Ecco the Dolphin - The Scariest Game Ever (Retrospective Review)
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- At this time of year, there's always talk of scary games - for me, one of the scariest ever is Ecco the Dolphin on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. It looks like some flippy fun, but under the surface, Ecco is a surprisingly dark, unsettling sci-fi tale of alien invasion and time travel, and its apparent inspiration - the Dolphin House of John C Lilly - is just as weird. Swallow your thalassophobia and let's dip a toe into the terrifying, misunderstood masterpiece that is Ecco the Dolphin.
• Ecco the Dolphin - The...
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Additional gameplay footage courtesy of World of Longplays (RickyC, Waldimart, MadMatty), hirudov2d and dosdaysareover:
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All featured games, music, films and television programmes are the property of their creators, used under transformative fair use for the purpose of review. Additional stock footage courtesy of Pexels, Stock Footage Collective, Videvo and Video Library.
Based on an article originally for Vice
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fun fact: i was on the original subnautica team, and we did a podcast with EdA about underwater games! as a HUGE ecco fan, i was a bit star struck. i like to think i brought just a bit of that ecco spirit to subnautica :)
I love both Subnautica games. Great job.
That's so cool! I haven't fully played Subnautica yet (need to pluck up the courage) but I can definitely see the influence and I'm glad the spirit of Ecco lives on in some way. Thanks for sharing!
That's pretty awesome. I'm really looking forward to Subnautica 3, I don't even like the survival genre very much but Subnautica is a high level game for me, out of every genre
Subnautica is terrifying as well
As someone woth a deep fear of water. I want to say both, I hate you, and, thank you!
Ecco lives underwater but can't breath underwater. Then he has to venture into claustrophobic underwater caves.
That's where a lot of the fear came from for me.
Feeling anxiety as a little kid playing this lol
Ooohhh yes!
Ummm. Dolphins are mammals they can't breathe underwater
@@RediTtora…Yeah…That’s what the comment said
@@NecroticTechnics yeah but he said it like it's weird that a dolphin couldn't breathe underwater like it was a nerfed feature or something
This game was so strange it's like trying to explain a nightmare to someone who has never played it.
Yeah, I always felt a bit awkward explaining how a game about a dolphin from 1992 really freaked me out, hence this video. Turns out a lot of people feel the same way! Thanks for watching.
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It's based on a true story
How's this for a nightmare: you're a kid, have never been able to get past the Jurassic era and so you're stuck...
But you're a bit of a hacker, and you played with the passwords and found some random things work. You keep messing around and try ANANANANAN and the screen dips to black. A moment later you are in:
THE MACHINE
Oh God what is this place?! Why does it look like this?! IS THAT A GODDAMN ALIEN?!!!!!
Is this even a level or is it some easter egg the devs put in?!
WHY IS THIS LEVEL IMPOSSIBLE?!
As if the music and general tone of the entire game weren't unsettling enough.
Absolute nightmare fuel 😂
Honestly one of the best games ever.
@@AMPlayem glad to have found the support group after all these years 😂
I'm actually amazed at how good this game still looks three decades later. Especially the early levels.
The rock texturing is amazing because it doesn't seem to tile. The palette, the detail, amazing... But I think the music is what really sets the tone.
Maybe the disconnect between the beautiful visuals and the unsettling audio is part of what makes this game such a horror.
Five stars will play again! Thanks for the video.
Only those who played through it can understand how terrifying the game is.
In a way I envy those who couldn't get past the first few levels!
@@AMPlayem I had Ecco but i was not fortunate enough to pass through into the depths of hell which are described here. I feel deprived.
@@AMPlayem but then they would never see the deep evil squids, or the weird Antarctic animals!
@@jimmyjam3753 Never too late to psychologically scar yourself!
It was the Asterite in both games that was the stopping block for me. Only because I couldn't figure out how to get past it.
The Dreamcast version of Ecco was so terrifying that neither my sister nor I were able to play past the first 20 minutes or so.
Wow! I can't deny I'm kind of tempted now...
Really? The first 20 minutes of that game were basically sunny levels with a lot of happy dolphins and very few enemies.
Later in the game though, there was some true nightmare fuel
@@AutumnOnDvorI think it do with isolation and fear of unknown
@@AutumnOnDvor the dark future where human left and the world was basically a submerged wasteland was so eerie, sad and maybe not really scary but very creepy, like a ghost ship or something like that.
I liked the Dreamcast game, but I'd rather had a real third Ecco game, the reboot was ok, but I wasn't found of how they re-imagined the whole thing.
@@PsychoPatrick403 Yeah, the dark future on the Dreamcast game is not really that scary if you compare it to the last 3 levels of the first Ecco or in the Tides of Time when you fight the giant moray onwards. The music does a lot too.
I think what creeped me out about this game was the fact that not only did the creators make a game about the ocean, which is home to god knows what, they were also able to capture the "feel" of the unknown.
