Expecting a nice, cutesy game about dolphins and playfully splashing around in the sea? Ecco the Dolphin isn't for you. Despite it's seemingly child-friendly appearance, Ecco is actually quite a disturbing experience. A fiendishly difficult puzzle and adventure hybrid set under the seas of the world, Ecco deals with time travel, kidnapping and even huge, malformed and deeply terrifying aliens. Even figuring out what to do at the start of Ecco is hard. Without any prompts, you're expected to leap high in the air, triggering a storm that kidnaps all of your pod (your crew of dolphins) and go off on an adventure to save them all. Along the way you'll be dogged by creepy music, explore the dark depths of the sea (complete with hideous nasties), gain the power of underwater breathing, meet a bunch of mystical rocks called the Asterite and use your dolphin powers to defeat an evil alien queen. Despite its weirdness and creepiness, Ecco still remains a classic game that stands up even today. As an adult (particularly if you first played this as a child) you can understand the technicalities of the game and actually dare to venture beyond where you wouldn't before.
Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.
