October 24, 1995

21 years ago Sega of America launched their newest game VectorMan with the promise to devour all challengers with its fast-paced gameplay. Launching alongside the game was a sweepstakes with over $160,000 in potential prizes. Ladies and gentlemen, Vectormania was running wild.

In 1995, the Sega Genesis had already been going head to head with the Super Nintendo for a few years. The popularity of games such as Donkey Kong Country kept Nintendo on top with consumers. Sega, hoping to capture the same magic, decided to release their own pre-rendered 3D platformer in the form of VectorMan.

The game’s premise was simple: In the not-too-distant-future, humanity has left the Earth in the hands of robots tasked with cleaning the world of its garbage. One of the humble robots must stop another increasingly homicidal robot from taking control and dooming the human race. Hmm. Why does this sound so familiar?…

If that premise wasn’t worth the price of a buy (apparently it was worth an Oscar), the possibility of winning thousands of dollars sure seemed worth it. Sega announced that people who purchased the action platformer had the opportunity to win a $25,000 prize, one of several $10,000 prizes, or a Sega Saturn bundled with Virtua Fighter. Lucky gamers who completed the game without the assistance of cheat codes would be greeted by the message “You Win!” displayed on their screen, followed by contact information.

The promotion seemed to work as VectorMan had reportedly “strong sales” for the Genesis the 1995 holiday season.

What do you guys think? Is VectorMan a great game? Do you know anyone that won something in the contest? Did Disney rip off VectorMan like they did with Kimba the White Lion?

All these questions and more can be answered in the comments below!