Absolutely; the design comes together so well that just the atmosphere, the sense of isolation, can be just as striking as being chased by some big creature.
A pretty torturous game to get through but man the aesthetic of Ecco is so unique, from the eery music to the isolating oceans you swim through and well of course the final section I mean wtf
Yeah, it's a shame that a lot of people gave up due to the high difficulty early on - there was such a weird and wonderful game to experience if you stuck with it. Thanks for watching!
I had such strong, fond memories of Ecco. Playing it back as an adult, I just don’t have the time!
That violent red hurricane made me think I had broken my Sega for a few seconds. I didn't know what I had done, but I knew my mother would murder me for it. 😂
Hahaha. I'm not surprised, it felt like such a weird, unnatural thing for a game to do. Probably why it sticks in so many people's minds! Thanks for watching.
@@AMPlayemI played this game so many years ago when I was a little child and the only thing I remember from it is all the fish being sucked up so I searched for the game and FOUND IT im so happy
The sound effects and music really dialed in the tension. The sound of ecco scream in pain, the sound of the machine moving around ecco, the echolocation sounds.
Definitely. So many weird, sci-fi sounds coming out of a game set in the ocean really made things feel unsettling. Even the echolocation call has a sombre tone to it. Thanks for watching!
I remember my brother, sister and I playing this one as children. Even with all of us lending one another moral support, it became too frightening to continue. None of us could really express what it was that was so unsettling.
I'm an only child so I mostly played games alone, which probably made things worse! I remember showing friends what a scary game it was when they came over though, it really had an effect on me at a young age. Thanks for sharing!
It was the thought of being trapped under water and not being able to air. Then you throw in the music and everything else and I never rented that one again lol.
I can confirm that the Dreamcast Ecco and its PS2 port were terrifying. It was truly beautiful much of the time, but that didn’t stop the intense fear from rising up every time the bright, sunny levels gave way to darker waters.
Sounds much like the original in that regard... except in 3D you could be attacked from all angles! 😨
Thanks for watching.
That shark boss 😢😂
The Asterite is a complete multidimensional being. Just like how humans freely move in 3 Dimensions, it freely moves in 4, with the 4th being the time dimension. All experiences for it are memories of the future.
You just blew my mind.
Since everything is just a memory existing in the minds of those who observed it, It could probably read people’s minds to experience the past through a memory.
Actually, come to think of think it, spirits or ghosts or whatever, they may be able to read minds in a way that allows them to experience history and human life through through the eyes of a person that was there.
The game is based on psychonaut John Lily who took massive doses of LSD and ketamine in sensory deprivation tanks and was trying to teach dolphins English. No joke, look into it haha.
@@crono3339 Yeah I know of him. Just like I know how his assistant was giving one of the dolphins 🖐✊ every day.
The FM synth use of the Sega Genisis absolutely induced terror in me as a kid. However, I kept returning to it because it was so captivating.
You said it, 'bro. It's as captivating as it is unsettling so I always end up coming back to it despite how uneasy it makes me feel.
I have some Pokemon vids on my channel if you're interested 🙂
There was a maze stage in the game gear version where, if you navigated it the wrong way, you'd just be trapped in a section that was quite large but had no exit, until you ran out of air. That, coupled with the music, was horrifying.
Yikes! I haven't played much of the Game Gear version, but that does sound horrible. Is it on UA-cam?
The Dreamcast game is still one of my favourites to this day. It's unsettling in much the same way as the original, though it does take a little longer to get there. Lots of industrial horror: ancient megastructural machine complexes of unknown purpose, that sort of thing. And the alien stuff in the final act really hammers home that dark, deadly Ecco feeling.
There's a quiet, claustrophobic loneliness to it all. I'd say it's sad almost as much as it is scary.
Yeah, sounds like it invokes the same feelings as the original, where the isolation can be as unsettling as the more straight-up horror elements. A lot of commenters have recommended it but I've yet to get round to playing it, as much as I'd love to do a follow-up video. Thanks for watching!
I can't remember much of that game, except the feeling of unease
no joke an old man gave this game and some dirtbike goggles to me when i was at the store with my grandma. I was 7 😂 and after that day I never saw that man again. I lived in a village called Shandon in California. everybody knew each other. but nobody knew that man.
I watched a playthrough of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. Yes, there are parts that are scary. There's creepy caves, a huge shark, and you time travel into three dark futures:
1. humans are gone, the ocean is barren, and dolphins are dumb
2. Dolphins took over the ocean and formed a caste system, with the strongest ruling over the lesser creatures
3. The aliens won against the humans and dolphins
Yikes! The barren ocean itself sounds really unsettling to me.
Story and lore of DotF are scary and epic...
That big shark always scared the piss outta me.
