Since I'm being accused of being a <insert d word here> all over the internet, I'll qualify my Vectorman statement a little more. I thought the sticky out tongue smiley would indicate there was more to it than face value...
You won't be playing as Vectorman, in so much as he's not a selectable playable character, either as the driver or part of the vehicle.
There are some reasons for this.
First, we're making a game for a modern day gaming audience. As much as we like to include older characters and references for fans, we have a limited ability to do this as we're making a modern game to appeal to a modern audience. There is a good chance that many players of the game wouldn't have even been born when the final Vectorman game came out. Don't forget the character hasn't been the main star of a game since the Megadrive/Genesis era...
Second, we have rules on the vehicle design for the game. Everything has to be no smaller (or bigger) than a given footprint. Everyone complained the bikes last time had an advantage, they were harder to hit, could squeeze through small gaps other vehicles couldn't - and this has been one rule change we've made to ensure the game is more balanced and fairer. As Vectorman would have more than likely been required to be a motorbike (in keeping with the original game) - he was ruled out on these grounds too.
Third - and we've stressed this more than enough - we have to build a character roster that has variety, that is interesting, and which appeals to fans old and new. Part of that is representing characters from all ages of SEGA, and we still have some Genesis era ones to reveal, part of it is as the type of character is already represented, and part of it is that we weren't genuinely convinced that the character as it stood would be considered desirable by a modern audience (Daddy, what is that robot made of balls?).
That's before we get into the 'Who owns the license' question - but that's one for another day.
Does that mean that Vectorman isn't in the game FULL STOP. Maybe, maybe not. Look at this -> :P
You complain when we don't de-confirm, you complain when we do. You can't have it both ways. You also can't assume these decisions are taken lightly. We know how important characters are to people and we do our best to represent this is many ways. Be they playable characters, hazards, cameos, references in speech, achievements, musical cues and more.
But there are many valid reasons why every single character who has ever appeared in a SEGA game or on a SEGA system can't all be in one game.
And this is an example of why we come in here and talk. We have to manage your expectations sometimes. A lot of the time, what you want from the game isn't always what can be realistically done.
If someone wants to offer us an infinite budget and no time limits whatsoever, we'll happily put a team together to make a game with every single character in it that you want. We'll even include every genre of game ever, and have the entirety of Shenmue 3 in as a mini-game :P You might have to wait in Nukem timescales though.
The reality is, we don't have infinite budget or time. So get used to the idea that everything you want or demand won't happen - and in the meantime accept that we're doing the best we can within the limits we have.
You can now of course continue to accuse me of being a <insert d word here>, but at least you'll have to do it with the proper hard facts to hand :)
---
S0L
---
Contrary to Crimson Ryan, I totally see where this guy is coming from. They don't have infinite time or budget. SEGA themselves are not doing very well at the moment, so I imagine the contract Sumo got wouldn't have been in the billions or anything. Sumo Digital are a fantastic development team, and have worked with SEGA very closely for nearly a decade now. They are clearly huge SEGA fans, aware of the heritage, and blatantly grew up on Mega Drive themselves (Sumo are an English team, and the MD was way more popular than the SNES in the UK and Europe).
So what if Ryo isn't in it? This game looks way too awesome to not buy if you're a SEGA fan. I'm getting this.