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[Amalthea]

I liked the game but I never got beyond the second level.

 

[Pipomantis]

A lot of people here are confusing fear and hate.

 

[Gameboy415]

This series and the "drowning music" from the original Sonic the Hedgehog games are responsible for my lifelong fear of deep water.

Damn you SEGA! DAMN YOU TO HELL!

*puts on life-jacket*

 

[Kydd BlaZe]

Completely missed this as a kid. But since we're on the subject of our collective fears of games with deep sea sections....

The deep sea sections in Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie always frightened me to no end. Partially because of the way the music changed and the ocean got darker the deeper you went. That big fucking eel gave me nightmares =(

 

[RobertM]

All I could think of while reading your post was NARWHALS FUCK YEAH!

 

[hulot]

Wait, isn't there an Ecco game on Xbox Live? I should probably give it a shot?

 

[OnPoint]

The game can be incredibly frustrating, but was well worth the years I spent pushing through it. It still houses one of my favorite soundtracks and stands as a strong example of what you initially see isn't necessarily what you're going to get in the end. I love this game.

But yes, it was scary at points.

 

[FirstInHell]

The mood of the game gave you a feeling of desolation mixed with depression, you nailed it on the head.

This is one of the most innovative NeoGAF threads in a long time, and I say this with absolute seriousness.

 

[Plywood]

 

[Pipomantis]

The mood of the game gave you a feeling of desolation mixed with depression, you nailed it on the head.

This is one of the most innovative NeoGAF threads in a long time, and I say this with absolute seriousness.

*blushes*


(And I think I could do some more about weird feelings I had with several games)




Plywood : Dude! SRSLY!

 

[BlueMagic]

Big bodies of water in videogames used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid. This game was no exception. I got through some stages, though. Never finished it.

 

[Vard]

I remember being all excited for it before it came out and then when I played it I was thinking, "Wait a minute... this isn't... fun." It was unsettling to play, and I still approach all underwater-heavy games with a little caution. I think Ecco is to blame.

 

[Brannon]

I should beat Ecco 1 sometime. I've already done 2 and Ecco DC.

 

[TheSeks]

>>Mother Alien<<

The stomach.

Then...

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE.

ARRRRRGH. (That is if you're playing the Japanese version)

I liked Ecco, minus the shitty gameplay. Yeah, it's scary as hell (the alien freaked the shit out of me the first time I played it when I was 7-8) but looking back it's supposed to be scary. You're all alone and looking for your pod that the aliens took away to find a new food source. How isn't that lonely/desperate/scary/blah, blah, blah?

 

[PantherAttacks]

I'd like to play through this game as I really like the atmosphere. Last time I tried it was too frustrating though.

 

[Vorador]

You pussy

Spoiler

i freaked out too

 

[Apenheul]

Now I know what to buy next on the VC.

 

[evilernLeGG]

Ecco was an eerie fucking game. I remember playing it when it came out on Genesis and just gave up because it just made me anxious.

I went back a little later and played the Sega CD version and powered through it, and am glad that I did. It's a super unique game that doesn't really have any point of comparison.

If you haven't played it yet, I recommend getting the Sega CD versions if possible. The soundtracks are amazing.

 

[ShinobiFist]

I tought the game was amazing. It was one of those games that made me say, "How are they going to make a game about a Dolphin interesting" And boy did they deliver. Something like Ecco, would been praise if it came out as a short film at the time. The setting and story was ahead of it's time, just like "FlashBack"

 

[EvilMario]

THE TUBE. THE MACHINE. AARRRGGH!!1 :lol

 

[Cartman86]

Agreed

 

[JessicaPadkin]

The thing that scares me the most about Ecco the Dolphin is the fact that I completed it when I was a little girl, but when I try to play it now I can't get past the fucking second level.

All three of the (proper) Ecco games are amazing, though. They're unusually very emotive... the comparison someone else made to Half-Life is very fitting, IMO.

 

[simtmb]

Man i thought i was alone on this one. Playing it made me feel depressed, and last time i did, with the recent collection, i got scared/put off for an instant....despite having finished them as a kid :/

 

[Ranger X]

My girlfriend always turns off the song "The Rip" by Portishead because it reminds her of the music from Ecco. Apparently, the game scares you both. :lol

I LOVE the ambiance of Ecco and The Rip.

this can't be mere coincidence -- OMG

.

 

[LaneDS]

image of scary shit

I immediately went scrolling through the thread looking for this, good show. Still creeps me out.