Defender of the Future's plot was put together by noted sci-fi author David Brin. It wasn't his magnum opus or anything, but it's very good structurally. After the calm, lovely starting area you actually start out successfully - if barely - fighting off the Foe invasion with the help of the Guardian, a joint human-dolphin planetary defense system. The Foe however does time travel shenanigans to steal the dolphins' five Noble Traits in the past: Intelligence, Ambition, Compassion, Wisdom, and Humility.
You then play three alternate futures after the Foe attack. In the first, with none of the traits, dolphins were barely sapient and got enslaved by humans (who then traded killing blows with the Foe) and divided into three color-coded castes: Cops/overseers I guess, machine operators, and brute labor. You find and send back first Intelligence and then Ambition, and shift to the second future.
In the second future, with smarts and ambition but no compassion, wisdom, or humility, dolphins drove humans permanently from the sea and divided into...three (different) colored castes: Basically warriors, laborers, and "Outcasts". They also enslave whales and exploit the world in the way humans did without dolphins' mutual guidance. You send back Compassion and Wisdom, shifting to the third future.
In the third future, lacking just Humility, the dolphins and humans get together as in the base timeline but never build the defense system and both get stomped by the Foe. With powers acquired in the other worlds you fight through the Foe and their Queen to send back Humility, restoring the original events but now with a statue of Ecco commemorating his quest which the Guardian also remembers.
Pretty simple, but it's got themes and stuff! That connect to the type of problems in each area! Pretty good. I also find it fun to compare it to the Elements of Harmony in My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. MLP does a lot of scenarios where all the Elements are stolen/lost/nullified/reversed/shuffled, but I don't think there's any situation where only one or some of them are put out of action. I think you could build a full season or two on exploring how virtues could become vices without other virtues balancing them out - as Brin did, in a videogame about a dolphin bopping aliens.
Beat this game as a kid and have no idea how I did as I came back to it as an adult and couldn’t handle the stress.
The oxygen bar man it haunts my dreams.
Respect! You're in a minority, if these comments are anything to go by. Thanks for watching!
Respect. My whole family beat this game. Literally, as in one playthrough required the aid of parents and older siblings. It was a group effort
I could never make it very far in this game as a kid since the opening levels were too confusing for my 5 year old brain, but this game still managed to stick with me over the years. Even early on it really captured the isolating, lonely and almost alien feeling and atmosphere about being the only creature in the depths of the ocean
Very well put! A lot of people didn't make it very far due to the notorious difficulty, but never mind the aliens etc - it's that overwhelming sense of mystery, isolation and dread that's the real wonder - or horror - of this game. Thanks for watching!
Same, never got far. Never knew how wacky it got until years later when I nostalgic for the old megadrive ^^
Tides of Time is my second favorite game ever (OFF taking the position after I played through it). Ecco games were liminal hellscapes with a pervasive sense of loneliness and danger, which made quite an impression on 90s babies. To this day the series influences my artistic and musical tastes.
Yeah, same here probably. My love of psychological horror (and the ocean) was probably born from my early exposure to Ecco - ironic, considering how much the game freaked me out. I've been learning about liminal spaces and vaporwave over the last year or so, and the influence Ecco had on that.
Thanks for watching!
Tides of Time was a fundamental part of my childhood, it wasn't just my big and little sister who were addicted, but also my mum.
I was the only one who could beat the medusa level. If they were playing and reached that monstrosity, they'd drag me back from whatever I was doing and demand me to play.
It shares a high pedestal along with Prince of Persia and Monkey Island. My mum was dangerously addicted to Prince of Persia.
The paradoxes you speak of are causality loops, events that have no origin
Is that like the bootstraps paradox?
@AMPlayem yeah, it's like say in the Terminator, Skynet is made possible by a chip from the Terminator in the first movie, but in order for that chip to exist, skynet had to exist, so there is no origin, it just loops, skynet exists to create the Terminator and the Terminator exists to create skynet.
Chicken and egg.
At some point I researched these loops and my favorite example of infinite regress is Bradley's Regress, and Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover.
I was one of the kids who didn't get through the early levels. Just got stuck somewhere. Despite that a remember the game very well. Thank you for allowing me to enjoy it vicariously.
You're welcome, thanks so much for watching! A lot of people didn't make it past the first few stages due to the difficulty but those who did were in for a bit of a shock.
You're not alone
The prehistoric part actually happen after the end of ecco 2, even more mindfuck tier than the old paradox.
That's right, you mean how the Vortex evolve to become the crustacean enemies?
Omg dude, I was just telling my girl that this game triggered my fear of games with ocean levels. And you have now justified everything I was literally just saying. Thank you for this video because now she understands.
That honestly means a lot, that my video could help you in some small way. Thanks so much for watching and you're definitely not alone!
@@AMPlayem Thanks again man. I kept telling my girl how scary Ecco was and she didn't understand till your video 😆
5:25 That's called a closed time loop. Dolphins exist, Ecco exists, Ecco goes back into the past before Dolphins exist, inspires their ancestors to take to the water, Dolphins exist. The thing to remember is the start "Dolphins exist" this is a constant and regardless of any changes will always happen in some form.
