Ecco Located
Videogames’ greatest dolphin.
Back when the Sega Mega Drive ruled the world and everybody knew the music to Green Hill Zone, a shinobi was the white-ninja and Street Fighter was a beat ‘em up, there was one game that seemingly everyone had played: Ecco the Dolphin. Playing Ecco meant renting the game, being so impressed by the graphics that you could believe Ecco was a dolphin simulator and swimming around the very first enclosed body of water before putting the pad down and summing the game up as something of a cool oddity. For some of the people that play past that opening and got into the Ecco proper were treated to not only a unique game but a great one. Ecco the Dolphin is in my top ten favourite Mega Drive games (see my review here), and the first title did enough to start a franchise that saw another 4 games released around the eponymous Ecco.
It’s been a long time since Mega Drive Mountain crumbled though, and things have changed, including the disappearance of Ecco; but that’s set to change.
Speaking to Xbox Wire, Ecco creator Ed Annunziata revealed that the first two Ecco games are in for the remaster treatment, and that a brand new Ecco game is in development. If all of that wasn’t interesting enough, Mr. Annunziata has said that the original team behind have got back together for both the remasters and this new Ecco game. There is a website for the new Ecco game, with a countdown that looks to run out in April of 2025, but we’ll have to wait for more information.
I have to say, I didn’t see an Ecco revival on the cards but I’m very happy to be surprised.
Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Tackling the hefty Yakuza: Like A Dragon and the first Lunar game.
