Tuesday, February 3, 2026

VectorMan vs Pulseman (Sega vs Sega): Round 1 Fight Blogs

 

"It will not be a world of man versus machine. It will be a world of man plus machines.”  - Ginni Rometty

VectorMan, the outstanding Orbot savior of Earth from Sega.

Pulseman, the Half-C-Life hero of humanity, also from Sega.

For decades, especially these days, mankind has long dreamed of the devastating potential of machine and artificial intelligence. Do androids dream of electric sheep, or plans to annihilate their creators? In the far-off future, some had this dark dream and endangered all of humanity, except for one plucky robot savior who refused to turn down this dark path unlike those that came before him. Both these niche but next level robots have gone down this journey before, but when their paths collide, who will come out on top?

Round 1: FIGHT!!!

Before We Start…

This is the standard fare for Sega scrimblos. Both will be receiving their original games (VectorMan 1 / 2 and Pulseman, respectively) as well as manuals for lore and game mechanics. There is one elephant in the room however, that being Pulseman’s mere existence. The game was originally in Japan only and never officially translated, until more recent versions like on Nintendo’s online stores for newer editions. That goes double for manuals or literally anything I could use for lore or other power-ups. Fortunately, the Pulseman Fansite has lovingly collected all that they can about this niche and underappreciated game, like translations or various art pieces; all by the literal book of the manual. As such, I will be relying upon it in the place of a manual, and looking at said details about it. Major thank-you to whoever worked on it, as it saves me a lot of time and effort.


Enough of that though, let's get into it!

Background

VectorMan

“Chicken, fight like a robot.”

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: it’s the future, the world is screwed up, and robots are all that’s left. Sound familiar? Maybe, maybe not, at least in some cases. The year is 2039, and the world is totally, literally wasted. Cities, forests, and icecaps are filled with toxic sludge, so humanity fled to the while leaving the mechanical Orbits to clean up after them. They would dump this sludge into the sun, among other things, and pick up after them, because of course. This was done through the planetwide ComNet, which was overseen by a powerful Orbot named Raster. Sadly, this once leader of saving the planet would be accidentally connected to a nuclear bomb from his master control circuits by his attendants, creating WarHead; a tyrannical overlord hellbent on making the planet a DeathTrap™  for humanity when they returned. He hacked and mind controlled every single Orbot on the planet… except one. One single Orbot, who would prove to be his undoing. You may think one machine vs an entire planet of them is too much and unfair, and you’d be right. It was unfair for them, because he is VectorMan. 


Coming back from a routine sludge trip, VectorMan was unhindered by the hacking attempt, and set out to fulfil his original purpose; save the world for humanity. He was always a bit more human than his colleagues, being known for snappy remarks, edgy poses, and an appreciation for music. So, you can bet your bumper that he took exception to this attempt at genocide against his makers, and took his A-Game to WarHead himself. Against all odds and expectations, he bulldozed through quite literally all of WarHead’s forces over only about 2 weeks, eventually making it to him and destroying the rogue robot atop a tornado with a hurricane as the backdrop. Earth had a new hero, and it was that same hero who returned to his mission of cleaning up the planet like he was programmed to do. Even better, he purged a colony of mutant insects in a secret facility that also wished to destroy humanity, once again saving the world from all who would wish to conquer it. Until humanity gets back, VectorMan has his singular mission, and if you choose to mess with it by getting too maniacal for your own good? You will be his mission, and you’ll be the next in his literal iron sights. 


Pulseman

“I’m okay. Here I am!”

What drives machines? Is it a hard drive? Is it nuts and bolts? Maybe, but some are driven by something much more… human; love. In 1999, the genius Dr. Syakuei Yoshiyama made a breakthrough by creating artificial intelligence, no, artificial life inside his computer in a C-Life woman. Since 1987, artificial life (A-Life) was conceptualized and brought into existence as beings that lived in the memory space of a computer. However these beings weren’t really sentient and thus not “creative,” so as programming progressed, that knowledge and skill eventually became theirs in improvement that turned them into "C-Life"; an sentient being with creativity among much else. Due to being a real person, just digital, this woman soon captured the heart of her creator; likely in reference to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, where a lonely sculptor created a statue of a woman so perfect he fell in love with her. Just like in the myth where the gods brought the statue to life so that the man would be happy with his love, Yoshiyama somehow inserted himself into Cyberspace to be with the woman he loved. Despite her being saddened by his rejecting his humanity to be with her, he did legitimately love her, and assured her that the choice was his alone. 