The theory being that Ecco's ancestors would have re-entered the water regardless and Ecco later going back to influence them is just incidental?
@@AMPlayem Pretty much. A lot of closed time loops can be explained by the loop simply speeding up what would have already happened or applies in the mindset that time is not linear. Non-linear time feels like more of a cop-out than inevitability. Its also odd to assume that Whales' ancestors would still take to the water without Ecco, since Ecco doesn't sing their song, but the dolphins ancestors specifically needed Ecco to inspire them the first time around.
Ecco is like Subnautica, the talasophobia, claustrophobia and loneliness that they make you feel when playing without you truly realizing what those feelings are. With time and iteration, those feelings don't usually stop you too much, they actually turn into masochistic pleasure as you venture deeper and deeper for the sake of moving forth till you beat the game... most times (?) Nice video, thought it was a personal "feel" i got when i played it when little, but it seems we are not alone
I suppose that masochistic pleasure is why horror fans consume that type of media in the first place - we obviously get a kick out of something which we should naturally want to avoid. I haven't plucked up the courage to fully play Subnautica yet though! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts, always glad to hear I'm not alone 🐬
@@AMPlayem it gets easier to delve deeper when you get enough courage to tackle killing some leviathans (at least the most common ones).
Imagine never being able to get through the ice stages, and then one day playing with the password screen, typing i n "NNNNNNNN" and getting "Welcome to the Machine" without any context or lead up. That was me as a kid.
I don't need to imagine it - the same thing happened to me 😅
A few other commenters have said the same thing - one guy commented nothing but "NNNNNNNN" and I was like, this guy knows the score.
The unsettling atmosphere of Ecco reached me, even through a 14 minute synopsis video. Well done, and thanks for making this vid! I'd only known intriguing bits and pieces about Ecco and its reputation before watching.
It feels similar to a SF novelette I read: "At The Fall" by Alec Nevala-Lee. A lonely, abandoned creature, deep in the ocean, with one improbable goal. Washed in an eerie mystique of Why and How.
Thank you so much for watching and for your kind comment! It really means a lot to hear that about my videos. That story sounds really up my street, I'll be sure to read it!
The soundtrack of the Sega CD versions of Ecco and Tides of Time deserve a listen for sure. It's the main thing that sets those versions apart from the originals (aside from a few cute FMV segments in Atlantis in the first game). Very Tangerine Dream-esque.
I've heard some of the music from those versions. Pretty nice from what I remember but for me it wouldn't be Ecco without the original tracks. The GBA version only used the time travel music through the entire game from what I remember which really took away from the atmosphere. Thanks for watching!
I came here to say that as well. The Tides of Time one is still, cheesy as it is to say it, one of my favorite CDs in my whole collection
Came for the cute dolphin... stayed for the thalassophobia-inducing lovecraftian nihilistic story where the future of all existence lies on the fins of such cute dolphin.
TIL ...that's the story of Ecco... seriously?... i was one of those kids that couldn't get past the first few levels with so little to go on.
Yeah, so many players didn't get past the opening levels due to the difficulty and open-endedness, but those who did were in for a big surprise! Thanks for watching.
Exactly man. I remember f*cking around with a "crystal" for half an hour then taking it back to Blockbuster.
Whats weird is when i was younger i don't think i remembered how scary it was i just remember like swimming around and i forgot about the game until today and i didn't know if it was a dream or if anyone knew what it was or not
Oh yeah, there's a sizeable community based around it and so many people have unpleasant memories from playing it. Give it another try sometime, it's a bit of a tough game to get into but quite a unique experience. Thanks for watching!
This was the foundational game of my childhood, and I agree it was terrifying, and a real challenge. Replayed it countless times.
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"
-The dolphins
Always nice to see Ecco getting some attention! I remember playing it when I was very little and I still think about how it affected me to this day. I recently bought both Ecco 1 and 2 and the ps2 version of Defender of the Future just so I could have those pieces of my childhood memories in a physical form. Excellent video!
Thanks so much for watching! Glad people are keeping Ecco alive 🐬
To this day. I can still beat "welcome to the machine" even though there was a 10 or maybe even a 15 year break. (i think it was in the first go too)
That's how deeply ingrained the game is burned into my subconscious.
Nice! I only remember beating it once, it sort of becomes a game of Simon. Ecco definitely ingrained itself into my subconscious in other ways though...
Thanks for watching!
Yet for all of that, the Ecco games are easily among the best games ever made. Not to mention, they absolutely maxed out the graphics capabilities of their original systems in ways no other games came close to.
Totally, its graphics were so realistic for the time. A lot of the designs were actually lifted by the graphic artist Balogh Zsolt from Hungarian picture books about the natural world - I might do a video about the origins of the creature designs at some point.
