Vectorman 2 - Sega Genesis Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ย. 2024
- The second and last of a potentially great franchise.
I'm now on Patreon! Help support the channel.
/ segalordx
Check out my Sega Lord X merchandise page!
segalordx.thre...
If you would like to support the channel directly:
www.paypal.me/...
Head over to Facebook to hear me ramble about various things:
/ segalordx
I'm now on Twitter!
/ sega_lord_x
Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
TH-cam Page - / jan3d
Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tses...
Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
TH-cam Page - / nigh11
Episode Notes:
1. Combination of Mega SG and real hardware capture.
2. Former Bluesky employees formed a company called VBlank and proposed a Dreamcast version of Vectorman. Sega rejected it as a franchise not worth pursuing.
3. I mentioned backgrounds looking faster than 60fps. It's the lava stages. The water from the first game looked this way, as well.
4. Vectorman 2 was reissued by Majesco when the Genesis 3 was released. That version was published by Ballistic.
5. Vectorman 2 is available today on numerous platforms, compilations, and mini consoles. It's pretty easy to find and play.
Thanks for the good review! We did have much less time to work on this one and a chunk of the original team had been moved onto next-gen titles. I was proud of what we accomplished in a short amount of time with fewer people. The Saturn version would have been awesome, but Sega of American was putting more effort into the 32X at that point, so our resources were moved on to Spiderman Web of Fire. Some of us from the original team formed a new company called VBlank (not the Retro Rampage one) and prototyped our own PS2 Vectorman, but Sega wasn't going to be a reliable partner, so it didn't go anywhere.
THANK YOU for such a great game !!!
I had always wondered what happened to PS2 Vectorman. I remember seeing a screenshot in an old Game Informer magazine when I was a kid and wondering why that particular Vectorman game never happened.
Excellent
The lighting is brilliant (for it's time)
Such a shame that Sega of America and Sega Japan couldn't work together.
We should have a Dreamcast 5 right now.
Thanks for the cool review! It's nice to be able to see this game again. I did environments and splash screens for Vectorman 1 yet was on another in house project for V2. George then had me do the environment art on the Lava level on V2 as a side gig that I would work on at home during nights and weekends. I'm not sure if I did anything else on that game. I had so much fun working with all the great people at BlueSky!
You did a great job. The lava levels were my favorite looking levels in the game. I always felt they should have been the opening stages.
I really liked the opening swamp/tree levels as well. Just felt they were a better fit for later in the game.
I wish Dinos for Hire would make it onto a Sega compilation. That game was run and gun without a savage difficultly curve
I gotta say that the lighting effects in this one are pretty impressive. Vectormans shading is particularly cool.
Hmm, I'll have to go and rent this at my local Blockbuster and give it a try on the Genesis I just bought brand new at K-mart for $189.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if this was true. We need a Time Machine
By the time vector man 2 came out the
Genesis was $99
@@convilcali 😆
@@convilcalihe got ripped off
@@convilcali lol sperg
I remember discovering this on sega channel. They only had a 30 min demo at the time and I would play it over and over. Then I remember once they released the whole game I woke up one morning before school at like 4am and played the full game almost all the way through before school. Fun memories.
These games were just cool for some reason, something about vectorman made me want to draw him and his powers back then. always fun good time.
Vectorman 1 and 2 are underrated Sega Genesis games
Vector man was one of my favorites. The gameplay was awesome even for todays standards. One of sega's best genesis games for sure. It's still one of my go to games when I play my genesis, I still love it today.
I don't comment much Sega Lord but I really, really enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work and thank you for keeping a special part of my childhood alive.
I loved the first Vectorman when I was 8 or 9 years old! For some reason I have forgotten about it I don't think I have played it since.
With all the metroidvania games being made these days, I think Vectorman should get another chance.
I would love to see Vectorman re-imagined as a Metroidvania.
Ecco as well!