After a bit of code mingling between the pair, the hero of our story, Pulseman, was born in 2001. Due to being born from a human father and a C-Life mother, Pulseman was half-human and half-code, meaning he could travel between the real world and CG space. However, years inside Cyberspace warped Yoshiyama’s personality, turning him into the mysterious evil genius known as Doctor Waruyama (literally swapping Yoshi “good” for Waru “bad” in Japanese). In 2015 he would lead the terrorist organization known as Galaxy Gang to conquer everything on a galactic scale, placing his henchmen in the real world with Eureka, a device that lets C-Life manifest in the real world through Chaos Theory. However, his crimes would not go unpunished, due to his son Pulseman and the creation of love that he had originally made. Pulseman’s nature as the best of both worlds naturally meant he would want to save them both, and it was due to that care that the C-Life Beatrice, formerly an ally of the Galaxy Gang, joined his cause and even became his girlfriend with a nickname of “Riche.” That same drive enabled him to battle Waruyama’s forces and defeat them all, cornering the mad scientist in an arcade game and destroying him once and for all. The world cheered his success, and Pulseman could rest for whenever he was needed again. Should he be? Better hold your hard drives and batten down your bolts, because there’s few heroes as powerful or perfect for the job than Pulseman.

Experience & Skill

VectorMan

If it wasn’t obvious from his backstory, VectorMan is a literal one-man-army. Starting as a pilot for sending sludge to the sun, VectorMan single-handedly destroyed WarHead’s forces in only about 2 weeks (levels are marked as days and the final level is Day 15). From these raging robot foes, VectorMan fought flying bird robots, robots while underwater, fused enemies that copied his form, and even twister enemies from a disco night fever level. Even multiple enemy drones one after the other couldn’t stop him, nor having to fight enemies while being flung around by a giant twister. Speaking of, that same battle had Vector outmatch WarHead while jumping off of floating metal shards in the twister. Makes sense, considering he can platform off invisible platforms, let alone all the other places he adventured. He’s traveled to the arctic, navigated bamboo factories, evaded massive rock fists while climbing a wall, or even navigated through dark ruins and an underground vault. Bro can also backflip for sick nasty dodges. 


In the sequel, VectorMan did more of the same in saving the Earth from an entire mutant insect species looking to colonize the Earth. That includes facing massive burrowing snakes, near-literal shadow creatures, literal lava monsters, or destroying both the many eggs of the Black Widow Queen along with the Queen herself. Of the enemy areas he stormed and fought through, VectorMan cleared swampy hives, dark bases with no lights, volcanos (both inside and out), misty caves, and chemical plants… that happened to be on fire. To top it off, he did a double take on that encounter with WarHead, making it though a desert base while a tornado was going on in the background to force intense wind on him. 

Pulseman

Despite his relatively young age of 14, Pulseman’s packing quite a lot of skill in his cyberlogical body. Being a worldwide superhero, he’s chased and fought the Galaxy Gang through rainforests in India, virtual and physical casino areas, ancient ruins in Thailand, evil factories, snowy mountains in Alaska, and more. Pulseman has fought a massive submarine underwater by punching bombs it shot back into it, and chased the Dr into the Galaxy Gunner arcade game; avoiding fiery pits and traveling to the deepest code there is inside. Across these fights, he’s battled flying enemies, all kinds of enemy vehicles, evaded energy barriers, taken on a small army of robot Waruyama’s, and faced the man himself in all his robotic glory. 


Before this, he fought through acid trip bubble computer areas, and even defeated his evil copy Veil who could move faster than him, while being described as exceeding every one of Pulseman’s abilities. Well, that must be really embarrassing for Veil, considering he got wrecked all the same. Using double jump kicks and sweep kicks certainly doesn’t hurt either, nor does the help he gets from his girlfriend Beatrice (nickname “Riche”). While limited due to Pulseman’s combat system, she informs him of crimes in progress, warns him of boss encounters, and congratulates him on levels completed. She does care about him a lot despite this limited screentime, so, couple goals tbh. 


Arsenal

VectorMan

Arm Cannon / Rapid Fire Gun

Like any good robot taking inspiration from Capcom’s legendary Blue Bomber, VectorMan comes equipped with an Arm Cannon that he can morph his arm into. Powered by Photons, these can blast through most enemies in a few shots, and rain down an unlimited supply should they take more. He can shoot this in all directions, and gain brief power-ups for unleashing it as spread fire or in spiraling blasts, on a literal Contra core. It can also ricochet off bosses and enemies, providing even more ways to riddle enemies with blast holes. 


Weapons and Items

Of course, VectorMan can’t always blast his way through his enemies with just his gun.


…


Okay he can most of the time but still, variety doesn’t hurt, and it certainly helps him break through the many traps waiting for him. These include Weapon Power-Ups, which are hidden throughout levels. Upon collecting them, they will replace his current weapon until their limited supply of ammo is reverted, after which he will go back to ol’ reliable. 


Pulseman

Items and Power-Ups

Like VectorMan, Pulseman also has his own power-ups and items to bring to the table. He doesn’t have these innately either, and must go pick them up elsewhere. There are also items related to 1UPs, but we’ll be excluding those out of fairness to both. 



