I preferred this one over the first game this time, if only by a little. It has a totally different atmosphere, which is quite refreshing and a pretty great decision rather than rehashing the original's. Power ups and transformations are a lot better here as well, Vectorman himself has a bit more personality here, and level design is generally improved.
Screen crunch is still pretty bad though, especially when exploring around to regain health or get health upgrades. They're a real chore to find in both games, definitely my least favorite aspect of both, and you kind of need them lest the subpar damage spongey bosses get the drop on you. Sometimes you'll just find health upgrades while going around normally, but other times they're really out of the way like in Magma P.I. and Recycle or Die. There are time limits as well, which are actually super lenient but they still give off that feeling of looming over you.
I think this game was put out before it was completely done, so that it wouldn't release in 1997 when the console was basically dead except for some brief Majesco nonsense. There are lots of things about it regarding the presentation that just feel like placeholders. For example the game over screen is followed by the credits for some reason, and the final boss is completely uninteresting and only really has one or two attacks while staying in place. The ending is just completely perplexing. It's hilariously poor on its own, but have you compared it to the opening cutscene before? Or the title screen? Think about that contrast, and that's what I'm talking about here. There's zero way that wasn't meant to be replaced with something better.
Both of these games have big shortcomings but I generally still enjoy them a decent amount, and they definitely kick the shit out of those earlier Jurassic Park games by the same people. The Genesis seems to have a lot of pretty poor releases in its final years, and I'm happy to see this is an exception. Still, I have to wonder how all these Blue Sky games have these same screen crunch issues. How do they do things over there for it to be such a recurring issue?
Screen crunch is still pretty bad though, especially when exploring around to regain health or get health upgrades. They're a real chore to find in both games, definitely my least favorite aspect of both, and you kind of need them lest the subpar damage spongey bosses get the drop on you. Sometimes you'll just find health upgrades while going around normally, but other times they're really out of the way like in Magma P.I. and Recycle or Die. There are time limits as well, which are actually super lenient but they still give off that feeling of looming over you.
I think this game was put out before it was completely done, so that it wouldn't release in 1997 when the console was basically dead except for some brief Majesco nonsense. There are lots of things about it regarding the presentation that just feel like placeholders. For example the game over screen is followed by the credits for some reason, and the final boss is completely uninteresting and only really has one or two attacks while staying in place. The ending is just completely perplexing. It's hilariously poor on its own, but have you compared it to the opening cutscene before? Or the title screen? Think about that contrast, and that's what I'm talking about here. There's zero way that wasn't meant to be replaced with something better.
Both of these games have big shortcomings but I generally still enjoy them a decent amount, and they definitely kick the shit out of those earlier Jurassic Park games by the same people. The Genesis seems to have a lot of pretty poor releases in its final years, and I'm happy to see this is an exception. Still, I have to wonder how all these Blue Sky games have these same screen crunch issues. How do they do things over there for it to be such a recurring issue?