Ecco the Dolphin (SEGA) - Extraordinarily Hard Games [#18]
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- Опубліковано 20 січ 2021
- / ryukahr
Extraordinarily Hard Games PLAYLIST: • EXTRAORDINARILY HARD G...
Ecco the Dolphin is a notoriously difficult Sega Genesis game where you play as some dolphin who is trying to save the world from aliens... or something. The game is brutally hard, confusing and slightly jank at times. Join me as I dive in and find out why the creator of this game once publicly apologized for its difficulty.
PS - this game has 27 levels.
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"There are no health items in this game." "Can I get a cheeseburger or something?" Proceeds to swim by all the edible fish.
Also swims by the clams
Thank you, im not the only one who remembered that.
I'm like screaming at the t.v... "You are literally swimming by all the health!"
i typed a comment about thinking i remembered fish health n clam air... guess thats right
he eats one at 9:02
Ryu: "There are no health items in this game. Not even one!"
Fish: "Shhh; nobody tell him."
Late to the party, but just in time to give you like #69. Nice
The tiny fish are "health packs" that you need to dash into to gain health.
I kept wondering if he was gonna figure out that those fish were health lol
shhh it's funnier this way
8 year old me was yelling this inside
@@chadiushobby same here lol
Literally the only thing he wouldn't dash into
I would love to see the whole playthrough of this one
honestly same, I enjoyed this much more than the other extraordinarily hard game videos
This and Ecco jr. Would be amazing to watch
Same
Same! I remember some crazy ass levels towards the end when I was a kid, avenge me Ryu!
ua-cam.com/video/It_eOIPgCdE/v-deo.html
Full playthrough here in link although I realise you probably meant you'd like to see Ryu do full playthrough. ☺
Gotta appreciate how phenomenal the art style/ movement animation is in this game considering the age.
That's like the Sega Genesis in a nutshell. I like very very few games from Sega but they blew the SNES out of the water on visuals
they really used well the sonic speed engine. too bad not only the difficulty, but the "weapons" you have are shit
Dan Root did an animation breakdown of this recently and the amount of sprites Ecco has for his movement cycle, even with the mirroring the game uses, is ludicrous for a game of this age.
Those have nothing to do with it's age. Now if you were commenting on some graphical prowess that might make your comment make sense, but realism has been around for centuries with many sprite artists adapting it (Ecco being a great example though) and the awkward movement is fitting for the time with games still experimenting with basic game mechanics a lot more.
Yeah this video is the perfect example why super mario physics is one of the best the contraceptions are totally different from othersua-cam.com/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ/v-deo.html
I had this game as a kid, I just spent my time jumping out of the water in level 1
Judging from the difficulty, doesn't look like there was room for much more. lol I remember seeing this game as a kid and thinking it looked cool. Always considered playing it a pending assignment. Both from the relatively recent AVGN review and Ryu on this video, I think I better just watch it.
@@Nyah420 The difficulty curve backfired. It was so hard that kids rented it and gave up on it, rather than being encouraged to want to buy it. Too bad because the game was and is a legend.
Ryu made this game look way harder than it actually is (those particular levels, anyway). I didn't have nearly the struggle he did back when I played it as a kid. I can't believe he never thought to eat the fish.
lmao same, didn't know until today that this was an actual game with gameplay and not just dolphin simulator
I played this on a Millenium SEGA Mega Drive, it was one of the games on it. Never got to the second level but I kept coming back and swimming around because it was fun
Little bit of advice, when doing hard games. There is no shame in looking for the manual online before playing them, I mean the games did come with a little book originally.
It's not out of shame that he doesn't read manuals. It's for the content.
@@BladeOfLight16 Finally one who is smart enough to get it. Ryu even had to warn people that 'he didn't care' on the Nuzlocke videos after they keep shoving him hints about how to play a game he wanted to go blind.
@Fugp Basis Why are you deciding what people watch Ryu for? People can watch him for whatever reason they want... I personally love the antics he gets into when he doesn't know what's going on... if he wanted to be "great" at the game then he can read the manual and crush the game but clearly he is not interested in doing that...