@@Alianger I could see Ecco the Dolphin work kinda like Stray (the cat game), something like that.
People always say how much SEGA shouldn't have dropped all these old IPs but when they do release stuff like SEGA Rally they won't even buy.
Yeah I think it's not enough to just conjure a revival of one or two old IPs and cast them into the unloving uncaring general ether. They have to create a climate for that. They have to make an easily accessable and identifiable entertainment hub or "restaurant" if you will, that's all about sega that players can plug into. This was way easier when they had an actual game console to market their products on. Throwing it on steam and hoping the randos there will care is not enough.
I bought Sega Rally Arcade Online in 2011. I'm glad I did because it's since been delisted from digital stores. I've bought nearly every game Sega has ever released on PSN. It'll be interesting to see how Sega's upcoming Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi and Shinobi revival games will be received. People probably have expectations of them living up to the standards of those old games, so it could go either way.
@@Marcus_K the golden axe revival was a disaster last time 😆 that's my main issue with Sega they're very hit and miss with quality
I remember when i discovered vectorman on one of those plug and play genesises, then on the sonic mega collection. Lots of people say its a stale game but i love it. Its like having samus or megaman in a regular platformer. The visuals are great too.
I absolutely love the first Vectorman, I own both games but I never completed the second one..... It is on my list though. Great video as always!
the difficulty curve on this and the first always got me...
Personally i loved it because of that.
*Cough Cheat Codes cough*
The early vertical tree climbing level was just *way* too difficult near the start of the game.
It's the dumbest level in the whole game, imo. It's not so much hard, as it takes foreeeeeevveerrrrr...... That said, I used to purposely get hit by those paint bugs, to change Vectromans color
Love this stage. Should have definitely been one of the later stages, though. Newcomers definitely need to get themselves the shield power up every chance they can.
The atmosphere on the early levels is the only good part of the game but they dont play very well
I'm stuck on this level now.
Same, the first game made such a strong first impression with Terraform and it's music and visuals that starting in a almost pitch black forest with subdued music didn't have the same punch. Also its such a slog getting anywhere I didn't get much further than the first or second levels.
Multi-segemeted characters and bosses always remind me of my childhood. Always wondered why they did that and didn't make the large characters out of one sprite. Turns out there's a limit to how big an animated sprite can be on the 16 bit systems. It's fascinating to me to learn about all the tricks programmers used to get around the limitations of the hardware they were working on. Today's games are way more complex but the creators don't have the same limits as the older programers do. There's so many clever tricks they invented. I wish they'd have gotten more more recognition back then.
And the creativity that was born from circumventing these limitations made so many games sooooo much better than what we oftentimes have to endure nowadays.
There might be still some modern and creative gems here and there even in this day and age, but they have become sooooo much more rare.
Trying to work and be inventive with the technical abilities and limitation of the era is probably why so many 90's games standout as being so creative and unique.
Very happy to see this covered, the first game was a staple of our gaming rotation when it came out but the second got immediately lost in the buzz around the next gen console wars. I think my only memories of it were half page reviews from various gaming magazines giving me a nice reminder the 16 bit generation was still around despite all eyes on the future.
There is something about this channel to where no matter how bad my day was it always puts me in a good mood.
As someone who wasn't as much of a fan of the Mega Drive's FM synth sound, and especially most games that used the GEMS driver, I thought some of that music actually wasn't that bad.
Nothing says early 90s like robots with rocket powered rollerblades
with prerendered graphics
I love this game so much
Me too😃❤️
Vectorman with the Vanquish engine would have been sick.
That tornado is genius
Seriously, why was SEGA so hellbent on killing all of it's golden children (except Sonic) after Genesis era ended? So much potential just thrown into waste for no reason whatsoever. No wonder Nintendo won the "war" at the end.
Sega was in a panic in the late 90's. The Genesis was getting too old and the Saturn was largely a failure. By the time they got the Dreamcast out they were basically doing everything they could to reinvent the brand and keep their status as a platform maker alive.
