Overall 8.5 Graphics 8 Sound 8.5 Addictive 4.5 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 9.5
6
Ecco the Dolphin Review G@mehe@d
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.
Graphics 8 Sound 8 Addictive 5 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 06-06-16
Review Replies: 2
10
Ecco the Dolphin Totts
For anyone unfamiliar with the Ecco games let me explain the premise, you take on the role of a dolphin and you have to defeat an evil alien race by solving a series of puzzles, working together with your aquatic pals and charging and head butting enemies. It was every bit as weird as it sounds but thanks to some great game-play mechanics and huge levels it was also great fun and provided a refreshing and environmentally friendly alternative to blowing away bad guys with big guns.
The insanely difficult original was released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1992 and was developed by a company called Novotrade International. It was a side scrolling action adventure in which you had to save your ocean dwelling chums from an alien race called the Vortex. It was one of the first games that I bought that truly ran a shiver up and down my spine as even at the time it was released its status was already legendary.
Casting the player in the role of a dolphin was a genius idea and this game was positively dripping with creativity and instead of forcing you along it allowed the player to progress at their own pace which is a real rarity in gaming. Sega were always looking to compete with Nintendo and they were open to new ideas as they attempted to keep up hence games like this. It’s hard to imagine a developer being allowed to realise such a bizarre concept in the current climate and that’s a shame because Ecco was a beauty of a game.
Ecco gets parted from his pod right at the start of the game and they are sucked away into a whirlpool leaving him behind to figure out the mystery of what is happening in the ocean. Through talking to friendly sea creatures, mostly other dolphins and whales, you learn about the evil alien race known as the Vortex who came to earth to scoop up marine life for their dinner. Ecco would have to use an Atlantean time machine to travel back in time and defeat the Vortex queen.
The game-play was excellent with a great deal of depth but it had one hell of a learning curve. Players could build speed by tapping a button and enemies were despatched by charging them and butting them with your nose. You could also jump out of the water and perform a series of dramatic spins. In addition another button allowed you to sing which could be used to communicate with marine buddies or interact with objects and by holding it down you could utilise your echolocation to reveal parts of the map. You also had a health meter and a breath meter and you had to return to the surface periodically to suck in air through your blowhole. If you were touched by any of the wide range of enemies you sustained damage and if you didn’t keep your air topped up the breath meter would run down and then begin to affect your health. You could also be healed by magical shells or by eating fish.
It played out like an underwater platform game and was purposefully difficult to work out how to progress. Generally the route forward could only be discovered through trial and error and they challenged you to pull off some tricky manoeuvres if you wanted to be successful. Probably the biggest criticism you could level at Ecco is the lack of balance as challenges ranged from ridiculously easy to mind-bendingly difficult. Ecco isnt completely defenseless either, with a dashing attack and sonar.
There were a wide range of enemies to defeat including basic grunts like jellyfish and poisonous shellfish as well as bigger foes like sharks and octopuses or octopi. Ecco gained further abilities as his adventure unfolded so he could breathe underwater for longer and use his echolocation as a weapon to freeze enemies before charging them.
There were twenty five levels in the game and each of them was massive so it provided hours and hours of game-play. It also featured some extremely difficult puzzles and working your way through the maze of levels all the way to the exciting conclusion was an epic struggle
Graphically the game looked gorgeous; the various underwater settings were teeming with life and movement and a range of visual effects brought the action to life. The music and sound effects were also very good and helped create the illusion of a mysterious underwater world.
It actually holds up pretty well to the passage of time and still makes for a different game-play experience although modern gamers may be ‘shocked’ and dismayed by the difficulty level in places. But playing this game at night in the dark I remember was a truly haunting experience.
Review Rating: 3.6/5
Submitted: 02-20-12
Review Replies: 0
5.5
THE VENTS!!!!!!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THE VENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! greatmarine
This game... This game *sigh*... want to love it, but I know it will only hurt me again. This is an example of a lesson which all should learn, poor level design can COMPLETELY DESTROY AMAZING POTENTIAL. It's beautiful, sounds great, is good handling, and from what I've seen and read, it has an awesome story and a lot of content, but it spend all to much time in cramped caves with currents. The controls seem built for wide open space, but the level design seems to want otherwise. I pushed through the caves, but the vents, how thought the vents were a good idea, "you know what this needs, not just more mazes, but mazes path the push out of the maze" "Did you guys hear bill's great idea, give bill all the funding". I wouldn't be this mad if the rest wasn't this good
Graphics: Beautiful, it has great palette, a nice style, I really like it
Sound: Along with Ristar, the Streets in Rage series, the Sonic games, and Dynamite Headdie, this convinced me of how great the genesis sound chip is, it has a very atmospheric soundtrack which rarely gets old
Addictiveness: It was engaging, but the vents killed the mood
Story: Looks epic, from what I read on Wikipedia, but the vents broke my spirit along with my will to live
Depth: Read the story one
Difficulty: It didn't just beat me, it hurt on some deep level, it wouldn't be difficult if the level design was better, as it is it should get the subtitle of "Crusher of Men"
In conclusion, Ecco the Dolphin: Crusher of Men would be a prefect storm of greatness, but then the level design comes out from the wood work, smacks his head on the wall and shouts " I'S HELPEDING", and from what I can gather doesn't get better
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 4 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 3.5/5
Submitted: 02-25-18
Updated: 03-25-18
Review Replies: 0
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