It was many years ago, I was 7 at the time, when I got my Sega Genesis. The best part of when I got my Genesis was the amount of games that my mom got with it. Aladdin, Sonic 2, Gunstar Heroes, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, some Ninja Turtles fighting game I can't quite remember the title of, a game were you played a Ninja that had a dog, and off course Ecco the Dolphin. Now, while I wasn't as good then as I am now with games I was still pretty good at the time. For example, for some weird reason my friends believed Gunstar Heroes to be hard even though I explained to them the three basic strategies to beat that game, (use the Stationary shooter character, combine the seeking gun and the blue laser as quickly as possible, oh and don't die. If you die start over). Anyway, like I said I was good. I also liked to play my games quite a bit and beat all of them... except for Ecco the Dolphin. I couldn't even get off the first level. I would stare at the screenshots at the back of the box showing later levels in complete frustration. I just couldn't beat the first level of that game. I know I'm not the only one who couldn't beat it. One of my friends I met in college had a similar experience with it. So I want to know, any of you ever get off the first level, and/or beat it?

Just as a note I'm not talking about the opening level where you play around in the ocean with your dolphin buddies. I'm talking about the level after that.

Beat it as a kid with my buddy. Single scariest game I have ever played. It was pretty much a horror game. Between the sharks, arctic sea spiders and insane claustrophobia about being stuck in the ocean, where you can drown and die is fucking horrifying. And don't get me started on Vents of Medusa...

I'm pretty sure that I didn't even know that there were other levels in Ecco the Dolphin back then.

Do you mean getting to the Undercaves or getting to the Open Ocean?

I think I got to the Open Ocean a few times, and made it to the ice level maybe twice. That game was hard as a motherfucker.

I think he's referring to triggering the vortex at the very beginning by jumping out of the water. If I recall right, it took me ages to figure out but then it happened by accident.

EDIT: WHOOPS, sorry OP I skim read you and missed your final line. So I guess you're referring to the level with the octopus I think...?

It was a ridiculously hard game with a terrifyingly oppressive atmosphere, I always thought. I know that I played through pretty much the whole game and I killed the end boss but I can't remember how much of that, if anything, I accomplished without passwords. The final levels were almost certainly password jobbies. They were also proof positive, if any more were needed, that the game was dark as all shit. That HR Giger stuff seriously came out of nowhere.

My preferred mode of enjoying Ecco, after I completed it, was swimming around in the opening sequence and pretending that none of the rest of the game ever happened :(

I never managed to finish either of the two Genesis games, and I never dared to check out the Dreamcast game, although I heard it was quite good.

Anyway, the furthest I made it in Tides of Time was to a part where Ecco had to fly upwards into the sky; seemed like he was headed to outer space, but I'm not entirely sure. Never managed to finish the level, because the difficulty was on a par with Battletoads.

@Fallen189: Nice job, sir. And you're right; these games are way scarier than some Resident Evil shit; maybe Patrick should give 'em a shot?

been on the first level, doing flips for the last 18 years :)

@Catarrhal said:

I never managed to finish either of the two Genesis games, and I never dared to check out the Dreamcast game, although I heard it was quite good.

Anyway, the furthest I made it in Tides of Time was to a part where Ecco had to fly upwards into the sky; seemed like he was headed to outer space, but I'm not entirely sure. Never managed to finish the level, because the difficulty was on a par with Battletoads.

@Fallen189: Nice job, sir. And you're right; these games are way scarier than some Resident Evil shit; maybe Patrick should give 'em a shot?

You're actually going higher and higher to meet your ancestors, a super evolves species of dolphin who can fly due to an evolutionary trait of helium sacs. After that, you go into this level where youre hundreds of miles up above the world, trying to jump between passages of water while dodging "Medusa", a giant enemy jellyfish who makes the most disgustingly terrifying screech.

Then IIRC, you use time travel to rebuild the asterisk who got destroyed by the Locust Queen (?) and you have to go to the terrifiying future where they won. One level is called "Enter the Machine".

Never has a game scared me so bad.

@Fallen189 said:

@Catarrhal said:

I never managed to finish either of the two Genesis games, and I never dared to check out the Dreamcast game, although I heard it was quite good.

Anyway, the furthest I made it in Tides of Time was to a part where Ecco had to fly upwards into the sky; seemed like he was headed to outer space, but I'm not entirely sure. Never managed to finish the level, because the difficulty was on a par with Battletoads.

@Fallen189: Nice job, sir. And you're right; these games are way scarier than some Resident Evil shit; maybe Patrick should give 'em a shot?

You're actually going higher and higher to meet your ancestors, a super evolves species of dolphin who can fly due to an evolutionary trait of helium sacs. After that, you go into this level where youre hundreds of miles up above the world, trying to jump between passages of water while dodging "Medusa", a giant enemy jellyfish who makes the most disgustingly terrifying screech.

Then IIRC, you use time travel to rebuild the asterisk who got destroyed by the Locust Queen (?) and you have to go to the terrifiying future where they won. One level is called "Enter the Machine".

Never has a game scared me so bad.

Maybe my 7-8 year old self should be glad I never got off the first level. The rest of the game does sound interesting though. Might give it a go again.

Which one do you mean? Tides of Time was the second in the series. But whichever one it is, they are both are hard as hell. The second one made you do those weird ass rings underwater like the pseudo-3D mode in the Sonic 2 co-op. Not only was it sickening, but if you fucked up too many times, you had to start over. That was infuriating. Ecco is still an awesome series on the Genesis; and a part of me always considered Ecco as Sega's answer to Metroid because they both had those feelings of claustrophobia and isolation .

@mikey87144 said:

@Fallen189 said:

@Catarrhal said:

I never managed to finish either of the two Genesis games, and I never dared to check out the Dreamcast game, although I heard it was quite good.

Anyway, the furthest I made it in Tides of Time was to a part where Ecco had to fly upwards into the sky; seemed like he was headed to outer space, but I'm not entirely sure. Never managed to finish the level, because the difficulty was on a par with Battletoads.

@Fallen189: Nice job, sir. And you're right; these games are way scarier than some Resident Evil shit; maybe Patrick should give 'em a shot?

You're actually going higher and higher to meet your ancestors, a super evolves species of dolphin who can fly due to an evolutionary trait of helium sacs. After that, you go into this level where youre hundreds of miles up above the world, trying to jump between passages of water while dodging "Medusa", a giant enemy jellyfish who makes the most disgustingly terrifying screech.

Then IIRC, you use time travel to rebuild the asterisk who got destroyed by the Locust Queen (?) and you have to go to the terrifiying future where they won. One level is called "Enter the Machine".

Never has a game scared me so bad.

Maybe my 7-8 year old self should be glad I never got off the first level. The rest of the game does sound interesting though. Might give it a go again.

Annoyingly, it was actually a really good game.