 

[ZealousD]

Ecco the Dolphin is an early example of games as high art. Sadly, like some pieces of art, not everyone gets it. The problems that people have with this game isn't a result of poor execution, it's a result of execution that's too good.

Well, except for the difficulty complaints. This game makes Ninja Gaiden NES look easy by comparison.

Here's a full play through by somebody who's really good at the game. If you start to get bored, skip ahead in small increments. The level types are sort of "clustered", so even though the first few levels look the same, later levels look very different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It_eOIPgCdE



Or, if you just wanna see the crazy parts...
OMG the sky is falling... upwards!
Scary giant octopus!
Let go of me you.... thing!
Oh my god, it's full of star... err... sharks!
Ice Level!
HEUG BLUE WHALE
The Asterite - It's a giant living DNA molecule!
Atlantis!!!
Ecco learns about the aliens!
Time travel... to prehistoric times!
I have to FIGHT this thing??
Time to stop the aliens! Long tube is looooong
The MACHINE! I never actually beat this level legitimately
Final boss holy shit! Oh, and the ending too

 

[Tain]

The stomach.

Then...

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE.

ARRRRRGH. (That is if you're playing the Japanese version)

What are the regional differences?

 

[DrAndonuts]

Ecco on Dreamcast used to scare the shit out of me. In some of the darker parts of the water, when you'd whip the camera around and a shark would come out of fucking nowhere.

 

[TheSonicRetard]

The Ecco series is one of my all-time favorite gaming series. The original 2 still have one of my favorite gaming stories of all time... the lack of a 3rd over time actually made the ending to Tides of Time more powerful.

But you just aren't playing Ecco the Dolphin unless you're playing the Sega CD/Windows versions. Top 10 soundtracks EASILY.

EDIT: But I got to give love to Defender of the Future. I was disappointed that it didn't pick up from Tide of Time's cliffhanger ending, but it was still solid.

I just flat out love the atmosphere of the Ecco games. People who hate it are probably the same people who played all of 3 levels and have NO IDEA the game is about time travel and aliens.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I love this series because of the ambiance and amazing music. They really need to bring back the same idea behind the music, the style at least.

 

[TheSonicRetard]

What are the regional differences?

The japanese version has a level after you fight the queen called "The Stomach"

It's the worst fucking level EVER. I have a thread on it, lemmie dig it up

EDIT: Here is the thread.

 

[TheSonicRetard]

No, everything you said is true. I think this game taught me dolphins can't breathe forever under water... I never got past the second stage.

The third sentence of this post proves the second :lol

Spoiler

Ecco gets the ability to breath underwater from the Asterite

 

[quinntendopower]

i totally agree! i remember getting this game when i was sick at home with a stomach flu.

i played for a bit, then got totally freaked out when that storm hits in the beginning with that crazy genesis sound effect!

then the water just keeps getting darker...

STILL creeps me out, really. open water really messes with my head

 

[LaneDS]

The japanese version has a level after you fight the queen called "The Stomach"

It's the worst fucking level EVER. I have a thread on it, lemmie dig it up

EDIT: Here is the thread.

Wow, did not know that, and that's a cool thread you threw together there. Makes me want to play through that version someday, although I think I'd be too frustrated.

I think Ecco would be a series ripe for a nice PSN/XBLA 2.5D remake. I think it has the potential to look pretty jaw-dropping if given the Bionic Commando Rearmed treatment, and the music is timeless if you ask me.

 

[Plywood]

Whats with the Dreamcast and PS2 version? Anyone who had played it want to comment?

 

[TheSonicRetard]

For what its worth, the sequel, Tides of Time, is significantly less dark than the original. It's a lot more sci-fi and bright and poppy.

One of my favorite bits about ecco is the odd terminology they use for objects. I read an interview with Ed Annunziata (producer and director of the games) and he said that was intentional to give the games an other-wordly effect, and they tried to name things in "dolphin-speak." Hence stuff like "the globe holder" or "the machine."

Also, the Sega CD versions have a bit of the backstory in the manual which is never explained in the game, which according to Annunziata is actually cannon. You never see any humans in either game, and thats because Humans left the planet years ago because of the upcoming feast. They basically left knowing the dolphins would eventually rule the planet.

I love the twist at the end of tides of time where

Spoiler

all crustaceans are actually alien offsprings which got trapped in the past and were forced to evolve to survive

hence why anything that isn't a mammal is trying to kill you.

I also love that the password for "Welcome to the machine" is NNNNNNNN, which is easy enough to be found by accident. I'm sure that blew thousands of kids minds when they found out how weird Ecco got.