@Fugp Basis People watch Ryu because they have fun watching his content. It's that simple. Some people like his clueless approach to new games. Others like his mastery of games he's been playing a long time. Others like his ability to learn as he goes and do pretty good or even crush games he's not familiar with. Regardless of what people like (and you're probably in the minority on this issue), that's the reason Ryu gives: he's trying to have fun and make his content entertaining. This is straight from the horse's mouth. Our feelings on the matter are irrelevant; Ryu has made the choice to make this part of his brand and isn't likely to change any time soon.
@@Willowisp927 He doesn't seem to mind getting hints. In fact, he often pays a lot of attention to them when they come from his viewers. But he still usually gets those hints _after_ some disaster befalls him or it's too late to make use of them. That's just his approach, and that's entirely up to him. If it works for him and makes his channel fun, then that's great for him and all the people who enjoy his content.
"Super sonic wave"
Commonly known as echolocation
The man was born in video games. Raised by them. He knows nothing else 😂
No, it is a death ray 26:26
You mean sonar, yeah?
@@sophierosey2675 sonar usually refers to the technology used by ships and submarines. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_echolocation
@@phaelox ah. Thank you!
"We all used to rent games for the weekend back in the 90's.."
Bear with me while I'm nostalgic for a minute. This honestly made me tear up a little.
I lived in a rural area 30 minutes from town. Friday was usually pay-day for my parents, so we would make the weekly trip to town after school to run errands. Afterward we would order a pizza at Little Caesers, right next to Premiere video. My dad would let us rent a .99 cent movie and video game. That night, we ate pizza and watched the movie leaving Saturday and Sunday to play the game. Each weekend we would invite friends over to play, or we would take it to their house. It is honestly some of the best memories I have.
Now being in my mid 30's with 2 gaming systems, a custom PC, online gaming, and I can order pizza anytime I want. It feels empty. Not sure if that's because it's no longer special, or if it's because that's what happens when you grow older. Either way, it's strange to think how much life changes.
Gaming is funnier if you share it
shut up
The ritual of it was definitely the funnest part. I can tell because I still get the exact feeling when I go to the library as I did when I was a kid. It’s so much fun just browsing at everything and trying to decide while looking and reading covers for an hour :)
My sister and I playing New Super Mario Bros DS and MarioKart together on car journeys are some of the best memories I have
It's up to you to make it special if you want to. It's a matter of attitude.
Ecco definitely ramps up the difficulty as it progresses.
The autoscroller at the end with the aliens bombarding you and the screen trying to squish you is pure insanity.
That sounds so insane that I'm 25% certain you made it up.
@@Selrisitai Unfortunately, he's not.
If only there was some sort of site where you could, like, watch playthroughs of the game, to verify if it's real.
"Welcome to the Machine." Hated that level so much, but the story blew my 13-year-old mind.
This game kicked my ass, but i can't stop playing.
Boss kinda badass
And he never figured out fish and shells mechanics 😞
I was hoping to see him figure it out. He even ate a fish and didn't notice it gqve him health
As a kid I always just assumed I was really bad at this game and I needed to get better. So I basically memorized every level and finished both Ecco games on the Genesis back when I was 12. It wasn't until I read that apology from Ed Annunziata later on in life that I realized I got screwed.
so a few .... tips that I remember from my childhood I think, you can charge at small fishies to eat & heal. also you can shoot your echolocation at clams and stuff to make them release air bubbles, but some clams are poison.
Yep! The clams are helpful
21:30 AHHHHHHHH just eat the small fish!!!!
I'm about 95% sure that he knows it and is intentionally playing it up - theres at least 2 spots he DOES get health back by dashing into those fish and he pretends to not notice it. The game was pretty hard, but not nearly as hard as he's making it by refusing to spend 5 minutes reading the manual.
The instruction manual walks you through 99% of every move you need to know to beat the game, and in the Sega era, there is NO REASON not to read the manual.
@@Olinser There was also the time he did get the health back and was stunned because all he recalled was getting air. I'm fairly certain he didn't notice and isn't that perceptive. He died to drowning numerous times.
