Ristifer
Member
This is what I was wondering, too. I knew about the original having fucked up origins, but I've never heard about anything similar with Ecco Jr.
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Is there a weirder game than Ecco The Dolphin? both in content and context
- Thread starter Salsa
- Start date
Dragon1893
Member
Played the games back in the day but had no idea about this stuff, crazy.
These games were really unique, beautiful visuals and the music really added a lot to the atmosphere.
I loved going all the way to the bottom and then speeding to the surface and try to jump as high as I could.
These games were really unique, beautiful visuals and the music really added a lot to the atmosphere.
I loved going all the way to the bottom and then speeding to the surface and try to jump as high as I could.
Thanks, OP. I always knew something was fishy about this game, it was one of my favorites in college.
You're right. I remember playing this around that time.
You're right. I remember playing this around that time.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Just ordered the Genesis Collection and Ecco PS2. I've gotta experience this shit for myself.
are you contrarian by nature? what DO you find intetesting? by your reaction nothing ever created by anyone can be considered weird cuz ''so what, someone made up some shit...big whoop''.
Thanks, OP. I always knew something was fishy about this game, it was one of my favorites in college.
You're right. I remember playing this around that time.
i love The Immortal. so freaking crazy. first played when Iwas 9 years old and somehow made it pretty far but til this day ive never beaten it
Stiler
Member
On top of that, Michael Jackson (yes THAT Micheal Jackson) was a fan of the game. He even visited them,
https://twitter.com/edannunziata/status/370759823773560833
https://twitter.com/edannunziata/status/370759823773560833
AWizardDidIt
Member
Huh. I've always loved the genesis Ecco games and consider them highly underrated classics but I had no idea they were based on drug studies. Definitely makes sense though, and I think that only makes me appreciate them more.
Ecco for me was always a weird confluence of just absolutely mellow aesthetic beauty and clammy palmed claustrophobic tension. The games looked and sounded utterly beautiful and I consider the first game and tides of time as absolutely at the pinnacle of 16 bit art and sound. Especially with the Sega CD version soundtracks, the sights and sounds of those games could just put you in the most hypnotically relaxed moods.
Oh, except that those games are also hard as balls and the later levels in both require you navigating underwater deathtrap mazes while the threat of depleting oxygen ever ticks lower and lower as you desperately search for an underwater pocket of air that will give you sanctuary for a few brief moments before you dive deeper still.
And then at a point in both games the harmonic images and sounds become this carnival of the weird and horrifying with strange future environments and Giger-esque aliens and machines.
What strange and wonderful games those were. Never played the Dreamcast one though.
Ecco for me was always a weird confluence of just absolutely mellow aesthetic beauty and clammy palmed claustrophobic tension. The games looked and sounded utterly beautiful and I consider the first game and tides of time as absolutely at the pinnacle of 16 bit art and sound. Especially with the Sega CD version soundtracks, the sights and sounds of those games could just put you in the most hypnotically relaxed moods.
Oh, except that those games are also hard as balls and the later levels in both require you navigating underwater deathtrap mazes while the threat of depleting oxygen ever ticks lower and lower as you desperately search for an underwater pocket of air that will give you sanctuary for a few brief moments before you dive deeper still.
And then at a point in both games the harmonic images and sounds become this carnival of the weird and horrifying with strange future environments and Giger-esque aliens and machines.
What strange and wonderful games those were. Never played the Dreamcast one though.
MrCunningham
Member
Sega of America actually did take some risks in the early to mid '90s with their own produced games. They were producing some indie like things with Toe Jam & Earl, Ecco the Dolphin, The Ooze, Kid Chameleon, X-Men (which was pretty unconventional gameplay wise), Comix Zone, Sub-Terrania (Published by Sega), Vectorman and Eternal Champions. Not everything that was produced by Sega of America was gold, but it was interesting to see Sega's American branch produce a lot of their own games.
Buttonbasher
Member
DiamondDog74
Banned
Isn't this game mentioned in the Console Wars book? One of the Sega guys wrote the game concept down on a napkin and was approved by Kalinske. Perhaps it was a different person and game concept.
jasminlovesyoux
Banned
I've played and beat every ecco game through out the years, but I never knew about this woman, her studies, her insanity, and that ecco had anything to do with it. Crazy.
Seven4sses
Member
The weirdest game I have ever seen is Cho Aniki. I don't know if I got the spelling right, but thats the weirdest shmup I've seen.
poodaddy
Member
This is me to the t, I feel like I missed out on something amazing. I tried the game as a kid and immediately traded it in as I just thought it was an obtuse and boring dolphin simulator. Now, ironically enough, I badly want a remake of this game on PS4 and PC. I feel like it could be successful in a world where people love Souls games and weirdo shit like Albino Lullaby got pretty hyped up. Come on Sega, take the plunge
I just linked to the first result from my video search. Why does the channel matter at all? Thats not the reason it was linked the game is.
