The sequel to the smash-hit Vectorman was once again developed by the talented team at BlueSky Software, and again published by Sega – this time in 1996.

Vectorman 2 expands upon the first game with more levels and more features. Graphically, it’s moodier too, with bold and very subtle use of light and dark at certain times, and even more impressive lighting effects on Vectorman himself.

Together, Vectorman 1 and 2 make a great duo. A smash hit, followed by a hit sequel. Both are still well worth playing today.

The action is more or less the same as the first game: running and gunning, jumping and attacking enemies as an agile ninja robot. You start with a simple default gun that fires bullets from your arm and gradually power it up as you progress.

This time you have to defeat certain enemies to power-up Vectorman‘s ability to morph into other forms. Morphing into a scorpion makes him immune to fire damage. Morphing into a beetle allows him to ram through enemies with his horns. Morphing into a drill allows him to break into the ground. You get the idea… And it is a good idea for a mechanic in a videogame that adds some variety. It allows you to experiment with different forms, to solve certain problems.

Vectorman‘s health bar is once again represented by a series of orbs. Once they’re depleted, he dies, a life is lost from your total and the level resets back to the start. If you have no lives left you can choose to restart and replay at a lower difficulty. Which is the game subtly insulting you… 😀

There are 22 levels in Vectorman 2, significantly more than the 16 levels in Vectorman 1. The art style throughout is much darker, but is just as good as – if not better – than in Vectorman 1. There’s such a bold visual style, such pixel artistry, and so much great animation in Vectorman 2 that I can’t help but be impressed by it. It’s a beautifully polished and very atmospheric run-and-gun game. Probably best played in complete darkness…

Vectorman 2 was also released for Windows, Linux and Macintosh!

More: Vectorman 2 on Wikipedia
More: Vectorman 2 on Moby Games