@@Olinser No, I absolutely don't think any of that was intentional or that he knew. Like him, I've never played this before. And after watching the entire video, I too still had no idea about eating fish to recover health. I (and I imagine he too) wasn't looking at his health bar at the moment(s) when he unintentionally ate fish. It was only after reading comments here that I went back and looked for it. You could call both of us oblivious, absolutely. But it wasn't intentional, at the very least.
As for the manual, yeah, those were very important - sometimes even critical - to games back in that era. But in 2021, when manuals are pretty much a lost relic, I can't really blame him for not thinking to look that up. I doubt he would have ever thought to do that, in today's gaming world. *shrugs*
Please just make this a series and keep playing it until you complete it, this episode really cheered me up.
I remember playing this game and having 0 clue how to play. All I did was swim and chill
10000% same. i'd just swim and flip for HOURS
a game for just vibing
You have to be neurotic about the air in this game to have a chance. What I always did is whenever I hit two bars left, I would check the map for the closest air spot. They are indicated with a bubble on the map.
Spot on. I believe that's the reason why the Undercaves, with its claustrophobic feel and precious few air pockets, was placed as the first real level: it's brutal, but absolutely necessary to negotiate the rest of the game.
I’m more impressed you played without eating the fish for health 😂
“The creator made it really hard so no one could beat it”
Ryu: “And I took that personally”
I beat this game as a kid... Don't think the creator tried hard enough.
I was 9 when this game came out and beat it. the creator didn't make it so no one can beat it, they only made it so you could not beat it over a weekend
@@Vic-Vega You must be kidding... Time & Patience are among Ryu's most powerful virtues... this is the man who can absorb the most sensational HOT GARBAGE, when most people would throw the controller out the window.
@@Vic-Vega Not sure what that has to do with anything?
@@Vic-Vega ohh well I dunno, most of it is doable. there are a few levels that are very difficult. The last two prehistoric levels come to mind. And Welcome to the Machine, and if you don't know the statue shortcut trick in Forever City.
I kept yelling "EAT THE FISH. SING TO THE SHELLS"
Maybe if we all yell it at the same time, our voices will carry and he will hear it.
@@Kormelev lol
okay, i ate the fish and sang a song to the shells, now what?
Me too
Maybe a voice "IT'S FOR THE CONTENT" will be yelled near you, I hope.
Played this game as a child and to this day I thought I was just inept as a child but here we are and I hear this game is actually hard huh
Its really not hard. Just was cryptic back then. And a couple puzzles where you need to push things quite a distance.
@@PopADoseYo Or you know, maybe each person is different and find different things difficult? The proof it was considered hard was the apology made by the creator.
@@Willowisp927 yes that is common sense.
I had this when I was like 8 and had zero clue what to do, glad to know it was a collective experience haha
This game was gifted to me when I was really young... I thought it was gonna be a cute dolphin game, then after I jumped really high, I literally had nightmares that night over the noises and the visuals BAHAHAHA. Thank you for the nostalgia trip, Ryu
You were traumatized. If that happened today you could cancel the developers.
In the dolphin escort mission if you lose all your health your friend gets put back to where he started but you get your health fully replenished.. e.g 23:56
Thanks for posting that. I didn't fully understand it, but I did watch that part a few times and saw that the other dolphin disappeared at the exact moment that his health returned to full. So I knew it had to be something to that effect.
"He just slapped me and I died instantly!!"
---
Tis the oldest story in the book,
old Eight-Arms has claimed another...
Ryu: “Can you drown in this game?”
Dolphins being mammals: “Am I a joke to you?”
good meme dude
Maybe shoulda put a comma in there…
dolphins, being mammals
this game is hard can i get a cheese burger.
swims past many schools of fish, does not attempt to eat fish, because apparently Dolphins eat cheeseburgers.
air from the shells is a bit more obtuse but you can tell because the sprites are on a different layer.
It is so awesome that you are playing this. I have so many memories playing this as a child and trying to figure out what the heck to do. Good times.
Also, for the love of God, eat a fish.
I can see why people might say "But for Content he needs to experience it like its the first time... like Blind"
But the reality was that when we played these games we looked at the manuals first...
They weren't booklets full of cheats and tips they just said things like:
"Press A to dash, B, for sonar,
Hold down B to get sonar map,
use sonar to talk to animals,
this is a key glyph, touch it with your nose,
or use sonar to get information.
