Vectorman

VectorMan is a platform game developed by BlueSky Software and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis in 1995.

Story
In the year 2049, Earth has become so damaged due to littering, pollution, and toxic waste that the human race has left to seek out new planets to colonize. In an effort to repair the damage done to the planet, mechanical “orbots” have been created to clean up while mankind is off exploring. Trouble occurs when the attendants of a powerful Orbot named Raster, who oversees the clean-up through a planetwide ComNet, accidentally connect a salvaged nuclear bomb to his master control circuits.

Raster renames himself to WarHead and declares himself ruler of Earth, forging it into an instrument of death for the returning humans. VectorMan, another Orbot who is in charge of transporting nuclear waste to the sun for disposal, returns to Earth to find all the other Orbots under WarHead's control. Now, it's up to the transforming VectorMan to save the planet from the tyrant.

Gameplay
The gameplay is slightly simple. Players can shoot in all directions, including down while jumping up or shoot diagonally when jumping. They can break multicolored TV monitors for points, which appear as photons; and power-ups. Sometimes, when enemies die, they drop a Health Ball which heals the player.

The levels always have a time limit. Boss levels have usually one minute to complete and the final boss level has about two or three minutes to complete.

Many levels have a small battle at the end. Terraport has Sludge Barge, Bamboo Mill has Clockwork as a sub-boss, and so-on. Boss levels are the shorter levels in which WarHead engages the player in combat.

Players also start with four health points. The easiest difficulty, called Lame, gives players an extra health point. The most extreme difficulty, Insane, removes a health point. Wicked is the main difficulty.

Level Select Cheat
There is a cheat to enter a secret options screen. First, when the intro fully finishes, go to options. Press these buttons: A B B A, Down, A, B, B, A. It will give you a screen to select the starting power-up (Ex: Wave, Bolo), a level select area including the bonus minigames, and an area where the players can give themselves more health points (up to ten) and more lives (up to 99). If your game says X98 when giving yourself 99 lives, don't worry. The life monitor will still give you another life.

Trivia

 * This game is of the few Sega Genesis games that received a CD remix of its soundtrack, made by the game's same composer, Jon Holland.
 * Interestingly, it was also first advertised as a game contest to win big cash.
 * Back when released, when people would finish the game, their Sega Genesis would light up and give them a number to dial to see if they were the first person to beat the game. The first person to beat the game got a large amount of money.
 * WarHead's original name came from the computing term Raster graphics.
 * WarHead is seemingly immune to the Orb shot.
 * There is a Sonic character named Vector Man. The similar name is a reference to this franchise.
 * All character designs and some level aspects are pre-rendered 3D models.
 * In fact, VectorMan's sprite is actually 23 sprites programmed to move together in sync.