• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Ecco the Dolphin

M3wThr33

Banned
I never really played any of them. I remember a friend's CD-X came with it and I thought it was pretty stupid in the 15 seconds I fooled around with it.
Is this series worth pursuing?
 
I thought Ecco fucking sucked. I don't know what "everyone else" saw in it. You swim around as long as your oxygen will allow you, solve stupid puzzles and die a lot. And when you die, there's no awesome animation. You just hear an odd sound effect and the screen quickly fades to black.

Yeah, leave the Ecco series alone.
 
http://web8.orcaserver.de/ecco/music/ecco2_genesis/index.php

Listen to some of the songs, especially Fault Zone, Trellia`s Bay, Time Travel....in all honesty..almost all of them are perfect. These are from Ecco The Dolphin: The Tides of Time

I really do adore this game for the music and the atmosphere, but I can understand the arguments against it.

FYI: I would love to see a Next Gen Ecco. You don't see alot of games that showcase underwater environments.
 
If you want something different and have enough patience it's a rewarding game with a steep learning curve. It plays almost the same as the 2D versions which is a feat in itself.
 
Didn't the team that did the ecco series do the new jaws game???
And at that time there was talk of them doing a new ecco after it I do believe, though it was most likely pure speculation from those ecco fans out there, you now how they get.





ecco.jpg
 
I played Ecco for the Genesis, it was pretty fun. Nice controls, pretty visuals. And the music was just enchanting.

I never beat the game. Never got close due to the game's high difficulty.
 
If you have patience, you'll like them.

Often you'll be swimming around aimlessly for several minutes before your goals become apparent. A lot of people complain about this but I feel it's part of the charm of the series.

Oh, and the PS2 version of Defender of the Future is superior in every way to the Dreamcast version, though the controls are still complicated and the difficulty is still often frustratingly high.
 
SKOPE said:
If you have patience, you'll like them.

Often you'll be swimming around aimlessly for several minutes before your goals become apparent. A lot of people complain about this but I feel it's part of the charm of the series.

It's a game that hasn't been dumbed down for the masses, even the hints are written in cryptic phrase.

Apparently the PS2 version has a compass so you'll get a little less lost.
 
I've always enjoyed them, to me they had some wierd underwater world charm I couldn't resist. And I loved how the Dreamcast one looked, and some of the puzzles were cool.

And I kinda like dolphins <shrug> Must be from the Hitchhikers guide.

But personally I couldn't recommend it to anyone. Gameplay is dull, and the difficulty is ridiculous. I mean ridiculous.
 
D-X said:
Apparently the PS2 version has a compass so you'll get a little less lost.
Indeed it does. Although it's too small to be useful. You still end up using the sonar to figure out where you are and where you're supposed to go.
 
I played the hell out of the Genesis versions, and even finished them both. I actually ordered the Sega CD ones from Estarland recently just to hear the wonderful music. The score for the Dreamcast game is lovely, too.
 
Hyoushi said:
The Dreamcast game is awesome. Very atmospheric and a nice challenge.
QFT

A great game, and one of the later levels is among the hardest, most sadistic ever (don't recall the name, but it was with all the suspended water in the air). Loved the game dearly.
 
I love Ecco, still do. I find it so peaceful for some reason, and I find it really satisfying. If you like calm, atmospheric games, I'd give it a try.
 
only ever played the genesis one and loved it. For me it was the way ecco controlled. The first time I played that game I think I probably spent like half an hour just in that first introductory area swimming around doing flips out of the water and whatnot.
 
Danthrax said:
I thought Ecco fucking sucked. I don't know what "everyone else" saw in it. You swim around as long as your oxygen will allow you, solve stupid puzzles and die a lot. And when you die, there's no awesome animation. You just hear an odd sound effect and the screen quickly fades to black.

Yeah, leave the Ecco series alone.

I actually always liked that it always ended in a mysterious way, it was quite scary in parts without there being any violence, I think it portrayed very well the mysteriousness of the ocean, surely not the cutesy one would expect from a Dolphin game. The graphics were quite amazing for the time too.
 
mCACGj said:
I love Ecco, still do. I find it so peaceful for some reason, and I find it really satisfying. If you like calm, atmospheric games, I'd give it a try.

I have to say that is exactly how I feel. My problem is that the peace is always disturbed by how difficult it gets. haha. I just lose interest eventually and swim around(which is still fun)

Now I suddenly have the urge to go play the DC version again hehe.
 
Danthrax said:
I thought Ecco fucking sucked. I don't know what "everyone else" saw in it. You swim around as long as your oxygen will allow you, solve stupid puzzles and die a lot. And when you die, there's no awesome animation. You just hear an odd sound effect and the screen quickly fades to black.

I know! Give Ecco a gun and the sharks can have lasers attached to their heads that should spice up the death animation!

I think you have missed the point of Ecco
 
The DC game just requires a little patience. It's really beautiful to look at and admire, and is actually pretty challenging as well. Whether or not you'll enjoy its style of play is uncertain until you try it out yourself.
 
GhaleonEB said:
QFT

A great game, and one of the later levels is among the hardest, most sadistic ever (don't recall the name, but it was with all the suspended water in the air). Loved the game dearly.
Hanging Waters. Man, that level was amazing, and a bitch -- without a doubt.
 
I think you have missed the point of Ecco

You swim around as long as your oxygen will allow you, solve stupid puzzles and die a lot. And when you die, there's no awesome animation. You just hear an odd sound effect and the screen quickly fades to black.

So he missed the point because he hates the time limit, the puzzles, and used the death sequence as an example of how lacking in effort the game is?

I don't agree with him, but the first two are valid reasons to dislike the game. And the third, well... While Ecco was beautiful, it is pretty odd that there was no death sequence.
 
I've always loved the part when you meet the Blue Whale in the first one.

Ecco is one of my favorite games to just pop in and play, if only to just swim around and do jumps out of the water and stuff.
 
Tain said:
So he missed the point because he hates the time limit, the puzzles, and used the death sequence as an example of how lacking in effort the game is?

I don't agree with him, but the first two are valid reasons to dislike the game. And the third, well... While Ecco was beautiful, it is pretty odd that there was no death sequence.

As far as I can recall no Ecco game had a death sequence. I certainly wouldn't rate the game less because of it.
 
D-X said:
As far as I can recall no Ecco game had a death sequence. I certainly wouldn't rate the game less because of it.

Considering how often you die, I consider it a good thing. Nothing is worse than having to suffer through a lengthy death/game over sequence 50 times.
 
Top Bottom