Dash into fish to Eat them for Health"
@@chrisflanagan7564 pretty sure the starting dolphins told him that if he talked to them
@@bloodred255 Probably, I remember they said a lot of things. :D
y'know, I never thought about it before, but Ryu's voice coming out of a dolphin wouldn't seem super weird
Definitely. I'd immediately insult the dolphin accidentally by saying it sounds exactly like Ryu. But i'd also think the dolphin must be a pretty chill dolphin, so I think it'll be fine. I'd be far more surprised if Ryu learned to speak dolphin.
"swim slowly past 8 arms"
"Hey look an octopus how do I get past this!?"
I loved this game. I didn’t even realize it was hard back in the day, I just thought I was absolute garbage.
Playing this game at 6 years old
"why am I so bad? T_T"
You can regain health, when you dash through a fish swarm, to eat fish.
How did he not know this? Lol it would have saved him so many times. I thought it so funny when he was asking if there was food, when he was literally a dolphin swimming around fish lmao
Had me yelling at the video when he swam past multiple schools of fish in a panic saying there's absolutely no health in this game. 🤣
@@MikeBarker exactlyyyyyyy hahaha
Someone else noticed too. So im not crazy. He actually ate at least 1 fish that i saw but never caught on.
"Laser beam type things" yes, that's what dolphins do...
Lol. Ikr. My favorite part was:
"Swim slowly past eight arms"
Ryu: That doesn't make sense. What does that even mean?!
Lol... This guy doesn't marine biology.
Okay, I am going crazy watching this. I played this game as a kid on a handheld console that had 20 Mega Drive games and I never got further than the third level myself, but even then, I figured out the core game mechanics, like attacking the fish for health or yelling at the shells for air. It is not easy but realistic game design. It is hard, yes, but back then, my biggest problem was I did not speak english yet.
Oof! Beating a largely text-based puzzle game without speaking English sounds really rough.
"Gotta do it in one attempt!" Or, you could eat some fish 🐠🐟 🤷♂️
I've always been interested in seeing a longplay of this, would be cool to see it.
Ryu: sonic attack should do damage
Me: actually it's echolocation, and it's more like an extra sense, not an attack.
*watches to the end of video*
Me: I stand corrected, carry on sir.
At the start of the game, the different dolphins you can interact will tell you that the fish can be eaten to restore health. Also, if you want to enter the debug menu for level select and listening to the music, here's the cheatcode! :) Make sure you are facing either left or right, then press right/left (the opposite of the direction you are facing) so ecco starts to turn around. There will be a few frames in the animation where Ecco looks directly at you. When this happens, press start to pause the game. So, while Ecco looks at you while paused, enter the following cheatcode: ➡, B, C, B, C, ⬇, C, ⬆
This is rad, I wanna see a part two, especially now that you’ve got the song upgrade!
Loved this game as a kid, the music is often stuck in my head even these days.
09:35 "Instructions unclear. Dolphin stuck in cave wall."
Fun fact: technically, the correct plural of octopus is octopodes. This is because the word octopus comes from Greek, with the ending -pus, meaning foot (so it literally is called eight-feet), and in Greek -pus becomes -podes when plural. However, due to the confusion that plagues English, octopodes, octopi, and octopuses are all accepted as correct.
Additional fun fact: this is the same with platypus, so the proper plural is platypodes.
Also as many have mentioned, the fish are health packs, but also the clams give air bubbles you can collect when you do your echo thing on them.
"It's kinda relaxing"
"GOD I'M GETTING MURDERED!"
This is exactly how I remember it from my childhood
This is how you play Ecco on hard mode folks, no fishies
Ryu accidentally doing a "Can you beat Ecco the Dolphin without eating a fish?" challenge XD
@@Stephen-Fox We have been deceaved!
I have a deep seated childhood fear of giant underwater creatures because of this game. Used to have Echo on a handheld plug in unit that had Alex Kidd and Gain Ground (fantastic game) on it. As well as some other games
This sounds and looks super cool, honestly! I LOVE the atmospheric music and the visuals!
I'd love to play this sometime!
You stress me out talking to the camera while Ecco is drowning.
Also, so friggin' hard. Still haven't beat this one.
