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Ecco the Dolphin
Box art from Ecco the Dolphin; art by Boris Vallejo.
Developer(s)	Novotrade International
Designer(s)	E. Ettore Annunziata
Release date(s)	July 29, 1993, 1995, 2006
Genre(s)	Side-scrolling adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	VRC: GA - General Audiences ESRB: K-A - Kids to Adults ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Genesis, Sega CD, Windows-based PC, Virtual Console, Game Gear, Master System, Game Boy Advance
Media	Mbit cartridge, CD (1)

Ecco the Dolphin is a video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The central character, Ecco, is a bottlenose dolphin controlled by the player through a progression of side-scrolling aquatic levels. The game was conceived and designed by Ed Annunziata and developed by Novotrade International, and spawned a series of sequels. It has recently been released for Nintendo's Virtual Console.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Storyline 3 Versions 3.1 Ecco 32X 3.2 Ecco Playstation 2 3.3 Virtual Console 4 External links

The gameplay was essentially side-scrolling, with horizontal, diagonal and vertical movement. Attacking enemies was accomplished by making Ecco ram into them at high speeds. Swimming could be made progressively faster by tapping a certain button, and the speed could be maintained by holding it down. Players could perform a purely aesthetic spin in the air when jumping out of the water. Two features of the game played on actual dolphin habits; one button caused Ecco to sing, allowing him to speak with other cetaceans and interact with certain objects. The same button was used for echolocation; holding it down would cause the song to return, generating a map of the area. Additionally, Ecco, being a mammal, had to surface periodically for air, or else find an air vent. Ecco would drown if his "air meter" ran out. His health was measured by a separate meter; it was depleted by enemies or when his air meter had run out, and it was recharged by eating fish, "singing" to clams, or, later in the game, singing to special statues or crystals called Glyphs. Ecco's song could be optionally "upgraded" at two points in the game; one upgrade allowed Ecco's song to be used in combination with a charge as a long-range weapon, and the other temporarily disoriented sharks and made minor enemies freeze temporarily.

Several levels contained enormous crystals called Glyphs, which would respond in different ways if Ecco touched or sang to them. Some blocked paths, and a "Key-Glyph" had to be found in such cases to pass. Others gave information, and a few in later levels would replenish health/air and give Ecco temporary invulnerability.

The story begins with young Ecco as he and his pod enjoy life in their home bay. One podmate gives an in-game message challenging Ecco to see how high in the air he can jump. Once the player does this, a mysterious waterspout forms and sucks up all marine life in the bay; Ecco, however, is stuck in the air until the storm passes.

Upon leaving the bay to search for his pod, Ecco comes across dolphins from other pods who tell him the entire sea is in chaos, and that all marine creatures had felt the storm. A tip from an orca sends Ecco on a journey to the frozen waters of the Arctic to find a wise blue whale named Big Blue. The Big Blue tells him such storms had been occurring every 500 year and directs him to an older and wiser being known as the Asterite.

Ecco leaves the frozen north and journeys to a deep cavern where he finds the Asterite, the oldest creature on Earth. An enormous double helix consisting of globes, the Asterite probably communicates telepathically, although in an animation seen in the Sega CD version of Tides of Time it appears to communicate by vibration of its globes; as the Big Blue puts it, "We feel great energy of thought from the Asterite, but it will not sing to us." Although it has the power to aid Ecco, it is incomplete; one of its globes had gone missing. It offers to help if Ecco finds the missing globe; this can only be found by traveling back in time using a machine built by the ancient Atlanteans.

Ecco travels to the sunken city of Atlantis, where he discovers the time machine and an ancient library. He learns the cause of the storm; it was a harvest of Earth's waters that was conducted every 500 years by an alien species known as the Vortex. The Vortex had lost their ability to make their own food; and so, every 500 years, they would harvest from the waters of Earth. Learning this, Ecco activates the time machine and traveled 55 million years into Earth's past. The developers originally planned for Ecco to meet ancient cetaceans, before they came into the sea, but the art for these scenes were not completed due to time constraints. However, their intended messages can still be found hidden in the prehistoric levels.

Ecco locates the Asterite in the past but is immediately attacked by it; the young Asterite was considerably less trusting than its older self. Forced into battle, Ecco manages to dislodge a globe from it. For whatever reason, this opens a time portal and Ecco is flung back into his present. In a paradoxical twist, the globe the Asterite had lost was the same one that Ecco had stolen from it. The now whole Asterite grants Ecco the power to turn his sonar into a deadly weapon against the Vortex, as well as the ability to breathe underwater. It instructs him to use the time machine to travel back in time to the hour of the harvest. This time, he manages to be sucked into the waterspout with his pod.

The final three levels are a constantly-scrolling obstacle course, collectively called "The Machine" ("Vortex Machine" in the PC version). The third-to-last level, "The Tube", had Ecco dodging obstacles as he travelled up the waterspout, with the level scrolling progressively faster and throwing progressively more enemies in his path. The second last level, titled "Welcome To The Machine" (a reference to the Pink Floyd song), was an ever-moving maze for processing the harvest that would kill Ecco if he could not keep up with it. Past this is the mastermind of the harvest, the Vortex Queen, in the level "The Last Fight". Keeping with the high difficulty level set by the rest of the game, losing to the Vortex Queen means repeating the long and difficult previous level.

Eventually, the Vortex Queen is vanquished and Ecco rescues his pod. Traveling back through The Machine and down the waterspout, the dolphins rejoice and vow to sing praise of Ecco's bravery forever.

The game was released in 1992 for the Mega Drive or Genesis, and was instantly popular. An enhanced Sega Mega-CD version that featured new and redesigned levels and an alternate Red Book audio soundtrack (composed by Spencer Nilsen) was also released, and later ported to Windows. Game Gear and Master System versions were also released; they featured drastically different levels to the other versions and a special "SEGA" intro with what sounds like a whale song, and dolphin noises for the title screen.

An Ecco title for the Sega 32X was rumored, and even mentioned in some magazines, throughout 1994 and 1995. These stories would eventually be moved to a rumored Sega Saturn Ecco title.^[1] Very little information regarding these unreleased titles exists, however.

A short video allegedly intended for the Sega Saturn Ecco title was demonstrated at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show and showed a pod of 3D rendered dolphins swimming in the ocean^[2], as well as a short cinepack video running on 32x hardware ^[3]. Ed Annunziata has since, however, stated that development of the Ecco 32X and Saturn versions never began; that the footage was meant to 'sell' the idea of a new Ecco game to Sega. Due to the poor sales of both systems neither game was developed. ^[4].

Ecco the Dolphin, along with Ecco: The Tides of Time and Ecco Jr., can be found on the PS2, PSP game Sega Genesis Collection.

Ecco the Dolphin was released in Europe and Australia for the Virtual Console on Nintendo's new Wii console on December 8, 2006 for 800 Wii Points. It was released in North America on November 28, 2006 for 800 Wii Points, and in Japan on December 2, 2006 for 600 Wii Points.

• Caverns of Hope - A small Ecco site.
• Dark Sea - An Ecco resource site.
• STC-Archive - An online archive of Sonic the Comic, featuring the Ecco the Dolphin comics.
• Ecco the Dolphin at MobyGames

v • d • e Ecco the Dolphin video games

Ecco the Dolphin • Ecco: The Tides of Time • Ecco Jr. • Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future