Vectorman

Pros • simple smooth control • ground breaking 3Dified graphics on the Genny • amazing backgrounds • cool world to play in	Cons • Audio limitations of the Genesis are in evidence
Bottom Line Wow!!! What an incredible game! I caught a little of this action down at last May's E3 show but I was just not ready for this. Vectorman has got to be one of the slickest platform games ever released, for any system. Vectorman is one smooth dude. He may be a Sludge Barge Pilot but he knows how to handle himself. Taking over the reins of running him through his adventure is an unmitigated blast. I found myself enjoying the whole venture quite a bit more when I took the game and went mobile on the Nomad. I couldn't make out all of the detail but having a title this good on your own private little screen is some kind of ludicrous indulgence. When I returned the cartridge to its motherbase Genesis home and progressed through the various stages on the big screen once again, I was aghast by how much I couldn't appreciate on the smaller window of the Nomad. That's not a slight on the portable but rather another pat on the back for Sega and Blue Sky. Vectorman is terrific fun that quickly charms you into believing you can stand to play another 16 bit platform shooter all the way to the end. I'm sincerely hoping that we see plenty more Vectorman titles, as long as they are as good or better than this one, in the future.

Wow!!! What an incredible game! I caught a little of this action down at last May's E3 show but I was just not ready for this. Vectorman has got to be one of the slickest platform games ever released, for any system. I found there was so much activity going on at the same time, my mind started buzzing. It's a difficult number, this Vectorman. Blue Sky Software has outdone themselves once again. They are continually showing the development community how to take the Genesis' limitations and turn them on their ear. Vectorman will probably end up being one of the finest games available for the Genny, with all the serious 16 bit Sega gamers out there definitely having a copy of this sucker in their collection. Even if you didn't win the 25 Gs, Vectorman is still more than worthy of giving over a few hours of your life to. And, if you're one of those lucky enough to have obtained a Nomad system for Christmas, playing Vectorman on the mighty-mite machine will mean only one thing - a surgical separation to get you to stop playing.

As you might already be aware, the graphics in Vectorman are ground breaking. Every moving element in the game is composed of three dimensional spheres. This allows for some serious 3D rotational madness. Enemy creatures recoil and thrash out with the composition of hand drawn roto-scoped animation. Turret guns and smaller enemies have been granted greater flexibility of movement than has ever been achieved on secondary antagonistic objects. This game is deadly. Backgrounds will knock you off of your feet. In the arctic level there's some seriously beautiful snowfall happening. Storm clouds erupt with violent flashes of lightning in later levels. In fact, awestruck observers of the on screen mayhem could not discern if this game was being run off Genesis or Saturn - it is that impressive visually.

Sound wise we run into familiar Genesis audio handicap territory. Those audio processors were just not designed to handle the cacophony busting to get out of this diversion. On the Nomad, with a solid pair of headphones the music and sound effects come alive. On the big screen, even through solid stereo equipment, you'll have to prepare yourself for the familiar "more-scratches-than-shaving-with-a-rusty-razor" sound of the Genesis. Still, Vectorman is constantly chirping up commentary as he delicately blasts his way through wave after wave of the automated mechanical maelstrom. Gun sounds are rich and diverse, corresponding to the various weapons that are carelessly left behind for pickup. And if anyone is starting to get a little queasy worrying about this; there is a lot of stuff to blow up and it blows up good!

The standout feature of the game is the easy-as-pie control. Obviously, there is a lot of "run, jump and blast" type games in competition for your gaming pennies out there but somehow, as derivative and unoriginal as these games ultimately turn out to be (almost every game gets boring after a while, let's face it), Vectorman rises above the dreaded platform game monotony. Buttons 'A', 'B' and 'C' are all you need. You're going to get Vectorman from here-to-there and you're going to be destroying everything that gets in your way, it's as simple as that. He gets an extra boost at every jump (help from the jets embedded in his feet). His assortment of different morphing abilities adds considerable flavour to this otherwise fairly straight forward scroller. And doggone it, we like him.

Vectorman is one smooth dude. He may be a Sludge Barge Pilot but he knows how to handle himself. Taking over the reins of running him through his adventure is an unmitigated blast. I found myself enjoying the whole venture quite a bit more when I took the game and went mobile on the Nomad. I couldn't make out all of the detail but having a title this good on your own private little screen is some kind of ludicrous indulgence. When I returned the cartridge to its motherbase Genesis home and progressed through the various stages on the big screen once again, I was aghast by how much I couldn't appreciate on the smaller window of the Nomad. That's not a slight on the portable but rather another pat on the back for Sega and Blue Sky. Vectorman is terrific fun that quickly charms you into believing you can stand to play another 16 bit platform shooter all the way to the end. I'm sincerely hoping that we see plenty more Vectorman titles, as long as they are as good or better than this one, in the future.

Info & Screenshots