Well, I went ahead and wrote my review for Ecco The Dolphin since it's part of the Game Club. I'll slot it in within my 2025 yearly rankings if/when that time ever arrives, ha.
There are so many games that I have curiosity about yet remain tantalizing mysteries to me. There's only so much time, and so many potentially interesting titles fall by the wayside. Ecco The Dolphin was a game and series that intrigued me for many years, and thanks to crim, I started a journey into this franchise in 2025.
So what drew me to this - to including this on my list of potential gamer's club series to play? Well, in the first place, I've always found dolphins to be mysterious, almost magical creatures, given their obvious curiosity, intelligence and strange place within the realm of Animalia. I had the opportunity to play with a dolphin along with my child and ex-wife many years ago. And while I probably wouldn't do it again due to stories I've heard about how these majestic creatures are sometimes treated within the confines of tourism and “entertainment”, it was nonetheless a beautiful opportunity that I've always remembered very fondly. So a game focused on these unique beings was always fascinating to me.
The narrative has an interesting set-up. A strange “storm” separates Ecco from his pod in the introduction and he must find/rescue them. Along this journey some interesting questions are posed to tickle your curiosity - things like the question of why do his kind live below the waves if they breathe air. Without spoiling details of this path, I will say that things are far deeper than a simple ocean faring adventure. We're dealing with time travel, interplanetary drama and aliens, oh my! Things really venture down the rabbit hole in some intriguing ways that might not be expected based on playing a game about a dolphin. There's some real surprising depth (no pun intended) surrounding both dolphins in general and Ecco in particular. In concept, I was interested and really enjoyed this aspect.
Musically, things were really nice as well. I know many debate the merits of the Genesis sound ship versus the SNES, but for me it is always been clear and obvious that the Genesis is far superior overall in that regard. I think there is a bias in the larger conversation due to the fact that there were simply more SNES owners overall, as well as the fact that most people don't have an ear for sound quality. (Shut up, my opinion is “correct”.
) Of course that is probably my bias speaking as these things are inevitably subjective. Having said that, The Genesis is the far, FAR superior sound chip. And those who think otherwise are simply dim.
(And I love the SNES as well.) But the music is nice along with the general sound design. The soundtrack has a nice, mysterious vibe that suits the adventure.
In terms of gameplay, it was much more of a mixed bag, if I'm being generous. Moving Ecco around and breaching the surface was a fun sensation. The one thing I looked forward to when starting this series was the sensation of being a dolphin...of being free and moving unencumbered in the vastness of the sea. In practice however, this game is very restrictive most of the time. There are hazards and obstacles everywhere that really impinge upon the sensations I was hoping to experience. You'll often find yourself needing to move with great caution and precision, and that is at odds with the sensation I was looking for. To be fair there are moments when you can really let loose and be "playful", and those are wonderful and in some ways are nicely emphasized by their relative rarity. But overall things had a much more confining and claustrophobic feel than I was looking for in a game that was set in the spacious ocean. And it's primarily a puzzle oriented (key and object fetching and moving) type of gameplay, which isn't playing to the setting's strengths. You have to activate certain underwater gems (glyphs) that activate or open others/other paths, and it's often sort of a mystery as to what you've actually done (or subsequently need to do). And Ecco moves too fast and irregularly relative to the precision required in some spots. Sort of an awkward feeling underwater "platformer". Not the most natural and intuitive combination. Generally speaking, things felt much more clunky than I would have liked overall. And there were frustrating sections where you have to go fast but go slow. There was a section pretty early on where you are on tight time constraints but due to the conditions you were facing you must go exceptionally slow in spots. This was very frustrating. I really cannot stand that sort of thing where you are both rushed and restricted simultaneously. Really an off-putting feeling for me. I don't mind difficult/challenging in and of itself, in fact I really get excited by it - that can be really fun if well-designed. But I don't like tedious challenge. This was the latter. The language of progression is often quite hazy here, and it makes playing more of a chore than any sort of fun or mechanically interesting challenge. I admire the ambition and task on offer in principle, but it feels rooted more in the days of Blockbuster game rentals where companies didn't want kids renting and forgetting over a weekend, as they looked to get those purchase dollars rather than being crafted as a genuine challenge without that financial cynicism in play. It was really kind of an anti-rental DRM before such concepts existed in the digital space. Another thing that makes this apparent is how brief the game ultimately is if you know what to do. The added difficulty and tedious progression really emphasize an effort to extend the play-time artificially. Ultimately and practically, Ecco is just a series of mazes with awkward controls, unclear objectives, nightmarish checkpoints, and punishing time constraints, and that does not a fun game make, despite all the positives in terms of presentation. And it's just difficult in an un-fun way overall. There are plenty of things that can damage Ecco in the ocean and that's on top of managing the fact that he has to continually breathe air. Sometimes you find yourself in places where the ocean surface is not available to replenish your air and you have to seek out these pockets of air underneath. And they're not always convenient. And then if you mess up and die, it's back to the beginning of the level. Just annoying. And, full disclosure, I didn't finish it. It was interesting enough that I “finished” the game/experience by watching what I didn't complete on YouTube - something I rarely do. And it was in the spirit of the video game club to see it all, I thought. But the fact that I didn't want to *play* to the end tells the ultimate story about the game on balance for me. 2/5. Not really for me, unfortunately. I won't necessarily dismiss the rest of the series though. There's some variety in this franchise, although I understand the second game, The Tides of Time, is pretty much more of the same, so I may or may not visit that one before Ecco Jr. and the 3D - Defender of the Future. I won't be so harsh as to forego everything else, but presentation aside - which was really very nice overall, the original Ecco just wasn't what I'd call a good game on balance. The potential was there, but it was all undermined by tedium. If it had been the same game in terms of presentation without the annoying gameplay elements, if had even been mostly a “walking sim” sort of narrative-first experience, I would have ranked it higher.
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(And I love the SNES as well.) But the music is nice along with the general sound design. The soundtrack has a nice, mysterious vibe that suits the adventure. 