Canabalt is a minimalist pure-gameplay hard as nails high-score chaser, while Vector, is totally different. It is mission based, there are special moves to unlock that improve scores and visual satisfaction of your runs, slick & smooth realistic parkour animations, variety of moves with simple jumps or slides (depends on how close or far you are from the gaps or obstacles), multiple paths (from second chapter iirc) that require a bit of exploration and sacrificing to find them, objectives arent the usual run-as-far-as-you-can, and it actually has a story that unfolds as you go along. As far as side-scrolling runners go, i personally think this is one of the best in the genre.