Sega made Way to many mistakes with the 32x being one of them
@@jahdorose8659 32X was basically the death of Sega of America.
I'm not sure vector man was the golden child you think it was
@@jjay350 yeah unfortunately even the Sega CD and PlayStation mostly killed the Saturn PS had better games
My only experience with this game was being an unlockable in Sonic Gems collection. Was so jealous that the international version of Sonic games collection had the streets of rage trilogy also included in the package 😩
cant fathom the awfulness of those days md bad emulation...sound wise particularly
I enjoy Vectorman but man, to me is the epitome of how annoying it is that so many Genesis games that are longer than 45 minutes don't have continues at all, by 1995 and 1996 nearly every game on the Super Nintendo had a batttery save, passwords, unlimited continues, or at least a decent number of continues, so why did still so many fairly challenging Gensis games needed to come out with nothing just makes no sense to me, and Vectorman is the worst in that sense since your sprite is so large that is easy to die to anything and have to re start the entire game again every 10 minutes or so.
play it on the damn md mini 2 with save states xD
Yeah at the time I didn't envy other systems because of graphics and sound, I envied them because they had a save feature! Many SNES major titles had it (Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda) while I was supposed to be a gaming wizard to even see what later stages looked like in most Genesis games. I simply didn't have the skills or resilience to play the whole game in one sitting at the time.
Imagine having a music CD but you can't skip any song...
Exactly!
@@marcusaureliusflike Sonic 3, Story of Thor, Soleil and others but usually very long games, for the rest there are passwords that are very useful. Anyway good players enjoy a short and hard arcade game.
Because they want you to GIT GUD scrub!
This should've been a Sega Saturn release in my opinion!
Good call putting up that flash warning wow.
wow you were not joking when you mentioned the flashing images... was it like this on the CRT monitors?
No kidding! What were they thinking? I am not epileptic but watching this footage did make me a bit sicker every time the "fireworks" went out. Kids with epilepsy would've been writhing on the floor with foam in their mouths! LOL
Vectorman 2 kick ass. 😀👍🎮
I always enjoyed slow down in 2D games! It always put I in the mind of slow motion scenes in action movies!
Vectorman with a bit more care could have been Sega’s Metroid.
Hell no. Let's not ruin Vectorman.
Not a fan of Metroid. A giant maze that every room looks the same isn’t fun to me
I kind of hated vectorman mini games. I liked a few on the first and we were on the PS1 by the time vectorman 2 came out.
I remember this one being advertised back in the day in real time. As far as the music goes i really like the swamp level music. Suits it perfectly. The darkness of the level was well suited with the flashing light of the gun firing against background objects.
I consider Vectorman 2 a bit of a "last hurrah" for the Sega Genesis... and Blue Sky Software, because you can tell right away that they wanted to do a lot more with Vectorman than in the first game. After renting and eventually owning Vectorman 2 many decades ago, the thing that always sticks with me is how much Vectorman talks in the game. His voice also changed to a lower register when compared to the first game.
Loved this one. Played the original plenty of times, but I got much more into 2 for whatever reason. I just really enjoyed how these games felt to play.
I love Vectorman. I got to play the sequel on the Genesis Mini 2 for the first time.
So here are my positives with Vectorman 2
-change of scenery to the bug planet
-lighting
-vectorman has a voice
-excellent frantic techno soundtrack (reclamation …last boss…must chances)
-vectorman changes color
-that mini cutscene in the beginning lol
I thought that cutscene was awesome seeing it on the Genesis back in the day of this game.
Was really too late but I appreciate the effort made to release a MD game for holiday season 1996/1997.
