Vectorman
Sega Genisis, Android, iOS, PC, Linux... Nearly wherever you can find a Sega Classics Game on any platform, this title is in it.
OK folks, this is a game I want to draw attention too and pay my respects too; mostly because it recently hit the android shop for sega's classics. Vectorman was basically the DarkSoul's of the 90's where Megaman meets and Arcade Cabinet for a one-night stand and had this as their kid. It was a HARD game, so hard that there was a $25k contest for the first player to actually beat it! A contest that wasn't won until 3 Month's later and the ****** quality of how the contest was run!
Let's go over the games story a little; shall we? The game is set in a distant future where we trash the planet to where it's no longer breathable or suitable for life, so we do the next laziest thing; we build a bunch of 'orb' bots among other machines to clean up our mess for us while we live in space. A robot named warhead, named after a nuke was attached to a orb bot's head, begins to reprogram the other machines with intent to destroy us. Vectorman, a bot coming back from burning a load of garbage on the sun takes notice to to the other machines and goes off to scrap them and fight warhead.... Ok, from the game's story, we got an environmental message, along with a villain who sounds like he belongs on a heavy metal album and a robot who sounds like he should be a badass of a hero who works as a garbage man.... WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?!
Game Mechanic wise, you start the game in the city. You have a double jump and a hand that can fire photon's or energy bullets. You can fire in multiple directions by pushing the D-pad in that direction, even under you in mid air and you can duck to dodge incoming attacks. Controls are pretty tight and you have a life bar, 4 hits and you start over, or rather, start from where you destroyed your last TV. That another thing, there are goodies and power-ups all over the levels held inside TV's. You break one, it releases the goody and doubles as your check point. The power ups vary from transforming Vectorman into a bomb, a drill, a car, a fish.... or... Nearly anything, the transformations are actually quite clever, and weapons such as a shotgun laser, bolo, grenade arch like shot, it's a short list, they're handy. Surviving in the game is hard, unless you know what to do or look for, there's a power-up to expand your life in each level and getting a high score or rather, hitting the the score needed to earn extra lives are the key's to surviving Vectorman. Beating it requires just real platforming skill.
Moving onto the contest and how it was handled; I've only been able to reach level 6 before dying(succumbing) to the games cruel difficulty, and playing with me trying. There are 10 more levels, more harder than the one I die on a lot, 16 levels of difficulty ramping up higher and higher that would even give Megaman a run for his money if the blue bomber went through these levels. So the game has earned it's infamy and difficulty with me as a gamer from the 90's, but after doing some digging on the title about the contest, I came across a fact that would have literally enraged any gamer participating the contest.
You see, when the contest was announced and the cartridges we're being flashed, or rather, having the ROM chip loaded up with the game code and what-not. They only programmed a handful of the contest cartridge's to have the screen unlock at the hardest difficulty, which could be adjusted from the game's option menu; which doesn't change much except the point cap you need to hit to get extra lives, easy being every 10k of points, you get an extra life and hard being set at 40k.... Meaning that in order to win the contest, you not only had to buy the game, the game had to have the line of code that gives you a special screen with the proper contest number. So not only did you need to beat the game, on the hardest difficulty, you had to be lucky enough to have a winning cartridge!!! Which I guess ticked a lot of people off back then for those who had the skill to beat the game in advance to discover there was no 'contest' screen after they beat it. The contest though, like I said, was won and beaten by a 12-year-old boy in 3 month's since the games release, who won the cash prize, got to tour Sega HQ and premier in a Sega TV commercial. After which they removed the contest label on most of the future produced cartridges and replaced them with the standard label.
Aside from the difficulty, the game's levels vary in creativity in how you explore them to find the exit or end and like I said before, the controls are pretty tight, not as tight as Megaman, but enough that the death's and mistakes are on the player's skill level and not the game's coding or in-game bugs and glitches. And the music to the game itself is beautiful in itself, the music of Vectorman defines the age of Sega Genesis.. In fact, the music released as it's own Music CD, produced by Sega and distributed in stores for purchase.... One of those CD'S which I do happen to own! It's high tech-ish, electronica-ish music if I had to describe it, (Not much of a man for music genre defenitions) but hearing the title to this game put's me in a mood to keep my mind up and my wit's sharp. In fact, every level of the game's music I've experienced so far has been a joy to listen too while having my butt handed to me by the games difficulty; so much so that I'm not even mad if I loose. Game restart's, I hear that title and I'm ready to play again.
Megaman players, I do recommend giving your copies of Megaman a break while preparing for the next Megaman game from Capcom. Give the Nes a rest, and give this game a shot, you won't be disapointed!
BEFORE I sign off of this personal favorite; I do have a parting gift.
This is for the gamer's who either get the app, a Sega collection thing or pirate the title: I COULD CARE LESS!
Cheat Codes! More or less for the gamer who want's to play casually and not deal with the games difficulty.
During Game Play: Push Pause then...
A, B, Right, A, C, A, Down, A, B, Right, A - Restores Life
C, A, Left, Left, A, C, A, B - Invincibility
Level Warp:
There's the debug option of a level warp you can google, though I find this more fun. When you start the game and get to the Sega logo before the title, you can move Vectorman around. Have him get under and shoot the Sega 24 times and hit Vectorman's head on it 12 times. Sega will start dropping letters. IF you grab enough letters, you can warp to a further level in the game.
Blow-Up The Screen:
This is just an Easter egg, at the same screen before the title where you can move vectorman around, there's a hidden TV along the top, Shoot it to get the power-up that kills all baddies on screen and use it. You will have broken the Sega Logo and the screen.