkpoints and as containers for power-ups that modify Vectorman’s projectiles, or give him limited access to special abilities. Interstitial levels have Vectorman transform into special forms to battle bosses.
Although graphically impressive, Vectorman is at its core a fairly average game. Unless you are a fan of fluid animation or pre-rendered sprites, there’s little reason to go seek this game out on its own although if you find it in one of the numerous Sega collections, it is worth playing at least once.
- Brian Easton
Developer: BlueSky Software
Publisher: Sega
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Sega Genesis, Xbox 360
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