Ecco the Dolphin is a truly unique game where you control the dolphin in somewhat realistic fashion, being adventure-action game where you navigate through underwater mazes. With limited breath capality. It was released near the end of 1992 and was developed by Novotrade (known later as Appaloosa Interactive) along with Sega of America. It was released on 8 Megabit ROM. Includes 8-letter passwords for each level.
Not counting 8-bit Sega ports, the original Genesis version of a game is the most basic and most difficult version of a game. There was Japanese version that made it much easier. Sega CD also added CD music and more levels. Old PC version also double resolution of graphics on top of that and recently got fan-patch to become the best version. And 3DS version seem to be based off Genesis version, but 3D and with cheat mode.
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version.
Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here:
The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library.
It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody.
However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time!
Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves.
As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "ECCO_UE.68K".
I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "ETD_PC_MG_EFIGS_US.pdf".
In this game you take a direct control of a dolphin by the name of Ecco who has five stars on his forehead which might mean something more or might not. One day Ecco's pod got sucked by a storm out of nowhere, along with surrounding lifeforms as well. Now it's up to you to travel through the dark depths of sea and undercaves in order to find out where your pod is at now. All alone deep in hostile water.
Go blind into this game and it's going to be a wonderful experience, take my promise. It's not just about cute dolphin swimming happily.
Protip: To pass the first area jump out of water as high as possible. Seriously, one of the dolphins asks “How high can you fly?”. Listen to hints.
The main gameplay of Ecco consists of exploration of underwater mazes. It also contains some puzzle solving, involing search for key glyphs to open door glyphs and some heavy object pushing. It also involves some action that means you get to charge your bottlenose into crabs that ghost their way toward you through the wall and freaking scare me due to how weird and static they appear all while chasing Ecco, as he is making strange freaky sounds in pain. What a cute game.
And then one of the great things that this game does is Ecco himself. It's all about how realistical he behaves and moves through the water, all while using 8-direction D-Pad, dashing and charging. It's an unique and wonderful feeling. Even if it means that Ecco may take damage because you turned him around in a spot and he touches the spike with his tail, but there is something to it that is missing in more err control-friendly underwater exploration games.
Futher continuing the realistical down-to-earth feel of the game, you have to take care of yourself accodringly. Charge at fish to eat it and restore health. Ecco is a mammal, not some fish, so while he may be a sushi he requires taking few breaths of oxygen here and there. So you always have to keep in mind the air pockets in caves, which gives tension to maze exploration. No idea why bubbles from the Shelled Ones provide health instead of air though. Ecco can also use his solar, which is used to communicate with friendly water dwellers and interact with glyphs. Most importantly, if you hold the Sonar button for a while, the wave will come back and you will be provided with a small map of maze in that direction. Make use of it often like a dolphin would, this way you will not end up traveling deep into maze only to find a dead end, filled with just enemies. The mazes in this game feel natural, not very gamey-like. It's not a fair kind that always gives you same reward for same amount of risk. I find these ones most interesting to explore. You may die a bunch of times, but you will be slowly learning to navigate them.
To access password screen you have to go left at the start of a game, otherwise move right. Also, if you press A while paused, you will disable music. Press again to re-enable. And if you wonder what vertical square gauges are supposed to represent: it's just a pause icon.
The game also was quite rushed as well. Nothing game breaking, just weird stuff. Glyph door that guards nothing and says dolphin's message from the beginning of a game out of random, for example. Pre-last level ending abpurtly, which was fixed in later versions.
There are levels in the beginning of a game where you can rescue dolphins. You should do those unless you are asking to get your butt kicked because you get new abilities as reward. There is one ability that in-game message says that it allows you to confuse the Hungry Ones with sonar, but you already could do that! Instead, it actually gives you ability to stop enemies from respawning. Have you noticed how enemies leave blue stars when killed? Press Dash (B) button when near those to absorb those stars.
Protip: Objects seem to fall off Ecco's nose when you try to pick them off ground. You have to catch them again with your nose by turning down and then up in mid-water.
The game also turned out to be easier than I expected. People made it appear as if it's one of the most unfair and difficult games on the system, but in reality it's just usual fair challenge. Makes quest feel more heavy. You explore, you die few times, you memorize, you beat a level. You start from the beginning of the level, but lives are infinite. It's not shmup.
I guess people expecting it to be relaxing game for kids or on Sonic level of easy.
Almost. The two bosses in the game is where it gets too much. The first boss requires you to figure out tactic (tip: color matters) while it can spawn high-damage lighting into your face. And he is at the end of normal stage too. And the final boss sends you back to previous level, which is hard and takes 5 minutes. All just to try to get another chance to figure boss out. I wouldn't mind if you save state on emulator before bosses.
Protip: In the last few levels you don't have to dash before being able to release death sonar. Just spam.
And yep, graphics and music. The graphics are beautiful and amazing. I mean, you may notice some sharp corners and square-like structure in background art but for 8 Megabit ROM it's impressive. And music is great as well. Most people go after Sega CD music because they belive that redbook is better by default. The compositions are different. I didn't listen to CD music much yet, but Genesis music fits to well to the last levels!
Overall, this one is a classic with false first impression. It's right there, at the top of Sega Genesis games. A game that feels like art but is not some artsy-shmartsy 'game'.
