ECCO THE DOLPHIN - 9.0/10.0
Posted By: Joe Talladira

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Ecco The Dolphin is one of those titles that brings back fond memories for many 16-bit Sega fans. So, it was no surprise that the Dreamcast sequel would be greeted with great interest. Unfortunately, I never played the 16-bit incarnations; but if they were anything like Defender of the Future, I have to wonder why this slippery mammal drew such praise. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think Ecco is a bad game, so hear me out before you send that hate mail.

For the uninitiated, the story is simple, yet intriguing, and well narrated during the game's real-time intro. You play the role of Ecco, a dolphin destined to protect Earth from an evil-alien race known only as "The Foe." It's the same old "save the world" story we've seen a million times, but how many times have you done it as a dolphin?

As soon as you take control of our slippery hero, there are three things that will immediately come to your attention:

First, this game is a visual tour de force that stands with the best of them, Dreamcast or otherwise. The underwater environment features incredible attention to detail with swaying plantlife, schools of fish, turtles, and other wildlife---both friendly, dangerous, and animated very gracefully. Ecco himself looks absolutely stunning, seemingly devoid of any imperfections.

Second, the rich effects and ambient-music tracks do a fantastic job of immersing you into this underwater world, complementing the visuals beautifully. It has been joked about before, but it's true, Defender of the Future sometimes seems so realistic that it could pass for a great "Dolphin Simulator."

Third, the controls are extremely fluid and deceptively simple. Tapping the A button repeatedly allows you to move Ecco as quickly or as slowly as you desire, while holding the button down lets him glide through the water at a set speed, gradually losing momentum; B charges/evades; and X is your Sonar used to communicate with the world around you, basically like a Talk command. The simple set of commands is used to execute a large number of different tasks. As the game progresses, Ecco learns new abilities, such as surrounding himself with schools of glowing fish to light his way or rendering sharks immobile.

Thankfully, playing Ecco isn't going to cause anyone's hair to turn gray, or leave a smoldering pile of smashed controllers by the Dreamcast out of frustration. Unfortunately, in this case, raising the difficulty level a notch or throwing in a few more enemies, at least towards the later levels, might have made it more appealing. The difficulty curve doesn't shift much from start to finish, sometimes making it seem like the stage you just cleared was easier than the one before it. At the very least, there is a fairly long list of stages to complete, with enough scenic changes from one to the next to keep even the most discriminating eyes happy. Aside from that, a minor annoyance with the two available-camera angles in tight areas is the only other negative point worth mentioning.

Ecco is easily the type of game that one can use to drown out the stress of everyday life, losing oneself for hours at a time. However, the same qualities that make Ecco a soothing game to sit down and relax to, make it a bit dull to the "twitch" gamer with a short attention span. Then again, it's not often a game this beautiful and unique comes along, so it's time for those "twitch" gamers to take a break and go for a swim!