Together Retro: Ecco The Dolphin

[noiseredux]

Congratulations on conquering the Undercaves. Your next beer is on me!

hahaha, thanks man. I feel thrilled.

[Pingfa]

I completed the Genesis version some time last year. Hate me?

Personally I really enjoyed Ecco the Dolphin. It gets unbelievably difficult/cheap in later levels but it is really an experience I recommend most people go through.

Maybe I'll get the Sega CD version for this Together Retro but I may need more time to try and conquer that beast again! Still, it'd be nice (hopefully) to see the new levels and to hear the music in CD quality.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I got to the level called Dark Water, and that's where opinion about this game dropped. I'm swimming all over the place, hitting all the glyphs, finally I come to the swirling thing that looks like a DNA strand. This thing is vicious for a number of reasons. For one thing, if you start harming it, it shoots electricity out that takes out about half you life guage (by far the most damaging creature in the game). But it has an even stronger weapon on it's side: the game's inability to let you know what you are supposed to do. I died about 25 times trying to damage it by shooting waves and charging. I started to think it could not die, so then I noticed that there's a gap moving down the middle of it, and if you time it correctly, you can swim down through it from top to bottom without being harmed. So, I tried that, but could never make it without dying. So then I decided to spend a large amount of time reswimming around the level to see if I missed something, like a strange rock, or a hint, or anything. Well I retraced every and found nothing. That's when I realized that I'm 100% stuck, so with regret, I switch on the laptop, look at the Lord Alan's walkthrough. It says to damage four balls of the same color on the enemy. So, with excitement, I go to the creature and attempt to dodge into four of the balls. It killed me about 25 more times before I could get it to work. Finally, the stage was over.

Unfortunately, I believe the game is too cryptic, to the point that it artificially adds to the difficulty. I don't think I would ever recommend this game to anyone because it's actually been pretty unenjoyable.

But sure enough, I'm so far into the game, I might as well try to beat it, even if it means having to check the walkthrough every once in a while. So I kept playing and wizzed through the next few stages, and then I entered the stage called The Tube. My first death came in about three seconds. This stage is really, really, hard. It is mostly because it is hard to maneuver the dolphin through the autoscrolling chasm. I already knew the Ecco was slow at changing direction, but it never really interfered with the game until now. Even on top of that, they actually WORSENED the controls for this stage by making it so that you can’t do the charge attack if you are touching the bottom of the screen. So that’s where I’m at right now. So far I’ve died about 40 times, but it is too late to turn back now …

[Pingfa]

Oh man, the Asterite... the level as a whole was bad enough as it is... but I retried the level so many times I eventually found it easy.
The way I beat the Asterite was a lot like it's done in this video at 2:10:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6HZfTvqaMk

Even worse... The Tube. I would say The Tube was more difficult for me than any other level in the game. It's absolutely brutal. Fortunately it's also very short.

Fortunately for you, you do not have long to go at all... but you do have something very difficult ahead of you.

I think my experience was probably similar to yours - it was infuriating at times but I was determined to beat it.
I was very satisfied when I finally finished it. Still, now that I'm beginning to recall how infuriating some of those levels were... I'll skip on playing through again anytime soon.

[Ivo]

There are some really harsh jumps in the game.

For anyone playing the CD version through KEGA, I kept a Save State just after the first ridiculous jump of the game (Deep City). If you get too frustrated on this one and want the file PM me for it. I intend to do the same when I get to the REALLY difficult jump section.

EDIT: Although this time through I actually found the shortcut (in fact there is a second shortcut I found later on that level) I went through the long route to see if I could still do it and pulled off all those damn jumps again.

If anyone here also cleared it through the hard route on purpose I'd like to know.

Ivo.

[alienjesus]

I got to the level called Dark Water, and that's where opinion about this game dropped. I'm swimming all over the place, hitting all the glyphs, finally I come to the swirling thing that looks like a DNA strand. This thing is vicious for a number of reasons. For one thing, if you start harming it, it shoots electricity out that takes out about half you life guage (by far the most damaging creature in the game). But it has an even stronger weapon on it's side: the game's inability to let you know what you are supposed to do. I died about 25 times trying to damage it by shooting waves and charging. I started to think it could not die, so then I noticed that there's a gap moving down the middle of it, and if you time it correctly, you can swim down through it from top to bottom without being harmed. So, I tried that, but could never make it without dying. So then I decided to spend a large amount of time reswimming around the level to see if I missed something, like a strange rock, or a hint, or anything. Well I retraced every and found nothing. That's when I realized that I'm 100% stuck, so with regret, I switch on the laptop, look at the Lord Alan's walkthrough. It says to damage four balls of the same color on the enemy. So, with excitement, I go to the creature and attempt to dodge into four of the balls. It killed me about 25 more times before I could get it to work. Finally, the stage was over.

Unfortunately, I believe the game is too cryptic, to the point that it artificially adds to the difficulty. I don't think I would ever recommend this game to anyone because it's actually been pretty unenjoyable.

But sure enough, I'm so far into the game, I might as well try to beat it, even if it means having to check the walkthrough every once in a while. So I kept playing and wizzed through the next few stages, and then I entered the stage called The Tube. My first death came in about three seconds. This stage is really, really, hard. It is mostly because it is hard to maneuver the dolphin through the autoscrolling chasm. I already knew the Ecco was slow at changing direction, but it never really interfered with the game until now. Even on top of that, they actually WORSENED the controls for this stage by making it so that you can’t do the charge attack if you are touching the bottom of the screen. So that’s where I’m at right now. So far I’ve died about 40 times, but it is too late to turn back now …

Yeah, Dark Water could be pretty torturous. The asterite battle was quite hard, and restarting the level from scratch drove me mad. Luckily for CD players, they dont have to go far form the last checkpoint to reach it.

The Tube isnt actually too hard. Once you get through the first dodging bit, you'll reach an area where only the same 2 obstacles come down. SPOILER Once you reach this bit, position yourself slightly to the left of centre, facing up, and spam the sonar button. You'll kill most things, and the lightning guns shouldnt hurt you more than you'll be healing (regenerating health on this and the next level.) Hope that helps. /SPOILER. Unfortunately, nothing can help prepare you for whats to come on the next level......Its the hardest level I've played in any game ever I think, and so, so, so unfair. But as it's the last level, you'll want to keep at it, as horrible as it is.

[Assman]

That part with the Asterite sucks. I got stuck there originally too, and in fact tried the same exact thing to get by it (swimming through it). When I read what you had to do, I was in disbelief. Who the hell would figure that out?

But yeah, get ready for Welcome to the Machine. You will cry. The worst part about it is that even when you're finally able to pass this bitch of a level, dying at the final boss sends you right back to it.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I passed through the Tube last night. Like someone else said, you can sail to the top about halfway through and just sit there until the level ends. Right now I'm working on Welcome to the Machine (a Pink Floyd reference?). As expected, I'm getting killed, but I'm starting to memorize the level. It might take a few days.

Why did the developers want such a hard game?

[noiseredux]

Welcome to the Machine (a Pink Floyd reference?).

yes it is, and there's another PF reference in an Ecco sequel. I forget which.

[alienjesus]

I think theres a level called 'New Machine' in Ecco 2 which is apparently a Pink Floyd reference, but I'm not a fan, so I could be wrong.