Abilities

VectorMan

Orbot Physiology

As an Orbot, VectorMan is a state-of-the-art machine in cleaning up Earth (and apparently stopping genocide too, who knew?). Among all his many features comes his Boost-Blast; a double jump rocket boost that can double as a way to damage enemies with the exhaust. VectorMan’s body can also fight through the most intense conditions, like underwater unhindered, trekking through icy areas labeled “Absolute Zero,” or inside volcanoes to kill lava monsters. Even the vacuum of space is something he has no trouble surviving, either in jumping from his ship to Earth or shooting monsters atop it while it flies. 


Morph

Due to his apparently malleable metal body, VectorMan can literally morph it into other creatures, forms, or weapons at will for any real purpose he needs; for a limited time of course, this is video games. He needs to find and collect these in both games, but their purposes will be laid out on the table just like Pulseman’s. While some of these are for the entire level in Vectorman 2, these are likely just game mechanics based on the first disproving such limitations. 


Assimilation

Like his morph but with a new spin, Assimilations are icons released when certain bug enemies are destroyed. He can collect them and then take the attribute of the fallen enemy, being invincible during these transformations. So, they’ll be treated like his other items in the spirit of the match. 


Resistances

  • Mind Control/Hacking - When WarHead took control of all Orbots to override their functions, it was explicitly noted that VectorMan was the exception and that he was “unhindered” by evil mind control. 

  • Extreme Temperatures / Cosmic Radiation - As mentioned in his Physiology, VectorMan can fight just fine in Sub-Zero temperatures of the arctic, burning hot temperatures inside a volcano, and the inhospitable vacuum of space. 

Pulseman

Half-C-Life Physiology

Having been born from a C-Life woman and a human man, Pulseman is a unique crossfusion between their nature. In essence, he can exist in cyberspace and in the physical world just fine, and go between them at will through special TV stations. This also lends him a slew of other abilities, like being able to harm virtual beings or objects such as energy cubes


Sparkling State

By running and presumably building up something like static electricity, Pulseman can use all his other kinds of powers at will. Since the game is all about running and building up speed, this is obviously key to Pulseman’s platforming and fights. That does carry the drawback that in closed off areas, like with bosses, it is hard to get the necessary speed for this, and most of his abilities are directly related to it, but the power is so impressive, who’s gotta worry about that? Speaking of that power, let’s look at what it can manifest as. 


Volteccer

What Pulseman is no doubt known for, and the purpose behind the Sparkling State. Once he builds up enough energy to enter it, Pulseman can use Volteccer for bashing through any baddies and bozos in his path. While doing so, his entire body turns into a mass of electricity and shoots diagonally upwards in whatever direction he’s facing. In this state, Pulseman will ricochet off all walls, floors, ceilings, or otherwise until there isn’t anything to bounce off of, where he’ll exit Volteccer and fall back to the ground with the Sparkling State gone. The draw of this is that the move makes Pulse invulnerable; even to things like spikes, while also destroying blocks or enemies in his path and even harming bosses. 


It also broke his doppelganger Veil out of the same move upon ramming into him, which is a pretty good showcase that he’s the best at using it. He can exit this at will, but really, who in their right mind would want to? This state of raw electricity also allows him to travel on wires both in and out of Cyberspace, allowing for better terrain mastery and reaching spaces no human could ever hope to. Should Pulseman not be in Sparkling State, he can still use some portion of electricity in the Spark attack, kind of like Samus’ screw attack in shorter terms.


Slash Arrow / Pulse Rush

For actually attacking foes outside of the Volteccer, Pulseman can use his electricity for other purposes as well. The more popular is the Slash Arrow, an energy projectile that can destroy most bots without trouble. Building up more energy allows him to use bigger blasts, all for traveling electric balls that take care of most problems from a distance. Should things require a closer touch, he can use the same punch in Pulse Rush, which is another discharge of energy for a close-up electric punch. 


Lightning Dash

For more speed, Pulseman has the Lightning Dash, an afterimage speed boost move that places him directly in Sparkling State, due to the inherent speed build-up. While moving this fast, he can’t be hurt by enemies, though he can’t really strike them. 


Resistances

None notable. 

Feats

VectorMan

Overall

Credit: drawloverlala.tumblr.com 

  • Saved the Earth (and humanity for that matter) twice

  • Outmatched an entire planet of robot forces trying to kill him in 2 weeks

  • Exterminated the mutant insect hives around the world

  • Won numerous space battles against small armadas of spaceships

  • Protected his sludge barge from a fleet of ships… by shooting them all down from the outside while standing on the ship

  • Defeated the Sludge Barge, Aurora Borealis, Clockwork, WarHead, and the Black Widow Queen

  • Gave the goat Vector some sauce. Twice. 