To me Vectorman has always stood out as a late Genesis thing. As a kid who only had a Genesis with Sega Channel back in the mid-90's it was very cool and they stood out as feeling like more modern games for the time. I think that's also got a lot to do with why it was probably rushed for the holiday season of 96, that was truly getting into the final years of the Genesis being an active and supported platform. Feels like it wasn't long until they shut down Sega Channel and I got a PS1 as my next console. 97 and 98 were rough years for Sega, the Saturn was basically a failure and it was before they got the Dreamcast out.
lol@ Sega Channel. What were your overall thoughts on it?
@@BUPMY1 I loved it, it was basically video game streaming way back before streaming was even a thing. It was a cartridge you would plug into a Genesis that would attach to a cable antenna. I think it would work by having some memory for a game download, and simply delete that every time you returned to the main menu. There would always be a monthly selection of games, with a lot of consistent titles, almost like Gamepass.
Honestly that really shaped my taste and appreciation for video games. In an era where most kids only had a couple of games and needed to rent one from a video rental store, I could just access a wide variety of games whenever I liked from a list a games that would update over time. It was a real bummer when it shut down, that was basically when I went out to Funcoland to buy some used games and asked my parents to buy me a Playstation for my birthday/christmas.
This is validating. I always felt like something in the second game felt off to me as a kid but could never put my finger on it. I always went back to the first game but never this one.
Awesome video of an awesome franchise, and i think its cool to see an original dev comment on the video, with something positive to say about the work you out into your reviews
Vectorman seriously needs to have a comeback, pure & simple. I have way too much obsession with the main character in almost every aspect.
I'd like to see what they're capable of doing with pre rendered graphics these days. I'd love to see a remastered or remade Vectorman game
I remember playing this game on my Sonic Gems collection & I also played the game on the Sega Genesis collection on my Nintendo switch. I had alot of fun playing this game
You weren’t kidding about the flashing lights warning.Not sure why but playing the original Vectorman on a CRT the graphics look so much better
Because it was intended to play on a crt with 4:3 aspect ratio,not on a hd tv
Hey man just wanna say we appreciate you. Thanks for keeping these classics alive and reminding us that we can still go back and enjoy top tier games
Vectorman is one of the very few cartridges that remains on my shelf, VM2 was too difficult from the get so I never got passed first level. If I were to hope to see something new, it would be something that presents gorgeous HD sprites and some truly innovative game play concepts that takes Vectormans' sphere based physique to task.
I got the first VectorMan for Christmas that year. I eventually beat it, but it was difficult.
I never got the second one because by that time I’d moved on to the Saturn. I have it now, on the Sega mini.
Vectorman will always remind me of my childhood years. The first game was great!
The music is actually pretty sick. Especially for a gems situation
Love me some Vectorman
I always loved the flying beetles that change your color for the rest of the level. Such a cool idea I never seen in any other game.
I personally love the sound, lights, and gameplay. It communicated the alien planet feel really well with the dark tones and glowing highlights, plus that techno was amazing. The gameplay was more of the same polished pain...if harder XD
In short; I simply don't share the same critiques.
November 1996! the saturn was nearly dead by then
It would be nice to see Sega releasing a remastered versions of both of these games
Those screen flashes though. My eyes 😵 lol.
I wish this series still got some more sequals
O' how long have I wait for this day! Such an eye popper!
I actually liked playing the sequel more than my first time playing Vectorman. Though I do understand that some people were really taken aback by the amazing graphics of the first one.
BTW, who hasn't subscribed to this awesome channel yet, brah?
Vectorman 2 was the first game that i felt like wasn't complete, and i was a kid, but I still enjoyed it. Great review, you said everything. That exactly how i felt about this game.
For all the things I loved about Vectorman, I was always left wanting. Infact it's a problem I have with many SEGA games. Mostly in the Menus. Think about games on the SNES like Link to the Past, Metroid, Megaman X, or basically every Squaresoft game. I like games where I can do return, and have maps. I like weapons that you get to keep and swap between. Maybe have upgrades that are permanent.
