A worthy, if safe, sequel of the original game, pretty much continuing off the premise of the first game, only replacing rogue robots with invading alien bugs.

The weird thing about this game is how the first few levels are incredibly more difficult than the ones that come after, maybe excessively so. The levels in the volcano area are especially brutal, especially for first-time players, while once that's over, the game seems to mellow out enough to be fairer challenge.

Generally on the same level of the first game, quality-wise, though I'd argue Warhead made for a much more iconic and cooler villain than the Bug Queen.

i think this game brings some new interesting gimmicks but its the same vectorman and honestly with a little bit of random filler and unfortunate cuts. i think i still enjoyed my time with this game as much as the first but theres still some of the same issues like the screen being too zoomed in at times and some new ones like the frequent reuse of level settings and gimmicks especially in the second half/last two thirds of the game. i genuinely thought i was going insane or my game was bugged when they did rollerblading level into asteroids shmup bonus level into digging level into rollerblading into digging into asteroids shmup into rollerblading. like this stretch of 7 levels thats just all the same gimmicks with no new backdrops or anything, what was point here?? just combine these levels into one or just do one of each, it just feels unnecessary to split them up like this. they do the same thing later on with the tank levels and having two back to back, why not just have one long one? i know vectorman 1 reused the backdrop from level 1 a few times in later parts of the game but even still the levels felt more unique overall there, this game just recycles so many things for no reason. i think in the same way that some of the levels could have just been mashed together into a longer one, some of the normal platforming levels felt too short here, and considering all of the boss fights are in separate stages it makes the levels feel like theres nothing to be prepared for at the end of each level, making them feel even shorter.

that aside there is still some good in this game and some newer things to look forward to. they still do transformations like the first game but now you can get them by killing certain enemies instead of having to destroy objects for item pickups that let you transform and theyre an all new set of transformations. also the game still holds up well with its style, the visuals are a bit changed here but i think its for the better and the music is still great. that said though i feel like theres some charm lacking from this game. they just kinda ditch any story explanation like the first game has and just have a cutscene at the start of the game and theres just some aspects like the bland credits sequence in comparison to the first game or after you beat the final boss you just get a shot of vectorman posing with the word "victory" above him. i dont really know anything about this game's release compared to the first but it just feels like this game didnt get as much time to work on as the first and it feels like its missing some of what made the first game special