2019-04-01_Retro_Gamer

IN THE

KNOW

W

e feel that Pixar’s

Wall-E owes

Vectorman

something of

a nod. On the Mega Drive, Sega’s

bouncy robotic hero was cleaning

up Earth a decade before Pixar’s

lovable hero. Five years before Wall-E,

though, an attempted Vectorman

PlayStation 2 reboot in the

early Noughties didn’t go

as planned for developer

Pseudo Interactive.

Earth in a fully 3D environment. Also,

the character sported the floating orb

design that was seen in the original

Mega Drive iteration, and he even

danced along with the soundtrack’s

beat. The reboot’s design focus was

on collectibles and platforming with

light shooting, the three hallmarks of

the Mega Drive originals.

Development continued on this

path for three to four months. Sega

then switched producers. That led

to a group focus test of Pseudo’s

work to that point. It didn’t go well.

“The majority of the younger target

demographic, because they had

no knowledge of the IP, could not

wrap their head around why a robot

would be made of floating balls. The

aesthetic confused the hell out of

them,” says Cord.

That focus test sealed Vectorman’s

fate, but not immediately. With test

results in hand, Sega’s producers

began asking for changes around New

Year period of 2002. “That producer,

Producer Cord Smith explains what went wrong

with the attempted PlayStation 2 reboot of a cult

Mega Drive favourite

» [PS2] This

iteration of the

character is a far

cr y from the float y

design seen in

the Mega Drive

originals.

though

P

e

a

P

» [PS2] Though Halo was a clear inspiration,

Vectorman was to utilise a third-person perspective.

» [PS2] Is that Halo, or a cynical corporate-driven rip-of f?

It ’s the lat ter, unfor tunately.

Fresh from the cel-shaded

mayhem of Xbox title Cel Damage,

the 20-person team at Pseudo began

pitching seed demos. With its physics

engine at work, Pseudo’s early work

on a rebooted Vectorman impressed

executives at Sega, enough to

greenlight a prototype. “It hearkened

back far more to the original at that

time. That’s what got Sega’s attention.

They were like ‘wow, this has merit’.

It’s a passion project for [Pseudo],”

says producer Cord Smith.

With the approval from the

publisher, Vectorman started coming

to life. “At the beginning, since it’s

our generation that knows Vectorman,

it was simply ‘if it ain’t broke don’t

fix it’,” says concept artist Ted

Kim. “There was a lot more of the

Cel Damage DNA in terms of the

lightheartedness,” remembers art

director Gary Snyder.

The Vectorman prototype retained

the established environmental theme,

with a plan to stretch the story beyond

 PUBLISHER:^

SEGA

 DEVELOPER:^

PSEUDO INTERACTIVE

 SYSTEM:^

PL AYS TATION 2

 DUE FOR RELEASE:

2004

d th

VECTOR MAN

»[PS2]Thiis

WHATEVER

HAPPENED

TO...

GAMES THAT NEVER

SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY