he was like, ‘What’s hot right now?
Oh Halo is hot. Oh, SOCOM is
hot. Let’s combine it,’” says Ted.
Vectorman’s design was shifted to
become a Halo rip-off, even down to a
female companion similar to Cortana.
At that time, coming soon after
the Dreamcast’s fall, Sega’s limited
resources defined the now third-party
publisher. A risk on an older IP that a
younger generation didn’t identify with
wasn’t worth a risk. “Sega didn’t have
the power to really push out first-party
titles they felt were different and
weird,” says Cord.
Development on Vectorman
continued for another three to four
months, all the Halo-like changes in
mind. Asked to recall this time on the
project, Ted replies, “I’ve never done
so much work for a project that I
wasn’t proud of or didn’t like or didn’t
want to look at it.”
At E3 2003, the work from inside
Pseudo was shown to the public. In
the short demo, Vectorman holds an
assault rifle, throwing enemies when
he gets close, and walking through
corridors not entirely different in
aesthetic appeal from Halo’s Library
stage. Gone were the floating orbs
that defined the character. Walls
could break and boxes were strewn
about, but the attitude of the original
character was clearly gone.
“There was certainly a bit of friction
between people who were purists. Iwas part of that. I was always torn,”
says Cord. The E3 trailer was Cord’s
own doing, from the gameplay to
the music. “It’s pretty embarrassing
for me to look back and go man, we
thought that was really cool at the
time but it doesn’t hold up.”
Not long after the E3 debut, Sega
made the call to cancel Vectorman
after eight months. According to Cord,
it was Sega’s move to transform the
project that killed this reboot. “Sega
was having its own turmoil andWHATEVER HAPPENED TO: VECTORMAN
“He was like what’s hot
right now? Oh Halo is hot.
Oh, SOCOM is hot”
w s o t f t tVECTORMAN
1995, BLUESKY SOFTWARE
QBoth of the original games from Blue Sky Software hold up
today, with their quirky tone
and hyperactive pace. As with
Psuedo Interactive’s original
concept for the reboot, the
focus is on collecting and
shooting on an Earth ravaged
by pollution.HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED
2001, BUNGIE
QWatching the E3 demo of Vectorman, it looks indiscernible from
Bungie’s own masterwork,
outside of a change from
a first-person perspective
to third-person. The run-
and-gun pace and grenade
launching may as well be
against Covenant forces.CEL DAMAGE
2001, PSEUDO INTERACTIVE
QLaunched alongside the Xbox (and later ported to other
consoles), Pseudo’s flair is
clear to see in this frenzied
cartoon car combat entry.
With delightful animation,
the squash and stretch
style suggests what
Vectorman almost was.OR YOU COULD PLAY...
shifting of the guard. [Sega] came
back and criticised their own decision
of moving it away from Vectorman.
Ultimately, Sega had pushed it to
change so much and then realized it
wasn’t the IP anymore.”
Pseudo did keep a working
relationship with Sega. The developer
paired with the team for two games in
the Full Auto franchise, highlighting a
destruction engine that was once the
heart of Vectorman. Pseudo closed
in 2008 after a project with Eidos
fell through.
After two games on the Mega
Drive, Vectorman was silenced for
good, save for a few appearances on
compilations. Like development of
the PlayStation 2 version, his life was
short. Were it Gary’s decision, this
wouldn’t be the end of the character
though. “I look back on some of the
images and think, ‘This is still relevant,
there’s still a story to be told here,
and there’s still a place for Vectorman
in this day and age.’”» [PS2] This Vectorman reboot was to showcase heavily destructible environments.» [PS2] The developers lament that much of their original
design was scrapped by Sega.» [PS2] In truth, the only thing the reboot has in
comparison to the originals is the name.washaving its ownturmoil and in this day andage.» [PS2] Look a beam sword! Now where have we seen one of those before...RETRO GAMER | 89