Ecco the Derphin Review

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.

Ecco goes on a journey to look for Big Blue, some old whale, 

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.