Vectorman

 The end of a console's life cycle was always a weird and interesting time. People talk all the time about how much innovation there is at the start of a new generation, but they rarely talk about how much innovation occurs at the end of one.

Sometimes you are better off sticking with the best of what old technology can provide rather than the worst of what new technology offers. I think that's something that goes beyond just gaming and extends to most different kinds of media, or even hardware, but that's a different discussion for a different day. A lot of underrated, forgotten (and expensive) games come late in life cycles, most gamers just move on to the next generation without a second thought. By the end of 1995, everyone wanted to play with the shiny new toys, the PlayStation and the Saturn. Those games had some interesting and outstanding early titles, but the 4th generation consoles weren't ready to go quietly. There were a lot of notable titles that came out for the SNES and Genesis in their twilight years, many of which pushed the aging consoles to their absolute limit. One of the most notable of those titles was Vectorman.

At a time where most of Sega's marketing was focused on the Saturn, Vectorman was seemingly everywhere. This was one of the most pushed games of late 1995, as much or more so than anything for the brand-new 5th gen consoles. It was intended to go head-to-head with Donkey Kong Country 2 during the holidays, the first DKC was something Sega felt they could never really duplicate despite plenty of time and effort. With the Saturn launch something of a disappointment in the U.S., Sega of America wanted to put even more focus on their already large Genesis user base. Sega of Japan had other ideas and because of this, Vectorman was one of the rare titles that was released in the west and not Japan. It's biggest selling point was something called Vector Piece Animation (hence the name of the character), basically Vectorman's body is composed of a bunch of separate sprites programmed to move in unison rather than just a singular large sprite. It's interesting, but in 1995 no one really cared about that stuff. Vectorman apparently moves at 60 FPS, but in those days, that would have been a foreign concept to all but the most hardcore AV nut. None of that was really important to the average Genesis owner, they wanted a good game and not a tech demo. While I don't think Vectorman is great, it definitely qualifies as good.

While it may have been an impressive technical achievement, Vectorman doesn't really offer anything new as a gaming experience. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly good experience. It just doesn't do anything different from a gameplay perspective. You move from left to right, shooting enemies, collecting powerups and searching for secrets. Each level ends with a boss, which provides a pretty good challenge here. Some levels are on-rails shooting sections, I was not a fan of these but that was more of a personal thing. Again, these aren't particularly new or exciting, but they are technically impressive. They are especially impressive for the Genesis, they kind of resemble mode 7 sections from SNES games. For all of the fancy graphics and vector animation, the gameplay is about as simple as you can get. It's actually kind of nice, there are no super skills or special moves or gimmicks, just you and the controller. All you can do is jump and shoot, there are a few powerups like rapid fire and and bombs, but these aren't common and don't last long. There is some challenge from platforming, but most of the difficulty comes from the enemies. The enemy placement is pretty good, it's fair for the most part. There are a few instances where the level layout makes them problematic. Stages are laid out in a semi-linear manner; you have to get from point A to point B, but you have several options for getting there. As such, there are times where you will end up making blind leaps into enemies, which is a problem. But the design and layout are solid for the most part.

I think the biggest issue here is that it's hard to react when enemies suddenly pop up on screen. Vectorman walks pretty fast, so a lot of time you will just be walking forward and run straight into a projectile there was no way you are going to be able to avoid. Vectorman can take multiple hits and life pickups are pretty common, but this is still pretty frustrating. Flying enemies also come at you pretty fast, though you usually have ample time to react to that. The animation is surprisingly smooth, usually games that try new stuff like this are rough around the edges, but Vectorman actually got it right the first time. Honestly, a lot of the issues are just good, old-fashioned typical gaming problems and not results of the then-experimental animation. There are the issues with blind jumps, occasional problems with hit detection and some big time "Nintendo hard" aspects (is it still Nintendo hard on a Sega console?). You get three hits per life, with three lives. Lose them all and it's back to the beginning of the game. This isn't a short game, there are 16 levels which is long for a 4th gen sidescroller, so its a major, major problem. Extra lives aren't exactly rare, but they aren't plentiful either and with the propensity to walk into projectiles you are going to lose lives quickly. I will fully admit that I wasn't able to complete this game and it isn't that the levels are necessarily that hard, but there is just so little room for error. The bosses require that you learn and memorize their pattern, but you only get three or four chances at them before you get kicked back to the start. If you are on level 10 or 11 and you die, you are looking at 30 plus minutes to even get a chance at that boss again, and that's if you can even get back there.

I think the presentation is solid overall. There is a story here, told through still cutscenes, something about the Earth being filled with pollution and an evil robot named Warhead lording over humanity. It's up to Vectorman to clean up the planet and stop him. It's not much, but it's more than you would see in a game like this from the era. It's basically the plot of Wall-E, but for adults. The graphics are excellent, the animation is smooth and the enemies are appropriate for the environment. The music is pretty solid, it was composed by John Holland and it perfectly fits with the environment. These electronic, more metallic soundtracks always fit better on the Genesis and Vectorman does as good a job with it. It looks nice, it sounds nice, it plays nice, I really can't complain about anything here.

Really, I don't have all that much to say about Vectorman as a whole. It's a good, solid 2D platformer from the mid 90s, nothing more, nothing less. It has what was, at the time, revolutionary graphics and presentation with gameplay that was almost too old-school for its own good. I liked it, but I can see how a lot of people might not. The game was hyped a lot at the time, which makes sense when you look at it now. They wouldn't admit it, but Sega was probably less interested in Vector animation and new techniques on old consoles and more in targeting as many people as they could. The heavy hype was probably less a strong belief in Vectorman and more concern about the issues with the Saturn launch. That being said, Vectorman was still an incredibly solid game and a serious challenge for old school gamers. I didn't like it as much as some people do, but it was definitely a solid game that was a both a throwback to titles that came before it and a precursor to those that would come after. Vectorman wasn't a must play, but it's good fun and a great alternative for gamers looking for a real challenge.

7.25/10