I LOVE Ecco the Dolphin. Yes it’s hard and unfair. Yes the controls and mechanics are fucked. Yes it’s a buggy mess that makes you repeat stuff over and over again. But let’s get real. The story is insane. The music is atmospheric and beautiful. The graphics were incredible for its time. The feeling of being alone, lost, tense and fearful were all very real.
Now imagine it today with todays graphics, sound, evolved story telling and in the hands of someone who could put together incredibly tight fluid controls and offer up a balanced AI and game mechanics and add a ton of new fun elements, abilities, features and customizations to the game….
I am willing to argue it could rival even the best of the best platforming / Metroidvania / cinematic adventure games out there.
How do we will this into existence?
I'd say the retro graphics and music are part of what makes the original so special so I'd be in two minds about updating those *too* much, but I would certainly love to see a third installment of the original 2D series, especially since The Tides of Time ended on a cliffhanger. Ed Annunziata has said he'd want it to involve Cassandra, the Atlantean girl who made the glyphs to guide Ecco in the first game, so an interplay between her on land and Ecco in the water could be a neat mechanic. Maybe when the dolphin travelled through time at the end of TTOT, he went back to the era that the Atlanteans fled into and the story could pick up from there. Who knows if we'll ever find out though? :(
Thanks for watching!
I played it as a 6 year old. All I would do was swim around in the ocean. It now feels like a fever dream.
I think that was the experience of a lot of kids - it was so fiendishly difficult that many players only saw the first few levels but it has such a unique atmosphere that even those made a big impact. Thanks for watching!
It was the graphics and controls that did it for me, like how smooth Ecco swam around and the animations, the game has some really nice graphics especially for the time, it really captures that "mystery of the abyssal unknown"
Yeah, even for a game of the time it looked quite realistic and things moved so fluidly. Here's a great video looking into the animation of the game: ua-cam.com/video/UzF_xe77xkg/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching!
I was a teenager playing this game and I was too old to be scared by it but it has stuck with me all these years...I was obsessed with it while I played it in my free time
Yeah, fair enough - I imagine it probably wouldn't be very scary to a teenage or adult player, but it definitely shook up a lot of younger kids. Great that you still loved it though!
Great breakdown of a game that I haven’t played in many years and yet still haunts me. You summed it up perfectly… despite the difficulty, the aggravation, the fear… it still captivates.
How high in the sky can you fly?
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed! Even those words have a haunting air about them in retrospect. If only I'd ignored that dolphin!
Ecco the Dolphin is a horrific game that I loved very much as a kid. So much I even got the Dreamcast Ecco the Dolphin which was equally terrifying.
Yeah, a lot of commenters have recommended/warned me about the Dreamcast version. Hoping to get around to playing it and doing some follow-up videos!
I bought the game after watching this video. Never played it before. It is really amazing. It oozes atmosphere. Probably the hardest game that I have ever played.
That's awesome! I'm quite honoured that my humble opinion helped you find a new game you enjoy. Glad it's still appealing to people all these years later - there are level select passcodes and invincibility cheats if you get stuck.
I played Ecco on the Dreamcast. Wasn't exactly scary, but I did feel mind blown by some of the technologically advanced dolphin/extra terrestrial themes that game had.
A lot of commenters have recommended it, some say it's scary, some say otherwise, but I'm hoping to play it in the near future to do a follow-up video.
I love Ecco. I got really far on it when I was a child and teenager after being really persistent with it, but let me tell you; it took me years to work out how to beat the Vortex Queen. I kept trying and trying that I knew it all like the back of my hand. Didn't work out how to complete it for several years. I've not played it now for a good few years. Played it this evening and I'm so rusty
Yeah, she doesn't really telegraph her weak points - you sort of just need to figure out that you sonar out her eyes, then ram her jaw, then ramming her head suddenly becomes effective. And you can't really afford to screw up because it means repeating the entire previous stage. What a nightmare.
Thanks for watching, hope I brought back some memories!
My brother laughed at me when I found this game scary when the dolphin kept drowning, that scream Ecco made scared me I didn't pick it back up until my teen years.
Yeah, as if it wasn't tense enough at times, Ecco doing that piercing shriek every time you take damage just makes it worse!
Personally, I thought 2 was scarier. But Ecco was TOTALLY a whole new diffrent subtle kind of horror.
I find 2 just to be more weird than anything else, they really amped up the sci-fi element, but completely agree about the first game. Both the plaintive, melancholy opening levels and the straight-up horrific final levels are effective in their own way. Thanks for watching!
I played this on the arcade version at my childhood dentist back in like 95-96. Never thought of it again until it showed up in my recommended just now. It’s been 30 years!
Hope you enjoyed a little trip down memory lane! Can't believe it was 30 years ago though 😓
I grew up with this game and it is in my top 5 favorite games. It is so nostalgic and I love it even now! 🐬❤
That's awesome! I'd probably count it among my favourites too, despite all the mental scarring. It's amazing how one little relatively unknown game from 30 years ago boasts such deep lore and such a passionate fanbase. Thanks for watching! I have some Pokémon vids on my channel too.
