Ecco
the Dolphin
For
Sega Genesis
The
game for this weeks review is ,as you can read from the title, Ecco
the dolphin. A game in which you play a dolphin, swimming around
eating fish and exploring the ocean. Pretty simple right? WRONG!!!
This isn't some wish wash story you could pull from a mad-lib oh, no.
who then tells
him to look for an older geezer called the Asterite,
so old in fact that he is the oldest living thing.
Turns out he is missing an
orb, so Ecco heads to Atlantis to discover that everything was a part
of an ALIEN HARVEST and in order to defeat them he's going have to
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME.
He
then defeats the Asterite, gains magical powers, returns to the
present, goes back in time to the harvesting, uses said powers to
destroy the alien queen and rescue his pod. A very interesting story which is a big contrast to the games simple look.
The
music in the game is very atmospheric and
relaxing
at times when travelling through the deep
blue
sea. The sound effects however sound out of
place
and some are rather annoying.
If
your going to play this game, don't go in with the wrong mindset this
may look like a kiddies game but damn is it hard and confusing at
times. The in-game puzzles you can only really solve by
experimenting, there is no hand-holding here, although when I think
of it now it really does suit the lonely atmosphere of the game.
There are hints, but they come in cryptic messages and if you're
planning on solving the puzzles get ready to make many trips or your
going to run out of air.
Your character controls like an with squid with arthritis, so don't
expect have much accuracy in your movements especially dashing as
when avoiding obstacles as there's a high chance you will collide with the wall.
At
the time of release, the games graphics were pretty good, when
compared to today’s standards however it's pretty obvious to see
that the sprites would need touching up to before being released. Other things I'd like to see change would be the
backgrounds as they are a little too busy for my liking and the text scrolling which is
a little nauseating at least.
I
think the re-playability in this game lies in the absurdness of the
story as you have to play the game through multiple times to truly
understand how you got from diving out the ocean to travelling back
in time to use your special sonar powers to defeat the alien queen.
All
in all, Ecco the dolphin is a adventure through a bizarre plot filled
with rewarding harsh puzzles and buggy controls. If you don't mind the controls and wish to play a game with a good story that actually
requires thinking then buy the steam version instead , it's cheap at £1.99
and will make a good addition to your collection of games.
No comments:
Post a Comment