How Vectorman Pushed The Sega Genesis’ Graphics in 1995 (A Review)
If there’s one thing people will always talk about for the end of time in video games, it will always be the graphics. After all, you wanna look good and have great presentation. No one really wants to play a “bad” looking game right? Rather it it’s the most realistic looking polygons or sprites that take a interesting and different art direction that stands out, graphics will always be a hot topic when it comes to just about any gaming topic when it comes to how good a game is. Graphics are very important and often a selling point for some games to see what a system can do or push the limitations on what is possible in both graphical peak and preference. Graphics was something that makes a game stand out above the rest, this was very apparent in the gaming market in 1995 in an 2D age of bits and sprites.
1995 to some might be gaming’s peak of the 2D era. At this point, The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were at their peak. Developers have now had a few years under their belt to understand and test the limitations of the systems. The mid 90s were a fascinating time for both the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis along with other systems like the 3DO and Atari jaguar, trying to get a piece of the gaming pie. Of course many of these other brands besides Sega and Nintendo were met with mix to negative returns.
In 1994, Nintendo would release their smash hit, Donkey Kong Country. Donkey Kong Country used pre-rendered graphics to give the game a realistic and cool look unlike anything seen before and for the time was a graphical achievement in its own right. Oh and the game itself is pretty good too! The game ended up being a massive success for Nintendo.
I did a review of Donkey Kong Country awhile back, you can read that here.
Of course when there’s success, comes others wanted a piece of that success. In 1995, one of Sega’s attempts to capture the per-rendered crazy was a little game called Vectorman. Vectorman might not have the exact realistic look at say Donkey Kong Country due to the Genesis being not as powerful as the Super Nintendo or having the pre-rendered process that Rare and Nintendo did for Donkey Kong Country, but it has its own cool look to it and I think it’s a game people might have overlooked.
In 1995, Sega was starting to lose momentum in their gaming clash with Nintendo. Nintendo with their mega hit in Donkey Kong Country gave Nintendo a major advantage. Not to mention Sega’s failure of the Sega CD and 32X in the states did not help their cause either. Sega needed to do something or they would get left in the virtual dust. However, there was a conflict of interests between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. Sega Japan wanted to move on from the Genesis and get ready for their next generation system in the Sega Saturn. Segaof America however still saw promise in the Genesis and believing that the system still had some gas left in the tank. In other words, the Genesis needed new and cool looking games and fresh ideas for it to stand out. One of those ideas ended up being Vectorman. This also was a case where Sega NEEDED games like Vectorman to be major hits in 1995 at least until the release of the Saturn was set to hit in the holiday… Or the Saturn gets surprised dropped in the Summer before Vectorman was released later in the fall of 95. Releasing the Saturn months before Vectorman kind of gives the idea that there was not much stock in this game from Sega. It’s a shame because Vectorman is not a bad game at all. However, Vectorman I think is more of a site to see rather than a site to play. Let me explain.
Vectorman is a 2D action platformer, very much to the likes of say Capcom’s Megaman games or Konami’s Contra, when you do platforming along with shooting. You play as Vectorman, our hero that can jump, but also do a double jump with rocket boots, and can shoot energy out of his hand to attack enemies. You go from point A to point B but you are in a very open 2D environment, meaning there’s different branching paths you can take to get to point B. It’s not as simple as a straight line, making Vectorman much more open for exploration and finding hidden areas and power ups.
The story is it’s the year 2049. I wonder if it’s in the same year as Blade Runner 2049? Anyway, Earth has become an inhabitable mess. Humanity has left and have mechanical “Orbots” to clean up the mess. One powerful Orbot who oversees the operation gets involved into a error as attendants connect a nuclear bomb to it. Why did these attendants they think this was a good idea at all? WHO CARES? PLOT! Now we get “WarHead”, who’s goal is to get revenge on humans and making Earth a death trap for when they return, starting with mind contorting other Orbots to start a massive resistance aginst humanity. Some real Terminator stuff going on here. However VectorMan returns from a trip, not affected by the mind control. Being the last hope and all that fun sutff, Vectorman now must stop the evil robot upraise and save the day. Simple enough.
What makes Vectorman I think stand out is how the game looks and feels. Most times with sprites, it’s just one or two parts moving in the sprite. However this is what makes Vectorman different. Vectorman’s body is really not just one, but 23 individual sprites programed in unison, giving Vectorman a really smooth and realistic look. Other bad guys also have multiple sprites that function at once to also give them a cool look and animation. Kind of think of it as lots of little parts moving something in unison rather than one giant part moving. Graphically, Vectorman on the Genesis looks amazing. Everything is animated smoothly, especially Vectorman himself. Each level has it’s own theming and look along with some graphical effects that again, look phenomenal on the Genesis. Also the game runs on 60fps, something that you did not see very often on the Genesis. Vectorman is one of those games that just pictures don’t do the game justice. You have to see it to really appreciate the technical mastery is with this one.
The game itself is pretty good but does get a bit repetitive seeing how the game has a whopping 16 levels to beat. However you can collect multipliers to give your blasts more power. Vectorman in some levels will have to change forms, anything from being a helicopter for combat in the air, or a car like form for massive speed levels. A different form of Vectorman whatever the situation, this adds some variety in the game and is more than just running and gunning.
I will also say the game does get quite hard at times and can be frustrating. Once you fail a level, you can turn down the difficulty with no cost. However the game will give you a “lame” message for doing so. Even in 1995 there was a “get good” mentality in gaming.
One thing I do love about the game is the music. The soundtrack goes for a futuristic techno soundtrack and for the sound chip on the Genesis, sounds fantastic. Personally having some of my most loved music on the Genesis. Here’s a personal fav of mine. Some might not like the techno style soundtrack but personally this is my kind of jam, so I dig it. really matches with the futuristic feel the game is going for.
If you look up box art Vectorman, there was some “play to win” versions of the game. If you can beat the game without cheat codes or going to “lame” mode, the game would give you a screen with a phone number, call the number and you could sign up to win some cool prizes. To do this, you had to send that copy of the game and get a normal copy in return. Likely to prove you did it and so you’re not sharing the cart/prize with others. It was nothing more than a a marketing strategy to get people to buy the game as if the game’s graphics were not enough of a selling point. I swear Sega had no hope for this to be good. The “play to win” thing is something to at least bring up and is quite amusing.
Vectorman would sell a half million units so it was not exactly a bust, but not really the major hit Sega was hoping for. Not to mention that year Donkey Kong Country 2 would come out only a month later and blew Vectorman out of the water, getting nearly double the sales that year. It was good, just not Donkey Kong Country good. Hell of an effort but, just not enough to take down the big ape.
In the end Vectorman game play wise is not the greatest, the game can get repetitive and quite frustrating at times. It’s not the funnest game on the Genesis personally but the look and feel of the game still stands out today and is quite impressive that the Genesis can pull off a game that looks this good and animates this smoothly. I would not call it a massive hit, but it’s still a good little hidden gem to find. Vectorman would get an awesome sequel in Vectorman 2 also for the Genesis, around the end of the Genesis’ lifespan. There were plans for Vectorman 3, likely would have been released around the time of the Dreamcast, but was scraped, likely due to the lack of sales of the Dreamcast, causing Sega to get out of the hardware market and stick with software.
If you love Genesis games, Vectorman is no doubt one worth checking out, but know that it’s a case where I don’t love the game, but I appreciate it in a technical achievement that it is. It looked cool and different, and for a 1995 on a system that some put in their rear view mirror, VectorMan is quite an impressive looking game.