This channel is excellent
I remember playing this on the Ultimate Genesis Collection. I loved the first game as a kid but playing the sequel, you basically summed up my thoughts on the game. It's not bad but it felt rushed and could've been a better game even if it was completed around 1997.
I'm very nostalgic for this game. My younger brother and I would play this nonstop on his genesis :)
Love seeing new content. Keep it going bud.
Just like in Jurassic Park, GEM works for electronic synth music. Trying to synthesize any real instrument with it is a terrible idea. People are still making electronica with 8-bit processors to this day. The biggest letdown here was the level art. It looks good in emulation, but on an actual CRT TV from that time it was almost impossible to see anything past the sprites. I wanted to love this game as much as the first, but it was almost unplayable due to the dark noisy backgrounds. This is one that is saved by emulation so we can all enjoy it today. I wish there were more Genesis games that used pre-rendered assets like DK Country & Mario RPG did on the SNES. These games made 16-bit systems incredible!
Literally watched the review for the 1st game yesterday 😎
Not sure if it was mentioned in the video but Vectorman 2 did not receive a PAL release. We only got the first one.
Fun late Genesis release. They include Vectorman in all the Sega Classics releases.
Vectorman é aquele tipo de jogo, que mostra o verdadeiro grafico de um 16 bits, esses tipos de graficos deveriam ser padrão, pois mostra o poder dos consoles da quarta geração...
I was interested in picking this up after I've enjoyed the 1st game when I got it for X-mas back in 1995. But unfortunately my gaming plate at the time was full with my main focus on getting a Playstation and buying and collecting games for NES, Genesis, Super Nes that I never played before along with some classics from places like Funcoland now that I just got my driver's license at 18 and could drive where I wanted to around the Houston area. I wish I would've thought to add collecting Game Boy games as well during that time since I did come across some games that are very pricey on the collector's market today I picked up for peanuts back in the mid to late 1990s.
Awesomeness video slx please do more thanks 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Vectorman always felt like a great representation of my issues with late generation Genesis games: An absurd level of dithering despite the game still appearing to display no more than 20 drab colors, plus sound that seemed as if it had been created with Tupperware.
Vectorman 2 might be the most underrated game on the Sega Genesis console. Very glad to see this game get its due retrospective. However, I disagree with your assessment. I feel this game was a huge jump visually for the Genesis compared to the first one and I even prefer the gameplay more. Love both regardless.
note: all of vectorman 1 and 2 looks better via composite video. Literally. All of those dithered columns of pixels get blended by the Genesis' janky video encoder, and it results it higher on-screen colors and pseudo-transparencies.
Heck just look at the title screen on the 2nd game; all those awkward vertical bars on Everything turn into much smoother color gradients than the Genesis hardware is capable of natively, but only if you're using composite video.
Vectorman 2 wasn't as good as the first game, but it was still a very good game. Had this given been more resources it had the potential to be the Sonic 2 of Vectorman. The stages were a bit repetitive, but I liked the alien bug theme just as much as the first games Warmech and the transformations were pretty cool too. The tank especially. It was still an overall good soundtrack, but the first had the distinction of showing what GEMS was truly capable of under the right hands, and leads credence to the fact that it wasn't GEMS itself that was the issue, rather a lack of experience with the software itself.
I replay Vectorman almost every year, but Vectorman 2 is something I probably replay every 3-4 years. Definitely worth a play through for fans of the first game.
Vectorman would just about sit in my top 10 Megadrive games. Vectorman 2 probably in my top 25.
This is pretty cool. The main character reminds me of that joy mech fight Game on the famicom
Great review and the soundtrack review portion made me break out my Dr. Seuss hat and glowsticks.
I'm hoping Vectorman is one of the series that Sega is resurrecting. It has such a unique look, feel and atmosphere that I think would be well received by modern gamers.
This one benefits quite a bit from composite output
This game is crazy dark
Weird that you experienced slowdown. Never happened to me when I played this as a kid. Were you playing on an emulator?
