The Metroid series is often praised for the lonely atmosphere it creates but, as much as I like Metroid, none of the games can hold a candle to Ecco the Dolphin.
The game sees you take control of the eponymous Ecco, tasked with exploring a maze-like, underwater world to rescue the rest of his dolphin pod. The game opens with an utterly terrifying cutscene of Ecco's pod being raided and kidnapped by extra terrestrials and remains tense and uncomfortable (at least it did when I was a kid) thanks to the isolating music and scary, brooding aquatic creatures you need to traverse. And don't get me started on the final boss...
For context, Ecco felt like a totally ubiquitous game in the early '90s, it felt like everyone played this game. It seems odd that this game would be so popular considering it's premise but the '90s also gave us Free Willy and Flipper. Aquatic animals were all the rage, I guess.
Ultimately, Ecco might have an admirably spooky atmosphere but it plays terribly. You'll need to find pockets of air regularly or else Ecco will drown, which adds tension but slows the game down horribly. Along with this central issue Ecco also suffers from confusing level layouts and atrociously implemented environmental puzzles that seem to require pixel-precision movements to solve. It's just not fun at all but it left a mark on me nonetheless.
The game sees you take control of the eponymous Ecco, tasked with exploring a maze-like, underwater world to rescue the rest of his dolphin pod. The game opens with an utterly terrifying cutscene of Ecco's pod being raided and kidnapped by extra terrestrials and remains tense and uncomfortable (at least it did when I was a kid) thanks to the isolating music and scary, brooding aquatic creatures you need to traverse. And don't get me started on the final boss...
For context, Ecco felt like a totally ubiquitous game in the early '90s, it felt like everyone played this game. It seems odd that this game would be so popular considering it's premise but the '90s also gave us Free Willy and Flipper. Aquatic animals were all the rage, I guess.
Ultimately, Ecco might have an admirably spooky atmosphere but it plays terribly. You'll need to find pockets of air regularly or else Ecco will drown, which adds tension but slows the game down horribly. Along with this central issue Ecco also suffers from confusing level layouts and atrociously implemented environmental puzzles that seem to require pixel-precision movements to solve. It's just not fun at all but it left a mark on me nonetheless.