Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future

"Like the Venus De Milo- Beautiful, but rock hard"

If you're an old-school Sega fan, then you might remember a Megadrive game by the name of Ecco the Dolphin. Rather unsurprisingly, you played a Dolphin, named Ecco, who had to save his family from an evil alien menace known as the Vortex. The game was very difficult, but looked so damn good and played so amazingly fluidly that nobody cared. I never finished it or its sequel (The Tides of Time) without cheating, but regularly cracked out the password books to replay through some of my favourite levels.

Now we have a new Ecco game in full 3D, with the graphical power of the Dreamcast behind it. Can the little dolphin see off the Vortex a third time?

Well, no. For some reason, Defender of the Future seems to have absolutely no connection to the first two games other than a dolphin named Ecco and aliens. Although set far into the future, it bears no resemblance to the future shown in Tides of Time (which had flying dolphins and hovering tubes of water suspended in midair), and the alien menace this time is The Foe, a far less interesting enemy than the Vortex.

Still, series continuity aside, this is classic Ecco through and through. All his old moves return, along with a few new ones. Control of Ecco is also more fluid than ever before- tapping A makes him wave his tail faster and faster to move forwards, and the control stick steers him through the water. You've also got your dash attack and sonar with which to see off the various aquatic nasties that get in your way. Everything here is so smooth that Ecco is a joy to control, I wouldn't be surprised to discover Sega had used a real dolphin for motion-capture.

The most obvious plus point about Ecco is the graphics. Normally, I don't care about graphics at all. Only two games have ever made me think "Damn that game looks good, I must have it" based on graphics alone. Ecco:DotF is one of them (Rogue Leader was the other). Put simply, this is THE BEST LOOKING GAME ever made, and will probably remain so until Sega decide to release another Ecco. You could spend hours just swimming around, admiring the scenery, and trying out all Ecco's neat dolphin tricks, completely ignoring the task at hand, and still have great fun and feel like you've accomplished something. Dolphins are famous for playing around all day, now you can see why.

But speaking of the task at hand, here's the bit that probably put most people off. Ecco is difficult. Very very difficult. Hair-tearingly, controller-smashingly difficult. Ikaruga? Child's play. NES Zeldas? Don't make me laugh. If you can beat Defender of the Future, then you are truly a gaming pro. Not that the difficulty is a bad thing. The often overwhelming challenge just serves to make you feel even better once you finally find the solution, and the next stunningly beautiful location that lies just beyond seems all the more gorgeous for it.

The story is a little on the rubbish side. 500 years ago, dolphins revealed to mankind that they were in fact far more intelligent than we thought, and so Dolphins and humans shared dominance of the planet and lived together in harmony. As man and Dolphin began to exlore the galaxy together, the attract the attentions of The Foe, a race of aliens who decide to attack Earth. Only Ecco can stop them. There are a few cutscenes narrated by Tom Baker (aka one of the Doctor Whos), but for the most part it's not really important. And I love game plots, so for me to be saying that is pretty significant.

To conclude- Ecco is the most realistic dolphin simulator you will ever find. You could spend hours just frolicking around with your ocean chums before you even leave the first level, but when you do there's a whole world of hurt waiting for you- it just looks so damn good you won't care about the fact you're about to attempt the level for the 100th time.

SCORES:
GRAPHICS: Cliche maybe, but 11/10. These are beyond godly.
SOUNDS: 10/10
Story: 6/10
CONTROL: 10/10
OVERALL: 10/10

At last, a 3D update that really does stick to its roots, and improve on them. Mario, Sonic... watch out for Ecco.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04