  • Stomped Mega Man X in their 8Bit Rap Battle


Power


Speed


Durability


Pulseman

Overall

  • Saved the Earth from the Galaxy Gang

  • Redeemed Beatrice from working with G.G, who became his girlfriend and partner (my man)

  • Navigated through numerous Cyberspace lairs

  • Ventured all across the countries of the world

  • Defeated Virtual Reality Hand, Texture Mapping Noishinsu, Veil, Battlestar Great Core, and Dr. Waruyama

  • Is the entire reason Pokémon exists

Power


Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

VectorMan

VectorMan is no stranger to failure, nor is he immune to it despite his skill. Pretty much all of his extended power-ups must be found first, and all are limited while not usable at the same time due to being Morphs and forms. This puts him on a bit of a back foot compared to more innately versatile characters, and he could be overwhelmed through that metric. He’s also been caught off-guard by sneak attacks in the Vectorman 2 opening if distracted, so someone could get the jump on him if he’s not careful. 


Also screw this stupid Piranha miniboss. 


Pulseman

Powerful though he may be, Pulseman isn’t perfect. His various electricity moves are directly reliant on running around, making it much harder to fight enemies in closed spaces like his bosses. Even if he does find the room to run, it’s still not a surefire win if they catch him slipping. Chief among flaws is water, which he is weak to in gameplay. While he can function and swim in water, none of his electric abilities work, leaving him a relative sitting duck if he’s not careful. 


Before The Verdict

Relativistic and City Sega Scrimblos- WHAT???!!!

Comic Street Tiers: Struggle to hit Kilotons and Lightspeed

Average fight between irrelevant Sega characters:

Trust me, I did not expect seeing these types of arguments when I started working on this, nor that it applied to both in entirely different ways. 


VectorMan

Starting for VectorMan, let's go over the easier sell, that being his battle with WarHead. In essence, the final battle with the villain takes place around an intense tornado and storm clouds the second the level starts; flinging VectorMan and other heavy debris around.This extends to the top of the tornado, which is where you fight WarHead, whose lower body is rapidly rotating like a twister. I initially didn't think much of this, but the credits (which showcase all of the bosses sprites moving around like other games at the time) explicitly showcase his lower body rotating in a twister by itself. This coincidentally happens outside WarHead's base as the climactic backdrop for their battle, extending right up to where he is in the sky; hovering over it all. After the fight, clouds are shown pulling away, so the storm obviously stopped. Given nothing like this happens elsewhere in the game, I'd say it's more likely WarHead is creating it given his body specifics and how it works as a fight. Just a tornado powerful enough to fling people around (when the Tornado dragged a human sized metal robot into the clouds) would need to be an E2 category, and the energy of one is a little over one kiloton of TNT. 


Next, let's cover the more odd area of his space levels. In Vectorman 2, the titular Orbot has 3 types of bonus levels as you progress through the game. The first is nothing special, but the latter two are. Specifically, the second has him turn into a ship that flies past multiple planets in an interstellar dogfight, while the third has him shoot down enemies while standing on the outside of a ship. Ordinarily these could be discounted for other reasons people discard space reaction feats… if the manual didn’t come into play. It explicitly states that the ship example is him dodging meteor showers and collisions with “the sun,” so his trip clearly goes on an interstellar range that has him react while flying at those speeds. The third one is the same case, where he must rescue a stranded sludge barge from an onslaught of alien foes while evading meteors (the ship is flying through space in the game but the purpose is the same, making this another example of comparison). In case you didn’t pay attention to the existing Vectorman lore, Sludge Barge ships fly directly to the sun to dispose of waste, and this is very consistent throughout the games. 


His literal opening cutscene from Vectorman had him explicitly return from the sun with his ship via text, and the cutscene of the second game outright shows him flying it to the sun with the same casual energy as a garbageman (putting on music to jam to for the heck of it). Even after his ship got attacked on the way to the sun, he made it back to Earth while shooting enemies as a helicopter. The text from the game’s manual also confirms this was a routine sludge barge, meaning these ships fly sludge to the sun and back in relatively easy trips. So, the distance and nature of the trip isn’t really able to be contested, and we know Vector pilots ships there both in and out of combat. He can obviously pilot himself when he turns into a ship that dodges meteors or enemy fire at this speed, and even in human form atop a flying sludge barge of the same speed, he can very consistently dodge and countershoot meteors in all the levels of this the game has, or tank getting struck by meteors while on the ship. 


Given the speed of the ship and meteors traveling relative to it, this kind of relativistic kinetic energy is at least 16.47 Megatons of TNT. As for internal consistency, both his ship and human form can tank these attacks numerous times (10 overall due to his health bar), and these levels do actually happen as evidenced by the manual. This also doubles for speed, because he’d obviously be reacting at this speed to dodge meteors while flying through space in both forms. This lands 27-83% Lightspeed in relative simple timeframes like 30 minutes to 10 minutes, which fits, given these levels take a few minutes at most and do not reach the sun by the time it is finished in the case of the barge. For speed, there might be some support with his laser weapons, which share various properties of real-world lasers, though not entirely. The energy shot is described as a beam, but it causes explosions. The stronger Super Energy Shot ricochets off walls in an attempt at reflection, but it bounces off all surfaces rather than something like a mirror. The baser laser however doesn’t do either, is addressed as a laser by the manual, and dubbed “laser beam” by Vector when talking of weapon names. It blasts enemies apart without appearing to cause explosions directly and is a straight energy shot, without any of the other downsides the others have. Given this, it’s possible / likely this could qualify as a legitimate laser, and Vector as well as his enemies can move in tandem with it. Come to think of it, he does collect photons throughout his journeys as energy sources, which are present in light as well. Hmm…