As a kid, it took me weeks to figure out how to get past the first part and actually play the game.
I am so glad you're covering this game! Looking forward to seeing more of it!
Ecco the Dolphin was my childhood!
What an absolute throwback. Had this when I be'd a youngling.
Next episode: Ryu learns about Echolocation, not a lazer move
Bro your frustration brought me back to when I played this back then. I couldn't figure anything out and never even made far but every couple years I would try it again to no avail.
By far my favourite video so far! Too funny. Remember the rage playing this as a kid
watching this screaming "THE SMALL FISH ARE HP!!!"
If I could beat this when i was 13 ryukahr can beat it now. I believe in you
Oh sick - you're playing a game that I had nightmares about as a child and had totally forgotten about this until I saw the thumbnail for this video.
This is already a roller-coaster.
It was my first Sega game too. I remember being so confused as a 7 year old kid. Think it took me a whole year to eventually beat it in the end
I wanna see him play the entire game, but I'm sad because I pretty much know he won't do it, that's not how he does this series. I'm sad. This game was my childhood XP
I hear he does the complete playthroughs on Twitch, but I've never caught him live. Also, I have no idea if he has archives of his extraordinarily hard games streams there nor how to find them. If he does a full Ecco playthrough, I definitely want to watch it.
He does them on his twitch. His first season has rankings of all of the games showing that he beat them
@@jacobmccaleb349 are there vods?
I love how you're trying to kill things with echolocation.
It actually does start to kill things after getting the upgrade
You can later, if you rescue all the dolphins in The Vents. I don't bother with all The Lagoon dolphins anymore though.
Genesis games huh? Now's my time to shine!! How about a Toki or Cool Spot episode? These games were the bane of my childhood but super fun haha
This game completely freaked me out when I was a kid, just the freaky music and atmosphere I found creepy. Watching SomecallmeJohnny's review of this game was very cathartic to me.
Rented it 5 times before I finished it. Still payed less than the price for buying it.
I absolutely love this game series. Ecco the Tides of Time is even better than the first.
Tides of Time is like a balanced version of Ecco 1. I love it.
@@SeppelSquirrel also has one of my all time favorite game soundtracks. 😀
@@cosmic_tkb Heck yes. Not a single track on the whole list that I would skip. Even Big Water, IMO the weakest track in the game, is amazing in its minimalism.
I remember playing this as a kid and took me months to finish it. I remember being lost for long periods of time on some maps... Thank god for the level passwords.
I have been waiting for this for a long time.
"Why doesn't the laser attack!?"
You're a dolphin. That's sonar.
"Why is the only attack this stupid nose bop thing!?"
You're a dolphin. Have you seen how dolphins attack?
"Why can't you hold it!? Why don't you just pick it up dude!?"
YOU ARE A DOLPHIN! OMG, Ryu! lmao
awesome stuff but made my inner cetologist weep for sure
can't we get some dolphins with frickin laser beams on top of their heads?
If you’re playing a Sega game, you’ve GOTTA play the original Toy Story game
I’ve wanted him to play the original toy story game since he started play extraordinarily hard games.
@@tylerthornberry1404 the farthest I’ve ever made it is the first pizza planet level. Where you’re in the drink and you have to stop as kids walk by
That’s a hard game...I remember beating it back in the day.
Dude that game was infuriating. I have a vague childhood memory of getting to Sid's room, maybe even past it once, but I don't think I ever finished it.
I literally started the video the moment someone entered my room
Ryu: aaahhooughhh
person who entered room: slowly closed door again and left xD
Back in 1992, Appaloosa Interactive asked what Dark Souls would be like as a fish. This game was their answer.
The rest of the world wondered what Dark Souls was until 2011.
God this game. How the hell did everyone have it but no one I know liked it?!?
this was one of my first games as a kid. this and its sequel were one of my favorite games, but holy crap did i never beat them.
Happy little dolphin on the cover made grown ups think it was a kids game. I hated it as a kid but enjoyed it as an adult. Ryu played it exactly like we did as dumb kids who didn't read the manual.
I loved The Tides of Time but by god the difficulty was brutal. I think I was able to get to the Skyway which is, like, the fifth level.
