Ecco the Dolphin is known to be one of the Genesis's finest games, a classic, an artistic work of programming and game design that showed that the Genesis was more than just a system for shallow, short action games. However good those action games were. Rather, a system that can please anyone, and try new things. Ecco received heaps of praise upon it's 1993 release, and it's incredibly easy to see why. It was ahead of its time in so many ways and it had a lot of really interesting ideas. I say IDEAS because I don't particularly agree that this game is good. I actually don't like it very much, and over the past few years more and more people have begun to share this view that Ecco the Dolphin isn't really a good game.

Don't get me wrong it isn't terrible, Ecco has a lot of really neat ideas; but it suffers from a lot of design issues that simply kill it's fun factor. 

Story B+: The story in Ecco the Dolphin isn't particularly deep, but I can't really think of a lot of console action games (yes Ecco classifies as an action based game) that had deep stories or even stories at all at the time. So what makes Ecco the Dolphin so special? The way it presents itself is the answer. Part of the games story is what you as the player experience throughout the game. The beginning is a notable example. You start off by swimming around in the ocean and just doing dolphin things, then out of nowhere when you jump up high enough the game throws a curve-ball at you. The screen flashes red and a loud storm occurs, you and several other sea creatures get sucked up into the air. Soon it stops, but unlike your family; you live. Soon ominous music plays, and both Ecco and the player feel the same thing. Scared and startled, you must figure out what exactly happened and where you go next. All of this was done in 5 or so minutes, no exposition dumps needed. You feel that shock and the fear just as Ecco would. That's brilliant game design and story telling. While there are bits of dialogue here and there, it's kept to a minimum and is only used when necessary. Much of Ecco's story telling is done through the environment and what you as the player are going through, and it might be one of the earliest examples of a game doing this right. Half Life did a very similar thing with it's story 5 years later, but it's intro took 15-20 minutes and felt rather tedious to be honest.

Gameplay D: I'm going to get a lot of flack for this... but I need to say it... Ecco the Dolphin has a lot of problems. The main issue with it is that the game designers didn't know if Ecco the Dolphin should be fast paced or slow paced. Ecco controls very fluidly and has a bit of a heavy delay to his control, this is fine, and it actually feels natural. Sadly the rest of the game (primarily the levels) weren't designed with this in mind. Sure, navigating the depths of the ocean is easy enough. The cracks begin to show when the game expects you to do things that demand precision and tight control. Like fighting insanely fast enemies that are far faster than you and can go through walls. To make things worse you can rarely escape them, and even if you are able to kill them with your insanely awkward thrust attack. They will simply re-spawn and harass you again. To make things worse they are placed in the WORST locations for combat. Even more appalling is Ecco's pathetically short recovery time. Now I am aware of Ecco's super sonar ability that you can pick up early in the game, but even this doesn't help much as it's rather awkward to execute and just facing the faster moving enemies is a hassle. Another annoying thing are the sections of certain levels that force you to move blocks to break barriers. Just picking up the blocks is a pain, but moving them is harder since Ecco carries a lot of momentum and you have little control of where the block goes. The final nail in the coffin is the lack of a proper checkpoint system. These levels are massive and the fact that there is no proper checkpoint system is ridiculous. All that negativity aside, the objective in each level is fairly straightforward, and when the game isn't pummeling you with cheap hits and the like the game can be fun. Controlling Ecco actually feels somewhat natural when you don't have to do the things I mentioned, and exploring the levels can be very enjoyable. I see a fun game here, but it's held back by really poor design in many areas. Thankfully the sequel fixed a lot of these issues.

Graphics A-: The graphics in this game are really well done. The oceans wildlife looks fantastic with tons of detail and above ocean backgrounds look almost painted. The sprites are very well animated, especially Ecco's. While this does affect his control a bit I will give the developers credit for Ecco's smooth and natural animation. The environments are also rather varied. Outside of ocean reefs you get to explore more icy environments, Atlantis, and you can even go back in time later in the game to prehistoric times. All of these settings look natural and well put together. My only major gripe is the occasional slowdown in some sections which can get in the way of playing the game. Also Ecco's sprite could've seen some more detail. Other then those couple of complaints the visual aspect of the game is really good.

Sound B: The music is rather atmospheric and compliments the games tone very well. It does have a bit of ear raping Genesis twang to it at times, but overall. Ecco the Dolphins sound track is good, but not great. I love the main theme though, it really get's you into whats in store for the experience. The sound effects are really bad though, more specifically one. Ecco's "hurt" sound. It's this high pitched sound that plays so often due to cheap hits that your ears my bleed all over the place just from hearing it so much.

Difficulty, Very Hard: Ecco the Dolphin is a very hard game, but for all the wrong reasons. Cheap hits, shoddy collision detection, lack of a proper checkpoint system, under-powered abilities and questionable level design all come together to create a game that is frustrating and brutal. In a bad way, not the "git gud" way.

OVERALL C-: I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for this one, but I did not enjoy Ecco the Dolphin, like at all. The only reason why I didn't completely rip this game apart was because there are things it does right, and it has a lot of really cool ideas and a cool story to boot, but as a GAME it doesn't work very well. I like Ecco the Dolphin as a concept, which it's sequel built upon and improved, but as a game. It's very, very flawed. I admire it's existence though, and some of it's ideas were used in the game so the future. Ecco the Dolphin is smart, but when it is given the task to play well it stumbles and lacks the grace of far more tried and true designs.

Oh hey, I remember this game. Loved it as a kid. However I highly recommend turning your layout off for reviews, as a matter of fact back when I was a mod I knew it was actually against the rules to have a layout on for reviews, unless I'm getting that mixed up with stories in the artistic forum. Anyway; It's a bit of an eyesore.

Frodlex : It's been a while since I've been on here, but I never remembered there being rules involving layouts on reviews. I'll change it for sure. I'm starting to agree that it's an eyesore.