Pulseman

Now, let’s move to Pulseman. First, what’s up with his crazy speed? Well, this is the easiest one to justify. Pulseman regularly leaps inside wires as electricity through Volteccer, and reacts while moving at that speed to leap between wires in platforming for example. He can match Veil, who similarly uses the move, and somewhat move that fast without using Volteccer (granted only about 27.5% Lightspeed but still). He also travels inside a TV/Technology to go fight around circuitboards, where he travels inside wires there, before doing the same thing in the real world. His reaction while moving this fast is crucial to getting to other areas via wires, thereby making it necessary for his journey that he would react that fast. Pulseman’s profile from the manual also describes him moving from TV to TV via light, so his electricity being this fast is not exactly the hardest thing to argue. Speaking of, level descriptions from the game further confirm that these are wires multiple times, so the intent and thus result of him moving at high relativistic speeds is clear. 


Next, like VectorMan, you may be curious about adapting this to Kinetic Energy, as the asteroids from his section were. Normally this would be possible, especially since we have a direct weight value of 45 kilograms via his profile (nearly 100 lbs). The issue is the manual descriptions actually talk about what Volteccer does, and even with the original game, this means he can’t scale in kinetic energy to it; simply because it doesn’t really have any. It is described as his turning into a mass of electricity, and electricity itself doesn’t really have mass to make Kinetic Energy mean much. For example, people can survive lightning strikes despite their traveling at hundreds of times faster than sound, because there is not notable mass and thus not notable kinetic energy. The real reason it is dangerous and fatal sometimes is because it is an electrical object, and too many volts to our bodies will kill us. Pulseman’s attack is the same sort of thing, damaging through raw electrical power rather than just ramming you to death with physical force. Even in game, he is pretty blatantly turning into electricity, therefore removing his own mass, so to speak. So, unfortunately for Pulse, he can’t really get any KE values despite his crazy speed. 


One last argument would be a potential starry sky type feat of sorts at the end of the game. Pulseman chases Waruyama into the Galaxy Gang arcade game, which explodes around them when he loses to blow up the building outside. This area has stars in it, and is obviously a space game, so, couldn’t you argue this is a literal galaxy and thus destroying the game would be a galaxy-centric attack in cyberspace terms? Not really. While computer areas throughout the game appear to have stars in them, there isn’t anything to really imply this can be scaled to anybody. The computer worlds are created through… being computers and humans being programmers, not really just making it like a reality warper. The game in question was “developed” by the Galaxy Gang per the manual, but that is because it’s a literal arcade game. We’re never shown anything to imply characters could create objects like this rather then just making the worlds as technology does to make digital spaces. Even in the case of the destruction of the game, Pulseman travels to code areas of the game for the real hideout of Waruyama, and at that point it's just a digital area inside like anything else. There’s nothing to really substantiate nor prove any digital world arguments for Pulseman here, so it’s inapplicable to scale to him.


Verdict

Like my other recent verdicts, this will be divided into four categories. I’ve also written a small script for this because yes. Enjoy niche Sega scrimbo action!

Firepower

Starting with firepower, it may come as a bit of a surprise, but VectorMan solidly outmatches Pulseman in all areas. 


Going over their baser feats, they are roughly similar all things considered. Both can blow up or destroy blocks about their size with weapons, compete with foes who can do the same, and destroy all kinds of robots without any trace left (even ones much larger). Applying consistent numbers on these, like assuming energy blasts from foes are plasma, is about a losing battle for either, considering how similar both are in that regard. Both their enemies have done the standard of shaking areas via ground moves, and Vector destroying the Sludge Barge likely matches Pulse destroying the T.M.N. 


The best calculations for both in raw power come from their final bosses in their original game, being from WarHead and Dr. Waruyama, respectively. Waruyama’s theoretical plasma attacks equal nearly 8 tons of TNT, and he’d likely be stronger than the T.M.N’s near 38 tons of TNT. The latter is much less supported then Waruyama already, but let’s support it for sake of the argument. WarHead is very likely the creator of a large storm in the backdrop of his final battle with VectorMan, like the tornado swirling around, which requires at least 1 kiloton of TNT’s worth in energy to create. Even if you went with lower tornado yields (which don’t really make sense given how much stuff the twister was throwing around), an EF0 and EF1 would land 20 and 200 tons of TNT. The former outmatches Waruyama, and while it is weaker than T.M.N, this was a casual example of power not related to his actual attacks, which would be likely stronger. The 200 ton example on the other hand outmatch both, and again, these are lowballs. Being more accurate to the gauged destruction thus lands a kiloton, meaning VectorMan will always maintain a sizable edge in raw power and durability.


