Ecco the Dolphin

People love to dunk on this game due to how frustratingly difficult it is, while I'll admit that it's far from my favourite Sega genesis game due to said difficulty, I can't say I'm on the hate train the internet has made everyone board in the gaming community as there enough here to appreciate to not allow that to happen for me.

The biggest win this game has is the gameplay, specifically how you explore the ocean as the titular dolphin without drowning as being a mammal, he's required to surface for air which is where the level design comes in. It's great as the underwater segments are laborious that create tension for the player as they look for an opening for Ecco to breath air. There's also points where he needs to jump over rock formations like he's free willy (a year prior to when that film came our funnily enough) which adds to the clever level design as it encourages you to explore the surface as well as the ocean to find out where to go next. This is of course a double-edged sword and leads to the biggest problem with this game which is that its objectives aren't very clear. The story is very confusing especially for a Sega game as Ecco needs to find the source of the wild weather that sucked up most of the life from the ocean. What little survivors of this freak of nature there were are very reluctant to help you, although once you do know where you're going the game does get more linear from there. I’m also unclear on how attacking works as Ecco’s sonic waves seem very inconsistent with their damage and many enemies are immune to his charge attack which means I spend most of the game swimming away from enemies rather than engaging them.

It's a gorgeous looking game, but one I appreciate more than I enjoy which is why it only gets an average score from me.

Uno de los juegos mas ESTRESANTES que he jugado en mi vida.