Wow, did not know that, and that's a cool thread you threw together there.

Skip to page 3, I start talking about the Stomach there.

Whats with the Dreamcast and PS2 version? Anyone who had played it want to comment?

Complete reboot for the series. Not connected to Tides of time in any way (which kinda sucks since Tides of Time has a cliffhanger ending).

I like it a lot. The actual story is sort of like Ecco 1 and Ecco 2 combined. Long story short, Humans and dolphin form an alliance to protect the planet using a machine which forms a barrier around the planet. An enemy called "The Foe" (who replace The Vortex in this game) attack and take down the barrier and take over the earth, so Ecco travels to atlantis and uses the time machine to go and prevent all this from happening.

After that it goes all back to the future. Ecco goes to the past and changes the future dramatically 4 times in the game. Each time you return and see the earth radically different. My favorite part is where you go in the past and accidentally make all the dolphins hyper aggressive, so in the future they've enslaved humanity and ruined the planet.

pretty great game, imo. I prefer the original 2 though.

 

[Sword Familiar]

"Never trust an animal that smiles all the time." -Terry Pratchett on Dolphins

 

[Eccocid]

best soundtrack ever!

and i hated the machine levels with passion!

 

[Apenheul]

Hmm, I guess the Ecco the Dolphin games on VC, XBLA and Ultimate Genesis Collection are the SEGA Genesis versions. The music of the SEGA CD version sounds awesome though.

 

[TheSonicRetard]

Also, when I think of the Genesis, the Medusa is one of the first images to pop into my head. That art style is distinctly "Sega Genesis" to me.

Perfect.

 

[viralmarketeer]

I played EcoQuest first and was confused as a child. Based on the title and presence of dolphin I assumed they had some involvement with each other and therefor I never had any interest in playing Ecco The Dolphin.

 

[Almak]

You guys were freaked out by Eco? Really?
To be honest back in the day I didn't get much further than the whale myself but I never found that game scary. I think I didn't finish it because I loaned it from a friend or something, cant remember now but I do remember liking it. Damn I should get back to it on the Genesis Collection but every time I put in that disc, I end up playing Shinobi II. :lol

 

[TheSonicRetard]

To be honest back in the day I didn't get much further than the whale myself but I never found that game scary.

So you got to around The Lagoon... which is part of stage 2 of 8.

This is what I'm talking about. People didn't actually play the games and have no idea how weird the games are. The Vortex spawns don't even show up until the middle of the 3rd stage.

honestly.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Heh. The Sega CD versions were awesome.

Defender of The Future was awesome. You would probably die if you played it, though.

 

[Hawkian]

The deep sea sections in Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie always frightened me to no end. Partially because of the way the music changed and the ocean got darker the deeper you went. That big fucking eel gave me nightmares =(

...okay yeah... Mario's not that strong a swimmer to begin with, when that eel came out of the cave, I put the controller down, turned off the 64, and went outside to play in the sun.

Looking back at it 5 years later, it's amazing how silly the eel ultimately looks, but man was it FREAKY at the time.

 

[Almak]

So you got to around The Lagoon... which is part of stage 2 of 8.

This is what I'm talking about. People didn't actually play the games and have no idea how weird the games are. The Vortex spawns don't even show up until the middle of the 3rd stage.

honestly.

What? Its not scary! Look it's smiling!

 

[Shishka]

I actually loved the atmosphere in the Ecco games, but I never got through Ecco 1. I got through Ecco: Tides of Time somehow and thought the storyline was written while tripping on acid during a fever dream.

 

[TheSonicRetard]

Actually, Ecco 2: The Tides of Time on the Sega CD actually has a short, 15-minute CGI film which tells the entire story for Ecco 1 hidden within it. It's told entirely without any voice, and it's really well done.

Part 1

Part 2

I recommend that everyone who never played the games, or got very far, to check them out. Ecco has a pretty unique story.

Also, check out my favorite track from the entire series: The Vents

Playing this level, late at night, when you're deep underwater under the arctic. Fucking gorgeous. While the SNES may have shit all over the Genesis when it came to music, it had nothing on the Sega CD.

What? Its not scary! Look it's smiling!

Its not smiling, it's chewing. The entire ocean floor in fact.

 

[Station42]

I never knew who made ecco, it's this guy, do you think he is italian? He also made kolibri (obviously)

 

[mjolnirsbane]

Honestly, why was the game even conjured into existence? Was this like the first emo Mario or something? Evil genius at work here I tells ye, evil genius.