VECTORMAN’S LOST ADVENTURES

THE VECTORMAN 3S THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

■ Jason was involved with two separate attempts (and skirted with a third) to make a proper Vectorman 3. The first project was born after Sega swung by Bluesky’s offices to show off the Saturn leading up to its release in the West. It let Jason play Saturn games such as Astal, Clockwork Knight and Panzer Dragoon. Inspired by what the next generation of gaming had to offer, Jason went all in crafting a thoroughly detailed design document with Ellis Goodson providing dozens of concept sketches. The game was dubbed Vectorman Ultra. However, by the time the duo was ready to pitch it, Bluesky dissolved its relationship with Sega leaving the project dead in the water. Later around 2000, Jason, Karl, producer/ engineer David Kunkler, and engineer Mike Acton all left Bluesky to start their own development studio called Vblank (no relation to Vblank Entertainment of Retro City Rampage). With a powerful original engine under their belt, they approached their old friends at Sega looking for work. Sega sent them a list of properties they were interested in reviving which included Vectorman. The team quickly made a playable demo called Vectorman Neo that featured the hero exploring an alien planet. However, when they presented it to Sega the publisher changed its tune, turning its nose up at a property that supposedly, “Didn’t have any name recognition.” Ironically, just a few years later at E3 2003 Sega unveiled yet another Vectorman 3, this time from Pseudo Interactive. Jason was shocked and tried to reach out to the team about the new PS2 game, but he was quickly shut down. It wasn’t a huge loss however as Sega did the same to the game shortly afterwards, leaving three separate Vectorman 3 projects in the grave.