Yes…the Dreamcast version is equally if not more terrifying. The feeling of dread when you time travel to the future, the dark levels…giant eels in caves.
Eek... I'm kind of regretting my commitment to play it for a follow-up video now! Thanks for watching!
Big Blue jump scared me the first time I got to its chamber at full speed. I'm just gonna forget this an chill out a bit in Subnautica, they have such pretty fishes.
Yep, vivid memory of just swimming along minding my own business than that goddamn whale call booming at me and the biggest sprite ever appearing from nowhere.
I haven't properly played Subnautica yet but I hear it's very peaceful and relaxing, enjoy!
I never owned Ecco. I got to borrow it twice, once from a friend and once from a relative. However, with my brief stints with the game I was never compelled to get it myself as even though I never got far enough to see the truly scary things, the opening couple of levels were primordially unsettling to me.
"Primordially unsettling" - I like that! I think the non-scary levels can have a really melancholic atmosphere to them, even without monstrous creatures lunging at you.
I just noticed your avatar and username - I mentioned Satan/the mysterious stranger in my video about The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, that game's animation reminded me of the creepy stop-motion from the Mark Twain movie!
Swim slowly past eight arms, and welcome to the machine friend.
Those words will forever haunt me.
For me the killers were tubes of Medusa and the hanging gardens from the 3d one
Simply put it's well done atmosphere, it was open, it was alien and it was unsettling. Not noted this was also a metroidvania game
I'd say it certainly has elements of Metroidvania - as you mentioned, the unsettling alien world, plus having to navigate tight tunnels and mazes while finding keys to open different rooms, but having linear stages instead of one big interconnected world means I probably wouldn't list it in that genre. Can definitely see why there'd be an overlap in fans though. Thanks for watching!
I remember as a kid i got to a DNA looking thing, and had absolutely no idea how to progress past that point
You just talk to it via sonar then go back the way you came! 🧬
The music always had this foreboding atmosphere
I couldnt get past the sea of darkness level for sooooooo long. Those scary vortex drones were too much for me.
Ugh, that level looks like it'd put me on edge too!
This game pissed me the hell off a lot more than any game I've ever played in my life
Uff the music... great and opens wound at the same time.
I hear ya! The music's a big part of my complex relationship with the game. Thanks for watching!
The initial Vortex storm that happens at the beginning of the game...god, the sound it makes is terrifying. Almost at the same level of the Duck Hunt dog laughing.
Haha, I've never heard anyone call Duck Hunt terrifying! Did his laugh sound effect really bother you?
I played Ecco CD and always loved the expanded music, sound effects, and atmosphere the CD version offered. Definitely worth a replay.
Yeah, the CD soundtrack is cool, but I don't think it'd really be Ecco for me without the original one I grew up with!
With Q sound!
Fun fact: inputting different combinations of A's and N's in the password screen will take you to different levels. All A's will take you to the 2nd level, all N's will take you to 2nd to final level, the machine.
@@BMXyamabushi Yeah, another commenter said earlier they discovered the horrific final level by unwittingly typing in all Ns! You could also enter PLEASE + a pair of letters to access different stages. I used to know loads of them as a kid but can't remember now. Thanks for watching!
@@AMPlayem did not know about the please passwords I'll have to give it a shot. Good thing I kept my retro consoles all these years.
I didn’t realize how emotional some of these old games were, if anyone knows of more like this please lmk
Chrono Trigger has quite a sombre atmosphere a lot of the time. I can't recommend it enough if you've never played it before. Here's my video on it: ua-cam.com/video/2ZkWOJTDSJE/v-deo.html
Super Metroid has a similar foreboding atmosphere to Ecco, while EarthBound isn't quite scary but just *weird* - like a cross between a Sunday morning cartoon and a bad acid trip.
@@AMPlayem I’m gonna have to check those out thank you!!
Dude the Dreamcast version is pretty bad ass, it has such a deep story for no words spoken, it also has awesome time paradox and that humans and dolphins teach each other things, the alien goes back in time to stop humans and dolphins from meeting… it’s awesome
@@The80Kat People are speaking highly of Defender of the Future, maybe I should get around to playing it. Is it as difficult as the first game?
Valis
It's like if NES Ninja Turtles Hudson Bay level was the entire game. So nice to be introduced to anxiety at age 9.
The trilobites still attack me in my nightmares
Me too, my friend. I'm told I even make the Ecco damage noise in my sleep.
The trilobites, giant sea crabs, and atlantian puffers are the worst enemies in the game
This game on megadrive was a) very hard b) scary about drowning all of the time c) emotional d) intense music e) thelassophobia f) getting lost g) very lonely h) for a 9 y/o me, pretty trippy i) existential alien or eldritch threat.
Yep, all of the above! It was a very intense experience as a kid, compared to the rest of the console's catalogue.