But wait, what about kinetic energy via Volteccer? Well, as we covered, Pulse wouldn’t have sizable mass in this form, and thus not really have kinetic energy that strong. Like lightning, it is dangerous from other factors like heat and voltage, not pure force. Even in that vein, VectorMan has a more supported notion of tanking meteors while traveling through space at relativistic speeds. At minimum in a fairly simple lowball of 30 minutes for these trips, the resulting energy would be over 16 megatons of TNT, and Vector can tank 10 of these before dying in the minigame. Again, this is the lowest yield, not using quicker timeframes for the ship / projectiles that would bump this further, and not even touching how Vector can tank enemy ships as large as he is ramming into him in the other bonus games. 


No matter how you look at it, VectorMan’s arguments for greater firepower and a tougher exoskeleton will always have more legs to stand on, ensuring he takes the edge in firepower. 

Speed

Still, not all battles are decided by who has the bigger gun, as evidenced by all the quickdraws opponents have won out in since the days of the wild west. Looking into speed, you’d expect Pulseman to retain a sizable edge here, and I wouldn’t blame you. His gameplay is all about speed; building up energy to bounce around the room as literal relativistic energy that can travel through wires. At baser levels, both can dodge missiles or energy blasts from other robots in gameplay, but Pulseman’s speed with Volteccer, as well as keeping up with that speed or faster foes like Veil, makes him seem a shoe-in for higher speed. 


In comparison, while VectorMan may not play like a speedster, he’s by no means a slug in comparison. Remember, he regularly pilots sludge barges to the sun in short timeframes, and bonus levels directly described as such have him shoot down enemies or dodge meteors while traveling at these speeds. That’s at least 27% Lightspeed, and can get as high as 83% Lightspeed through a timeframe as short as 10 minutes. Actually, these numbers are quite similar to Pulseman’s own, which sit around 50-90% Lightspeed from sources on electricity within a wire. Still, at lower ends for both, Pulseman is around twice as fast, and has kept up with foes outright superior in speed to him before such as Veil. Add in his numerous ways to increase his speed, and VectorMan is initially at a disadvantage in speed. 

Experience

So, despite VectorMan’s dominant strength advantage, Pulseman could potentially get the jump on him if he had the skill and experience to outmatch him. 


Going into that comparison, both are actually about even in all fields. Both have taken on scores of sentries and robot foes all around the world, from sub-zero areas to scorching firepits. They’ve scoured dark and dangerous areas, fought flying enemies, escaped danger while underwater, or even copycat foes like Acrobat and Veil. They’re no stranger to odd strategies and circumstances, like Vector fighting twisters or battling enemies while in a twister, or Pulse punching enemy bombs back to sender against submarines. They’ve taken on numerous drones one after the other in bosses, done some pretty hardcore platforming for split-second decisions, and used some good physical movement with backflips or jump kicks. Even variety overall is about the same, with the same kinds of varied foes across differing environments like various bugs for Vector, given both have fought shadow / ghost-like bosses before. 


Fighting stronger foes and evading their attacks isn’t much of a challenge, given Pulseman beat Veil, who was described as his superior in every way. Both don’t have much examples of years of experience, given Pulseman becoming a superhero seems rather recent and VectorMan was mostly a ordinary Orbot beforehand. Pulse turning Beatrice good again before the plot implies a time fighting against Galaxy Gang that we don’t see, but he is still a young teenage boy who only started fighting to stop G.G, and not trained from youth or anything. Even Vector’s adventures were all in about the same timeframe, taking place over 15 days in the first game and the second taking place right after WarHead’s mayhem. Given the similar nature and timeframe of their adventures, we’ll call experience a tie. 

Arsenal

With neither being able to reliably outskill each other, per se, the final category is for who has the better versatility, or rather, the better arsenal. 


Jumping into their various tools and powers, both have plenty of useful tricks, but there’s no denying VectorMan’s superiority here; both in quantity and quality. Both can launch functionally unlimited energy blasts normally with Vector’s Rapid Fire Gun and Pulse’s Slash Arrow, but VectorMan’s omni-directional use and varied power-ups for spread fire or spiraling blasts ensure greater base versatility before their other tools come in. Once they do, Pulseman is kind of one-note, to be frank. Both have healing power-ups that can be found but are not innate, meaning each get them or neither do for sake of fairness. Beyond that, Pulseman only really has one item to note that we’ll discuss later, as opposed to the much wider variety VectorMan gets. We’re talking multiple full-body shields that shield him while damaging you for attacking him, high-speed energy beams of increasing power that can make large explosions or bounce around the area for other strikes, more arcing projectiles, or the massive AOE of Orb and Overkill on top of their greater power. And, all of this is just weapons he can pick up, not his varied forms or assimilations. 


