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Ecco the Dolphin
Text Review
When the rest of his pod is abducted in a mysterious flash of light and spout of water, the titular dolphin Ecco has no choice but to try and rescue them. By that description alone, it should be clear that Ecco the Dolphin is one of the strangest games to gain mass market popularity, and that’s without mentioning the time travel and aliens.
Perhaps it’s the unusual premise that made Ecco the Dolphin popular. Sure, Sonic is an anthropomorphic hedgehog, but it’s not every day that you get to play as a regular animal, let alone a dolphin. There’s something enjoyable about making Ecco speed through the water and leap into the air. His animations are fluid and beautiful, and it makes the game fun to watch. When it was first released on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Ecco the Dolphin was graphically impressive and mysterious. Today the game has lost a lot of its graphical splendor, but it’s still as cryptic as ever, maybe even more so.
Ecco the Dolphin is a game that often, only subtly, tells you what to do. For instance, to start the game in earnest you need to leap high out of the water in order to trigger the kidnapping waterspout. The only clue towards this goal is an optional conversation with a fellow dolphin who asks Ecco how high he can jump. In an era of XBLA, Virtual Consoles, and Steam where manuals are largely nonexistent, it’s frustrating for the game itself to not point you in the right direction.
Ecco the Dolphin is also very hard. Heck, for a game about dolphins, it’s brutally hard. Not only do you have to keep track of your health, but you also have to keep an eye on your air meter as well. In a game where much of it takes place in labyrinthine underwater caverns, maintaining oxygen levels is definitely challenging.
In the modern era, Ecco the Dolphin is worth playing. Just don’t expect it to be the revelatory game it was in the past.
- Brian Easton
Developer: Novotrade International
Publisher: Sega
Platform(s): PC, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Virtual Console, XBLA
Perhaps it’s the unusual premise that made Ecco the Dolphin popular. Sure, Sonic is an anthropomorphic hedgehog, but it’s not every day that you get to play as a regular animal, let alone a dolphin. There’s something enjoyable about making Ecco speed through the water and leap into the air. His animations are fluid and beautiful, and it makes the game fun to watch. When it was first released on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Ecco the Dolphin was graphically impressive and mysterious. Today the game has lost a lot of its graphical splendor, but it’s still as cryptic as ever, maybe even more so.
Ecco the Dolphin is a game that often, only subtly, tells you what to do. For instance, to start the game in earnest you need to leap high out of the water in order to trigger the kidnapping waterspout. The only clue towards this goal is an optional conversation with a fellow dolphin who asks Ecco how high he can jump. In an era of XBLA, Virtual Consoles, and Steam where manuals are largely nonexistent, it’s frustrating for the game itself to not point you in the right direction.
Ecco the Dolphin is also very hard. Heck, for a game about dolphins, it’s brutally hard. Not only do you have to keep track of your health, but you also have to keep an eye on your air meter as well. In a game where much of it takes place in labyrinthine underwater caverns, maintaining oxygen levels is definitely challenging.
In the modern era, Ecco the Dolphin is worth playing. Just don’t expect it to be the revelatory game it was in the past.
- Brian Easton
Developer: Novotrade International
Publisher: Sega
Platform(s): PC, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Virtual Console, XBLA
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