Great video! I definitely think the loneliness and isolation the game makes you feel add to the terror.
Thanks so much! A lot of the time it is indeed just the empty sea that's disturbing, before we even factor in any giant octopi or Lovecraftian abominations.
Horror it's not only monsters or weird dark rooms that something is popped out,its the atmosphere that might get into you via something you watching!
I have never beaten the octopus level, but this game did stick with me into adulthood, I even read all the information I could find on the dolphin experiments in the Virgin Islands. I still think it is a atmospheric masterpiece. I need to get into it again. you've gained a new sub, or.. pod mate lol.
Thanks so much, truly appreciate you joining the pod! 🐬
It really is a very unique game with an atmosphere unlike any other from its time, in my experience. Not many people made it past the octopus (some didn't even get that far) due to the difficulty but those who got further got a big surprise with the alien weirdness, seemingly influenced by the dolphin house experiments.
Cheers again!
Ecco was probably the first game I played as a kid that blew my mind graphically. Everything else was a video game cartoon, but as far as I was concerned, I was watching national geographic while playing Ecco.
Yeah, its graphics felt realistic compared to how cartoony and comic-book other games at the time felt, which I think plays a big part in how unsettling I found it. Still holds up today in terms of gorgeous sprite artwork!
There is something inherently frightening about the ocean and this video game encapsulates it perfectly.
Yep, known as thalassophobia. I don't have a fear of the ocean as such but I love that kind of unsettling imagery, which I'm sure Ecco sparked my interest in from a young age.
I think a new Ecco...would possibly be even more terrifying
It was kind of lightning-in-a-bottle stuff so it might be hard to replicate that, but a new game would be cool, especially in the same sprite-based style. Sadly it hasn't happened, even in this age of series revivals. Thanks for watching!
I played the PS2 port of the Dreamcast game. The fact that, in one of the first few levels, you're forced to acquire a power up straight from the jaws of a great white shark terrified me. The puzzle to get the power up was also not that forgiving, so my wracked nerves were no help
Oh God, that sounds intense! I'm hoping to get round to playing it in the near future, I'll steel my nerves.
soundtracks are very disturbing in this game..
Everything is disturbing about this game. The way the plot unfolds and becomes gradually more insane as the game goes on; the way the levels are designed like underwater labyrinths to choke the life out of you; the way the edge of the screen gets gradually darker as Ecco swims further down into the depths. It's all really messed up in a really subtle way.
@@CopiousDoinksLLC Definitely. I touched on that in the video - yeah, there are sharks and dinosaurs and aliens, but sometimes it's the isolation and darkness that really gets to me.
Really? I think a lot of them are lovely
One of the most underrated games in history. Loved the story and the immersion.
That's classic! I was almost always a little poor, but loved gaming. The first game (and system) I ever actually owned was this. I made enough money to be able to spare some cash for it. I've always wondered if I finished the actual game, and for a moment in your video in the prehistoric part, I thought "Oh, I know I've never seen that. I must've given up cause it was too hard." Then I saw the Giger levels in the end and realized I had totally beaten it. Just forgot parts. I'm going to have to see if it's on PC now with an emulator or something. In this era, I'm into Dying Light, Dying Light 2, Dark Souls 2 and 3, and getting ready for Elden Ring. I've missed a couple waves along the way, but I've been gaming since Pong in '74 at my friend's house.
That's awesome! Glad it brought back some memories. You can get Ecco on Steam for next to nothing these days (or there's always emulation, as you say.) Thanks for watching, keep on gaming!
The game was released for PC with CD music, the best way to play the game.
Ecco the dolphin is a fever dream after accidentally drinking the water at sea world.
Just started playing it and yes, it's truly terrifying!!
Glad it's still scaring people 30 years later! Thanks for watching 🐬
Thanks for the nostalgia. I remember feeling so much pride with every mystery I unlocked in this game as it was so enigmatic.
And thank you for watching! It was a crazy difficult and open-ended game that it really did give you a sense of achievement when you overcame something.
I literally couldn't play this game at night. It was too scary 😨
It was bad enough during the day!
What I distinctively remember from playing Ecco (someone had it installed on my pc back then) was the eerie loneniless felt in that vast a in large part empty submarine world.
I ❤ this game. Beat is several times. The second one was too hard to beat
I love it too, in spite of myself. I've never fully played the second one but it looks really frustrating at points.
@@AMPlayem very! That second one wasn't fun
Tides Of Time was my favorite one to play over the first Ecco the Dolphin.
Interesting little piece of Ecco the Dolphin lore:
The stars on the forehead of Ecco are the constellation Delphinus.
That's right! It's hinted at by one of his pod in the opening stage and then Delphinus is mentioned in the Library level (as is the star system Cassandra, the name of the Atlantean girl who created the glyphs for Ecco to follow.)
