3D Ecco the Dolphin

"After a mysterious storm sweeps your family from the sea, it's up to you to find them and uncover the mystery behind the forces that took them. The search to find them will take you through vast underwater realms of treachery, beauty and adventure. Use your sonar to discover hidden caverns and unlock the secrets of crystal glyphs – but beware of packs of bloodthirsty sharks that search the ocean for unwitting prey! In your quest, you'll discover that more than your family's safety is at stake. The fate of the whole world rests on your wits and fins.

In addition to its all-new 3D presentation, 3D Ecco the Dolphin also features Super Dolphin Mode where your health and breath never deplete!"

This is the Standalone eShop release of the game on Nintendo 3DS. The game was also released as part of the Sega 3D Reprint Archives (セガ3D復刻アーカイブス, Sega 3D Fukkoku Ākaibusu) collection. A minor bug in the emulation is a loss of sounds in the M2 wrapper at the start of the video as you move through the menu. The game it self is fine.

For the International longplay, I will be utilising the 3DS exclusive feature 'Super Dolphin Mode' as it takes much of the frustration out of the game leaving it more of an experience than a challenge allowing you to actually explore and solve the puzzles without worrying about energy or air. We have longplays of the Genesis and Sega CD originals to watch if you want to see the full original as intended experience. Whilst seemingly invincible, you can still be crushed, eaten and killed by moving spiked shells.

The game is everything you would expect of a perfect conversion of the original game. The controls are the same as well as the frustrating method of achieving the super jump in later levels. The game uses a password system for replaying levels with match the genesis original. While the game is often well remembered due to its fairly unique gameplay and art style and its unfolding story, it's also remembered for its frustrating gameplay including lack of level checkpoints, respawning enemies and overall lack of direction. Don't get me wrong, its by no means a bad game but you have to be ready to devote a fair amount of time to it as you figure things out for the first time.

For the longplays, I mainly stick to the objectives and show glyph locations and not spend to much time showing red herrings or dead ends in the map of which the game is full of. In the levels Vents and Logoon, you are tasked with saving three dolphins in each. This is optional and you can just go to the level exit but you will miss out on abilities deadly sonar and soul absorb which certainly help out as you progress.

--- International Release ---
00:00:00 Home Bay
00:02:36 Medusa Bay
00:04:30 The Undercaves
00:07:10 The Vents
00:14:05 The Lagoon
00:21:10 Ridge Water
00:25:15 Open Ocean
00:26:25 Ice Zone
00:27:40 Hard Water
00:28:50 Cold Water
00:32:05 Island Zone
00:36:40 Deep Water
00:39:00 Marble Sea
00:40:35 The Library
00:45:27 Deep City
00:49:00 City of Forever
00:53:00 Jurassic Beach
00:55:35 Pteranodon Pond
00:59:53 Origin Beach
01:02:05 Trilobite Circle
01:05:05 Dark Water
01:06:55 City of Forever 2
01:08:40 The Tube
01:10:35 The Machine
01:16:27 The Last Fight
01:20:25 Credits

For completion, I have added the Japanese release which does have some differences to the western version of the game. Overall, I believe you take less damage but you still got to watch out for those instant death crushing sea shells sending you back to the start of the level. There are some changes to the Jurassic levels and an additional level of Open Ocean which Might also have been in the SegaCD game. Loads of checkpoint glyphs during The Machine level as well as a whole extra stage if you are eaten by the Vortex boss thing. Oh and right at the start, you have signage pointing to the password or level start areas as well as a sonar ping on the Sega logo. I believe there is extra dialogue added during localisation but i cant tell you what it is.

--- Japanese Release ---
00:00:00 Demo with Classic Filter
00:03:52 Home Bay
00:05:03 Medusa Bay
00:06:40 The Undercaves
00:09:23 The Vents
00:14:55 The Lagoon
00:20:38 Ridge Water
00:24:38 Open Ocean
00:25:30 Ice Zone
00:26:40 Hard Water
00:28:05 Cold Water
00:31:05 Open Ocean (*)
00:32:05 Island Zone
00:36:27 Deep Water
00:39:08 Marble Sea
00:40:52 The Library
00:45:23 Deep City
00:48:38 City of Forever
00:53:20 Jurassic Beach
00:55:48 Pteranodon Pond
01:00:35 Origin Beach
01:02:30 Trilobite Circle
01:07:50 Dark Water
01:09:38 City of Forever 2
01:11:37 The Tube
01:13:31 The Machine
01:19:50 The Stomach (*)
01:21:26 The Last Fight
01:27:10 Credits