Because linking to one of the most obnoxious youtubers to show off a game probably isn't going to be very successful
Found a different video though and it's certainly something else
This is me to the t, I feel like I missed out on something amazing. I tried the game as a kid and immediately traded it in as I just thought it was an obtuse and boring dolphin simulator. Now, ironically enough, I badly want a remake of this game on PS4 and PC. I feel like it could be successful in a world where people love Souls games and weirdo shit like Albino Lullaby got pretty hyped up. Come on Sega, take the plunge
there's a new (2013) 3DS version now with added 3D and some tinkered difficulty
it's easily the defintiive version
closest thing you're gonna get, already glad and surprised THAT happened
What the fuck? Ecco was inspired by LSD trips? Isn't it just supposed to be a game about a dolphin doing dolphin-like stuff? Yeah, I've read that the final level is weird, like it's inside some kind of machine or whatever, but still.
I had no idea acid could make you feel like a dolphin. That would be a cool experience, I think. Guess they were listening to Meddle by Pink Floyd a lot during development too.
I had no idea acid could make you feel like a dolphin. That would be a cool experience, I think. Guess they were listening to Meddle by Pink Floyd a lot during development too.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
lol Salsa summoned the man himself, does he have a gaf account? Would be fun to pick his brain here.
To those posting Seaman and Mr. Mosquito and stuff... you are missing the point. The OP is looking for games with regular concepts, regular marketing, and weird twists that the player will not see coming.
A lot of cool information about Ecco the Dolphin here. I didn't know the game was based around scientific studies.
A lot of cool information about Ecco the Dolphin here. I didn't know the game was based around scientific studies.
poodaddy
Member
Consider it bought. I'd love to try that Dreamcast one out as well as I didn't know it existed, and I do have a Dreamcast. Here's hoping it's not too pricy on EBay......
jetpacks was yes
Member
Loved all of the Ecco games. Didn't even realize how weird the first game was until I got older.
ipukespiders
Member
Looks like I have these games on steam.
I imagine the esrb in those days prob played all of 15 mins of most games before slapping on a rating, or just looked at the box art and judged accordingly
The game was also endorsed by some European wildlife conservation organisation nd one version of the game came packaged with a bunch of anti-whaling propoganda and such.
Ecco Jr. is more of an edutainment product than a game, it's thoroughly inconsequential.
Pretty much every one of the conversations in those book was "dramatised" by the author (ie all the dialogue is made up or severely embellished).
you're overreacting
JudgmentJay
Member
I only had Nintendo consoles in the 8/16-bit eras so I missed out on Ecco. I remember always seeing the original in rental shops and being weirded out by it. It just looked so drastically different from my Marios and Zeldas that I didn't know what to think. I really need to try it some day.
The Hermit
Member
I tried to play this game on the 3ds, and let me tell you this, The music, the sound effects and the difficulty creeped the fuck out of me, a grown man.
Sega sound effects always had that eerie feeling, but this was too much.
That thing based on a lsd X ketamine combo trip is the The only logical explanation.
Sega sound effects always had that eerie feeling, but this was too much.
That thing based on a lsd X ketamine combo trip is the The only logical explanation.
I really wish I had played this back in those days, because to me Ecco was just a silly Sega game that those of us with Super Nintendos just made fun of. I really don't think most of the general populace had any idea it had the roots it did until much later into the internet era. I certainly never heard any of this stuff back then.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
It's been posted a few times but I'll say it again: the recent 3DS version of Ecco added an optional toggle for "super dolphin mode" which makes you invincible and gives you infinite air, so if you want to play the game but don't feel up to the challenge, that's the version to get.
CharminUltra
Member
Thank you for this thread. I had no idea.
tiggerkiddo
Member
Ecco was...an interesting game. I never knew what to make of it as a kid but since I was never fond of underwater stages, I never bothered much with it. I'd like to try it out but apparently it's a pretty hard game and I'm not sure I want to bother.
What's the point of this? Is this some sort of weird passion-shaming? Let people get excited about the things that interest them.
Great thread, btw. I've known Ecco gets weird for years but I never quite knew how far the rabbit hole went, particularly with the later games in the series. The level "Enter the Machine" or "Welcome to the Machine" or whatever it was called really creeped me out as a kid.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Katamari Damacy is pretty freaking weird, but you at least know that from the beginning.
I'll nominate Shadow the Hedgehog for not knowing what it is and having no sense of self awareness.
I'll nominate Shadow the Hedgehog for not knowing what it is and having no sense of self awareness.