Once we step into more ability-centric categories, Pulseman does start to showcase greater potential. His Sparkling State is accessed just by moving and running, making sure he doesn’t need to worry about his tools “running out of ammo” or things like that necessarily. These electric powers grant the obvious Volteccer, which is a speed-boost move that makes him invincible to foes while tearing through them with intense power. Even shorter versions like a harming jump of electricity are quite useful, as are the previously mentioned ranged Slash Arrow or close-ranged Pulse Rush punch. The Lightning Dash also boosts his speed for an afterimage move while making him invincible for the duration, even placing him in Sparkling State for more usages of Volteccer. Pair that with Voltec Energy for permanent usage of Sparkling State, and Voltman can use Volteccer as much as he wants realistically speaking.


That is a pretty notable arsenal, but once again limited by the small amount and simple purpose it all has. While powerful and useful in their own right, it doesn’t really lend any hax to get rid of the strength advantage VectorMan maintains. It helps him avoid hits via his invincible moves, but they still have cooldown periods where he is physical and can be harmed. VectorMan already has good mobility himself with double-jump rocket boosts, and even the likely high temperature or electric power of Volteccer can’t really take him down given his body has functioned just fine in similar environments or shrugged off energy attacks before. When comparing more natural powers, Morph and Assimilation grant VectorMan far more variety and useful powers than Pulseman has really seen in a one-on-one fight. 


He’s used Jet or Spaceship forms to fly around the area with powerful energy blasts, missile forms to smash walls easily, greater aquatic prowess (granted things likely wouldn’t go there), drills to smash through floors, and intense AOE / explosive powers with the Bomb transformation. He’s no stranger to speed boosting forms like his buggy or Skate examples, and his ability to react at that greater speed then he can normally move means he’d have no trouble adapting to or matching Volteccer’s speed in the long run even if he is slower overall. He’s even used similar invincible forms that destroy enemies on contact like Jet and Tornado, while also boosting his speed to boot. 


His other vehicle forms like Tank and multiple ships grant even stronger firepower, with the former being much too bulky on top of the noted power difference for Pulseman to overcome. Assimilation grants even more to play with, and while he does need to find these or his other powers to use them, we’re already granting Pulseman a tool that circumvents all his normal limitations and is much more rare game-wise. Laying them out, VectorMan has more full-body shells that damage you on contact, armored forms with stabbing attacks, or the armored Rhino Beetle that can charge through and one-shot enemies even past their armor. Fire Ant and Tick Assimilation lets him turn red hot physically and blasts torrents of flame or just punch you like Baymax, and all of this is far more versatile than Pulseman has ever really had to deal with.


While Pulseman’s Volteccer and other moves are impressive, they simply can’t bypass the existing gap in power, only postpone VectorMan hitting him. Vector’s similar, albeit generally inferior speed, allows all the time he needs to use these sorts of move to match Volteccer like Tornado, and his various stat amps match the invincible nature of it. Even its ability to one-shot regular foes does not work on bosses, only damage them, and Vector’s far higher power would ensure he can tank it the same way. While he wouldn’t necessarily be able to harm him past it, even with moves like Overkill, the AOE and all-encompassing nature of his attacks like his various weapon settings ensures he’ll be able to exploit the pauses in-between usages of Volteccer. 


What’s more, Pulseman’s fatal flaw is that he needs to move in order to use Volteccer at all. In closed off spaces like against his bosses, he is usually unable to run up to the required speed, and forced to rely on lesser levels of speed like Slash Arrow or Pulse Rush. Given how useful Volteccer is in helping him evade attacks or maintain his speed edge, that is a major downside when he was already outmatched in variety. Forms like Tornado, while limited, do usually last longer than Volteccer while still maintaining their power (30 seconds vs Pulseman having no spaces to bounce off), meaning VectorMan will always find a chance to get hits past this powerful but still limited technique. While his power-ups can mitigate this by keeping him in the Sparkling State, giving him it off the bat is far from how his game plays, where he would ordinarily need to find it. Under this standard, VectorMan would get access to all of his similar items like Morph and Assimilation, ensuring he has the necessary tools to eventually catch Pulse slipping. Even if we took their manuals as law and gave them things like extra lives for sake of argument, Vector’s multiplier gives varying levels that give him up to a ten times bonus on health or extra lives gained. No matter which way this battle goes, VectorMan will always have the greater arsenal in the short and long run. 

Conclusion

VectorMan

Advantages: 

  • Stronger and tougher

  • Wider arsenal overall 

  • Has numerous counter-options to Volteccer as an option no matter how much Pulseman can use it (Similar invincible forms, speed-boosts, widespread AOE moves, etc)

  • Greater attack variety and usefulness

  • Powers and forms last longer, granting more ways to outlast Pulseman.