I think part of what makes games from that era so magical in the real sense is that it gave birth to an entirely new medium to tell stories in, in ways that could hardly be dreamed of previously. I think of games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Earthbound, how they all shaped and sculpted not just the games that I played, but how I thought about things (especially myself in relation to the world/my place in it), how I viewed love, sacrifice, and being the true embodiment of a heroic person set on to fix the things that are not right with the world. It really helped mold me into the person I eventually became, so going back to those games decades later and replaying them, beating them, and going further than I had been able to when I was a kid - it really is a poetic journey in itself. Can anyone really say that seeing -no, *being* in the opera scene from Final Fantasy 6 really didn't touch them on not just an emotional level but even a spiritual one? To me, they are more than just "games" - they are a part of me down to my core.
Great game, back in the 90s people hated it or loved it, no middle terms.
It's definitely a divisive one. I was always into it, despite the psychological impact!
i loved the games on sega cd. the music was amazing and I think they changed some things to make the game easier. The dreamcast ecco is awesome as well but also ridiculously difficult at times. Ecco games don't hold your hand or make things easy that's for sure.
Just like me, people love me or hate me.. or think im alright
It's like a game you read about in a creepypasta, but it's real. One of these days I'll go back and make it past level 1.
That's spot on, actually - the atmosphere of Ecco coupled with the alleged bizarre inspirations behind it make it sound like an urban myth, but nope, all real!
That opening music threw me right back to 1994, playing Ecco at the age of 5
I'm now 36 and scared of the ocean 🥲
Sorry for the trip down memory lane! I wouldn't say the game gave me a fear, I love the ocean, but I do find it morbidly, thalassophobically(?) fascinating. I think Ecco definitely played a part in that from a young age.
@@AMPlayem haha don't be, I LOVED Ecco and it's still one of my favourite soundtracks of all time! Probably didn't give me the fear really, but the open ocean (or anything where I can't see the bottom) genuinely does give me chills 😅
Subnautica is far more terrifying. lol
Edit: Oh, someone else said the same thing 4 days ago. Oh well. lmao
I haven't played much of Subnautica... I don't think I can after what Ecco did to me! :(
while i never found it terrifying or even scary, i did find the game to be highly immersive. like, i used to look forward to playing it because it was so atmospheric when compared to other games of the era
I agree, even if you didn't find it scary, you can't deny it had a unique atmosphere and gameplay style all of its own.
Fantastic video. The extreme ambience and mystery also drove me to obsessively complete Ecco when I was a kid. Still one of my favorites even if I never want to play it again as long as I live.
Thanks so much, that means a lot. I feel very similar about it - can't help but have a fixation with the game (and thalassophobic imagery in general) despite the bad times I had with it!
My first Ecco experience was The Tides of Time. What I thought would be a fun ocean adventure with "Flipper" was the complete opposite. Even though I found the game to be eerie, insanely difficult, I found it fascinating. I gave up after The Medusa in the sky chase, and Game Genied my way to the end. Then, I was presented with a
"Congratulations, but try beating the game again without cheating."
It's as if Ed A. knew no one could genuinely beat his game.😅
Haha, that rings true with his tweet about making it hard to people would buy it instead of renting it! Not sure if that's a good marketing strategy or a good outlook on game design, but it's a pretty funny bit of trolling.
@AMPlayem Yep, I remember reading that a long time ago. He stated he wanted a game where kids wouldn't be able to beat it in a weekend rental. So, he made it challenging. I guess that worked. And it was definitely a game that needed a save feature.
12:00 “one of the few weirdos who owned that console…” I feel attacked. Also the Dreamcast was a banger, Crazy Taxi with that Offspring soundtrack, lessgo.
Haha, just a little joke. Loved the Dreamcast and loved Crazy Taxi, played it again recently actually. Ya ya ya ya yaaa!
Omg I thought I was the only one who was traumatized from this game
You're not alone, my friend! Thanks for watching 🐬
Thank you for making this video. I read your article a couple years ago and I initially played the first part of Ecco on a plug n play Genesis that had about 12 titles on it.
Thanks so much for watching and reading the original!
What a Wild ride that backstory is about where this game came from. Madness. Literally.
Crazy, isn't it? As I mentioned, Ed A has since distanced himself from it in terms of its influence on Ecco, but it's just a wild story regardless.
dude I remember trying to play this as a kid and it scared me so badly I never went past the introductory level. Doom? No problem. But the unknown, ancient and cold womb of the ocean? No no no no no.
Yeah, even the levels that weren't intended to be scary could feel so isolating and mysterious - especially coupled with the music - that they really unnerved a lot of players.
It definitely is! These ecco games were some of my absolute favourite games and very difficult back in the day.
I agree. It was the being all alone in the depths that got me. Was so happy when i found another dolphin.
Yeah, never mind the monsters, sometimes it was the isolation and melancholic atmosphere that played on the mind most.
I remember as a child seeing this game thinking it looked interesting. However, I never played it. I’m starting to have regret not playing it. Sure, I may of end being scared of it, but it would have been one hell of experience.