No. Emulators play the game fine. It actually only occurred at certain times. You can play the first stage 10 times and only feel it once.
they need to bring back vectorman. he is so cool. i only played through the second game and still have it. its an amazing game and they need to make a third and do so much more with it.
I think this game looks and plays better than the previous one. The first one is repetitive but this one has great ideas that works rather well most of the time. I'd say it is better (FOR MY TASTE) than DK. It is just a bit too difficult on the last stages.
For me, Vectorman 2 and Donkey Kong 3 share very similar fates. Both are good games, which could have been great. They both have moments that feel as good as their prequels, but neither are consistent enough.
I think a huge factor holding both titles back is that a good portion of both teams AAA members had probably moved on to 32/64 bit development.
Vectorman 2 like the review states, is so uneven. Some stages are incredible, well thought out and designed. Some are ugly, boring, without any thoughtful design. Seemingly added to pad out the games length.
The game does have some improvements over its predecessor. Vectorman talks a lot more, and his voice is perfect. There are more morphs (some are really fun) and more types of ammunition. Also, it's pretty cool when Vectorman changes colors when a bug explodes on him. Bosses are improved as well.
Didn't play the second one a lot. I did have the first Vectorman when I was young. It was a Sinterklaas present. Really liked it. Only learned a lot later that there was a US only sequel.
I think you're old enough to hear this, but Sinterklaas doesn't exist. 😞
@@Apanblod haha, noooo, you destroyed the illusion ;)
The game is "ok" I like the first one more! I would have loved a Saturn upgraded version of one and 2 on a CD! Some of the last games on the genesis really look great to be honest! Mk3 was just amazing for a sega Genesis game!!
While I prefer the first, I love this game too. I wish we could see a sequel, but like Eternal Champions and Comix Zone, I think Sega is just going to ignore it even existed (outside of compilations). I found this game to be easier than the first. I don't remember what difficulty I played on, but it didn't seem too hard since I beat during a rental.
The game over screen had me laughing for whatever reason 😂
I never liked either Vectorman, though lord knows I've tried. I like the animation, but always hated the stage design. It always felt too western in a time when that wasn't a good thing. Too much verticality with fewer, larger enemies and more platforming. I prefer my run and guns in the Japanese style- straight-forward stages focused around good enemy placement, chaotic action, and well thought out obstacles. Gunstar Heroes, Contra, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Metal Slug... modern stuff like Valfaris and Blazing Chrome, that sort of thing. Vectorman just felt a little eurostyle for my own tastes.
Buen juego.
Oh I like how shooting the weapon inside the cave fills up with light the cave. I wonder what game first did this. The only other older game I remember is much newer, Unreal on the PC. I think Diablo too did it. But older than Vectorman 2...I can't remember. Anyone?
It's a fun game but it can go the metroidvania route with those power-ups. Way Forward can have a crack at it.
Vector man 2 in my opinion should have been released for the Saturn as a day over game with improved visuals, sound, and stage design. Because they would have had the time
Great review as always SLX. Agreed, a worthy sequel with more of what was in the original but prefer the original ever so slightly.
I don't think you can think of a bigger burn on the Sega Saturn than: "Sega needed VECTORMAN 2 out by the Christmas holiday in 1996."
Though I liked the first game better, I enjoyed the second game also. It was the last great Genesis game ever released (as the console got discontinued in 1998 with the release of Frogger).
I definitely think that the original Vectorman was better but i think the music is better in Vectorman 2, with that said it’s a shame that Vectorman never saw the light of day as a Saturn title.
I have fond memories of the original Vectorman, still have my original copy cib. Played VM2 before, probably rented, but never owned it. Is this IP part of the Sega announcement from a few months ago? I forget to be honest.
I'm definitely one of the people that enjoy the music. I wouldn't listen to the soundtrack on it's own, but I appreciate this.