Must just be your friends, my friend introduced me to this game as a kid and loved it. I'm so glad they put it on the Sega Mini.
@@Stephen-Fox i did not love Tides of Time personally.
Dude, play Contra: Hard Corps for Sega Genesis! It's the best Contra ever!
i hope you play some more of this one, was fun to watch!
You can heal, you can eat fish and use the clams.
I had this game and finished it, Im not actually sure why it would be considered that hard, Im not that great a games player something like the Mega Man or Ninja Gaiden absolutely wrecked me most of the time. With its relatively bite sized stages and once you get in to Eccos control and the flow of his movement its not nearly so bad. Does just seem odd to me that Ryu, who is typically far, far beyond my skill level had some trouble here. Maybe lacking some of the details the manual explains, liking eating and such, makes all the difference.
Let a thumb up if you, just like me, played hours at the start just swimming and jumping ! 😂🤣😅
I remember hiring it for the weekend and me and my little brother had no Idea what we were meant to do. We spent the entire weekend and got pretty much nowhere. So, rather than just give up, we rented it again and again. I don't think we ever really got anywhere.
The first day I rented it I had no clue. I beat it a couple days after. I was probably 9-10 years old.
Down vote for the beg
Most genesis games were like this, good graphics horrible gameplay
Funny, that's what genesis owners said about snes games.
That's some bullshit a Nintendo Fanboy would say. There's good games for both platforms. Also I would say that the graphics were better on SNES.
Dude, Ecco has great game play
Hack -N- Cheeze!! Used to LOVE this game! The music was awesome. There was a way I found to hack or cheese the passwords they gave you to take you to levels you could never get to without - there was a pattern. I wrote down all the ones they gave me and saw a pattern. Either the first few letters or the last few were repeated, so I started to put random ones in the other slots and just like Mario level skip could get to all the "worlds". Ryu - I do hope you keep playing - there are some WONDERFUL worlds created in this game. Just very hard to get too! Also - use the map to find air pockets as well the big white "clams" I think you could open them to get small bits of air from.
Oh yeah! Been looking forward to this since you played hook on sega!!!
Anyone else just screaming internally "EAT THE FISH TO RECOVER HP"
stop spamming ur sonar u have to let the sound bounce off things and come back to u
Stop spamming your sonar nic thomas
The best way to star a nice day whit a fresh video of hard games on the morning
Used to rent this all the time as a kid. That apology is appreciated lol
when you are so early that you can't think of how to complete this sentence
"fatal labyrinth" is unfair like the life.
I remember this game from my childhood... I'm sitting here screaming at the monitor: EAT THE FISH!
omg! echo!! i'm excited to see this playthrough all the way through
How hard is Ecco the Dolphin?
Ecco the Dolphin slaps Dark Soul's lunch tray out of their hand and makes them go through 'Welcome to the Machine' to pick it up.
*facepalms*
Its called "Ecco the Dolphin", and expects it to play like some kind of space shooter.
Doesn't know dolphins: breathe air, eat fish, don't shoot magic lasers..
XD
Bro, when I beat Ecco The Tides of Time as a kid ... it felt amazing. I never played the first one long enough to get into the game but, I imagine it was just as hard.
The octopi actually scared me when I was a kid. Great game, though! Shame the sequels never lived up the original.
"8 arms.. what could that possibly mean????".. literally the only thing with 8 arms is an octopus Ryu.. smh
What about deep sea spider?
@@funguy398 They have legs.
Turtle approved
Thank you Mr Turtle
Dash when you see tropical fish to gain health, a proper game of my childhood!. Love it!
Just watching you play this brings back memories I wish I never remembered.
You can eat the small fish for health by charging into them but the hit box of the fish is tiny. Great content as always ryu
Speaking of Zombies Ate My Neighbors... I really want to see more of you playing that!!
I loved playing this game growing up.
21:54 The sound of you jumping is perfectly in synch with the music
Man do I miss this series. Love it
"I need some health "
As you swim through a school of fish. Im losing my mind lol. Read the instructions dude
I remember playing this as a child!.. Nice to see past the 2nd level 20 years later.
wow this unlocked some childhood memories of playing this game that i had totally forgotten i had!