In the time right as the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis began to dominate the fledgling video game world, there seemed to be a feeling of no rules. These were the pioneers of what a video game was and what it could be. For the most part, however, most of the games followed the same formula of a character in a side scrolling environment. There were tweaks, such as fighting games, but the genre had even in it’s infancy begun to follow a pattern. A game would come from Sega that would challenge what a game could be. It concerned a dolphin called Ecco and quite simply there was nothing like it.
Created by Ettore “Ed” Annunziata, the game Ecco the Dolphin concerns the so named dolphin as his pod suddenly vanishes from the ocean. Ecco will travel the sea, finding out that other creatures have noticed the strange goings on and finding help from a few unlikely allies. The development of this game had two sources. The first was Annunziata trying to make the game very accurate to the real world creatures. Ecco has echolocation which maps the area and he must also surface to get air. These little touches give Ecco a amazing amount of accuracy for a video game that was not made to be educational.
The second was the psychedelic. Dr John Lilly wrote about how to use psychedelic drugs in order to reach a higher state of awareness. He also studied dolphins and was one of the first to suggest that humans were not the only species who could be self aware. Annunziata read this research and also used the music of Pink Floyd as inspiration for the game’s soundtrack. The finished product is both beautiful and not all together real.
While the research for the dolphins was scientific, the game does take a turn into science fiction. The things that have taken Ecco’s family are not quite from this world. At one point, Ecco makes a trip to the famed land of Atlantis. All of this was not Ecco’s most defining feature. The game was hard, and purposeful made so. Annunziata created a game that could not be beaten in a single setting, back when speed running was just an idea. You had to earn your way to the end and you would die many times before you did.
The difficulty is probably Ecco’s most enduring legacy. This was not a game that pandered to you. No, this was a struggle, to hit the right moves at the right time. Games could be played by everyone, but not everyone had the patience for Ecco. While considered to be a classic, rightfully so, the people who beat Ecco would wear that accomplishment like a badge and it was a smaller group then most. The game had three sequels and while great, there is something about the first game. It was just so different.
Echo for the most part is kinda forgotten today and is rarely mentioned when great games are discussed . There are some people in the video game industry who have never heard of it. For those who did play, there is a smile and a shake of the head. The first mention is about how difficult it was. The second was how beautiful it was. Ecco should be played by everyone as a piece of video game history. This was a game who challenged what a video game could be and would allow others to change what video games were in the future. There was just nothing like it.
And man, was it hard.