  • Won this fight twice in other takes on the idea


Equal:

  • Similar experience and skill

  • Health Items


Disadvantages:

  • Generally slower, but not by much

  • Lacks methods of directly bypassing Volteccer

  • More limited by arsenal than the innate powers Pulseman has

  • PS2 game got snuffed so bad man

  • Got his flow stolen by WALL-E

Pulseman

Advantages:

  • Generally faster with moves like Volteccer

  • Maintains better innate powers as opposed to collecting items

  • Untouchable while in Lightning Dash or Volteccer

  • Has the better VS Wiki page


Equal:

  • Similar experience and skill

  • Health Items


Disadvantages:

  • Weaker and less durable

  • Much less varied arsenal

  • Volteccer can be matched and countered by numerous items in VectorMan’s arsenal

  • Volteccer’s limited direct usage leaves Pulseman open to items like Tornado or Overkill

  • Absurdly overlooked (more so than VectorMan, which is just sad)


Ultimately, this battle is generally straightforward where it really counts. VectorMan’s far higher strength and durability isn’t a hurdle Pulseman can reliably jump over, and while he may be generally faster, VectorMan can still keep up with him to the degree that he would be able to get the hits he needs. Neither can really outskill each other and have been doing this for the same length of time, leaving it down to their arsenals, which leaves VectorMan solidly in the lead. His far greater variety gives him way more options for attacking Pulseman, more methods for defense, ways to amp his stats, pepper the area with hard-hitting AOE, or match the speed of Volteccer with forms like Tornado. The more long-lasting nature of these forms, even if slightly, always allows VectorMan the time needed to exploit the flaws of Volteccer, especially considering Pulseman needs to move to maintain Sparkling State. Even if we gave him the tools to maintain it indefinitely, the Volteccer itself can not last forever, and has pauses in-between usage, however brief they may be. With that flaw, and VectorMan’s more lasting forms like Jet or Tornado, as well as AOE in Morphs/weapons like Bomb or Overkill, there’s nothing stopping VectorMan from toughing things out while outmatching Pulseman with the sheer versatility his arsenal holds. Guess the magnitude of this Vector just left his foe without a pulse, man. 


The winner… is VectorMan. 

Final Tally


VectorMan (1) - Round 1 Fight


Pulseman (0) - Better luck next time man, you’re still goated.



Closing

So… been a bit. Long story short, I’ve been very busy with projects for other bloggers (Doom vs Vecna for Bang’s Blogs and Darkwing Duck vs Inspector Gadget for Capejedi’s Blogs) and thus I haven’t been able to work on Ethan Hunt vs Sam Fisher… like at all. I might as well be starting it over again at this point. I mainly did this as a fun little gift for y’all as an apology for being gone this long. 


Like my other sega scrimblo blogs, you might be asking “why this one?” Well, I initially went off the Sega forum debate between them when I found it, but it does have a bit more then that.


  • Both are robotic Sega protagonists who came out about the same time as each other (only a year apart) as one-man armies taking on a planet of rogue robots bent on destroying / enslaving humanity in futuristic eras where technological beings are sentient (WarHead and Dr. Waruyama / Galaxy Gang, both trying to take over the world via these methods).

  • Their enemies were initially good people who helped both robots and humanity, but were accidentally corrupted by their mechanical nature, which led to their turning to begin with (WarHead was accidentally connected to a nuclear bomb, and this disrupted his role as the overseer of Earth’s restoration Orbots. Waruyama was originally Yoshiyama, Pulseman’s father, who was a loving scientist that inserted himself inside a computer to be with the C-Life woman he loved. Upon exiting, his mind would be corrupted into Waruyama, who was bent on conquering the world through terrorism). 

  • Being the singular exception to the evil plans of these terrorists, both would fight a worldwide battle through all forces across all the countries and areas of the world as a newly made superhero (VectorMan was unhackable, and thus chased WarHead all across the world to defeat him. Pulseman was not allied with Galaxy Gang, reformed a member of them in Beatrice, and fought against them as a hero without other real help).

  • Their games in general were praised and are still to this day for the sheer quality of the spritework they did and technical mastery that few games had at the time. Even still, competition and marketing of the games led to their falling out of the spotlight and not really being talked about much these days for no reason (VectorMan only has 2 games, with further entries being cancelled despite potential. Pulseman never saw the outside of Japan for years, and is largely overlooked despite being the first project from Game Freak and a consistent part of their history in books from their artists).

  • Both have been compared to each other by some fans at points, having come out only about a year apart from each other and being pit against each other in old sega blogs (which VectorMan also won, funnily enough).


Ultimately, it’s not a smorgasbord of connections or anything, but it does make solid sense as an idea. Futuristic robot superheroes acting as one-man-armies against good-turned-evil robots scheming to take over the world by destroying the human part of it (on top of the forgotten by time despite the polish of their games). I think there’s a good dynamic to be had, and even wrote a script for it (yes, really) because I’m made like that. The debate and blog really fascinated me, and I loved learning about both characters. Thanks for reading, and I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long. Rest assured, the quality of my work isn’t going to suffer from that, and I’ll continue to give you all the best of the best, especially in my blog after Ethan vs Sam. What will that be? Well, here’s a little sneak peek of what’s to come, wah wah wah…



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VectorMan vs Pulseman (Sega vs Sega): Round 1 Fight Blogs

  "It will not be a world of man versus machine. It will be a world of man plus machines.”  - Ginni Rometty VectorMan , the outstanding...