Vectorman

The Vectorman games are a series of two shooting-based platformers that were made by Sega in the mid 90's as the Genesis was dying, with unique graphics, techno-esque soundtrack, and an interesting mix of run-and-gun gameplay with elements similar to Metroid and Megaman. Except Vectorman's second jump has massive damage potential if you use it right and there's morphs!
The games take place in the future were humans have, depressingly enough, have trashed the Earth so much they've fled to the stars and left Orbots to clean up the mess.
In both games, Vectorman comes back from taking shiploads of sludge to the sun to find the Earth taken over by a mad Orbot named Warhead in the first and insect-like aliens in the second.
The hero, Vectorman, is essentually a robot made out of green spheres. Think somewhere around a green Rayman, but with balls where his arms and legs should be. Vectorman also has photon-guns in both his hands, which can be upgraded via pick-ups he finds in TV's in the 1st game, and Power Sacks in the 2nd.
== Plot Rundown: 1 ==
In the first, an overseer Orbot gets somehow attached to a recovered nuke and becomes Warhead. He mind-controls the lesser Orbots and turns Earth into a deathtrap for when the Humans come back.
Vectorman returns from his solar deposit and wages war against Warhead. There's about over twenty levels (not sure here), each more dark than the last (with a few exceptions). The second-to-last one is really unnerving in my opinion.
== Plot Rundown: 2 ==
In the second, Vectorman gets shot down while dancing to his favorite tune in his ship. He helocopters down (morph) to discover that Earth has been invaded by bugs! This one is much more darker than the first. Levels are harder, enemies are smarter, and the bosses can really kill you if you don't know what you're doing.
It all leads up to the level named "Queen for a Day", Day(/level) 27, I think, where you duke it out with the Queen. And boy is she ugly!
== Morphing ==
As mentioned as before, V-Man can morph into various objects. In the 1st game, morphs were in TV's and included a Drill that can drill through stuff, a grenade that unleashes an explosion that takes out certain walls and any enemies on the screen, a fish that lets him swim really fast through water, Jetpacks, trains, tornadoes, and more.
The first has a bit more comical approach to morphing that the second. The second level has you as the train against a guy trying to block your way on the tracks. There's a disco level cleverly named, "Stayin' Alive", and a frog level on an unrolling straw mat which is more like a maze while fighting a boss rather than the other way around.
In the second, there's an insect/animal theme. Among others, there's the Tick Punch, Fireant, Scorpian Tail, Rhino Charge, Shield (from shelled insects). Unlike the 1st, the morphs this time around were in enemies. Which made openening the hypothetical can of bugspray on them even more satisfying.
Also in the second, there are two distinct Tank levels and three-or-four rollerscating levels, both are really fun.
== Weapons ==
In both games, there are different types of guns hidden in TV's and Power Sacks (respectively). Both games have similar ones, but the 1st has a shot-gun like one, a gravity-effected, bouncing, machine gun-like weapon, and what I (QuinKilo) call the fwippy gun, a gun that fires a spinning thing of stars that racks up a lot of damage and makes a "fwippy" sound when fired, those among others
The second one has an upgrade to most of them. The machine gun is now a rapid-fire laser that can be unreliable in terms of accuracy against small foes, there's a ray that bounces off walls and racks up loads of damage, and more.
Both games have a one-shot "Overkill" weapon hidden in several levels that erradicates anything and everything on screen. It also usually has an effect where stars start gathering on Vectorman.
And the boost jump racks up damage too, It's the best weapon to be used on a few bosses-- especually the first one in 2.
== Trivia. ==
Vectorman does have a few lines, believe it or not. They include:
*Toasted!
*Woah!
*Queen, you've been dethroned! (or something like that)
*(He essentually says all the weapon names in both games and the morphs in 2)
*I need more!
In 2, there are about three digging levels. They're gurenteed to drive you crazy if you don't know where you're going.
Both games have multipliers, 2x, 3x, 5x, and 10x. They multiply everything from score to extra lives.
The extra live sprites continually dance throughout the levels in both games.
If you leave him alone long enough, Vectorman does a few poses. He plays yo-yo with one of his arm spheres, or juggles them, whipes his forehead (hypothetical sweat, I guess)
Sometimes, in his end-of-level dances, Vectorman does a double-handed peice sign and his stomach sphere falls a little bit, making him look fat.
When he dies, his spheres go bouncing along the ground.
The games are proabably one of the most underrated games ever talked about on NR, as you can tell from what QuinKilo and Sonic say about it. In fact, Quin had to correct who made the intitial page and fill in what the games are about.
Category:Video games