Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco the Dolphin for Genesis/Mega Drive is an underwater action-adventure game from Sega. Ecco begins in his home bay when a violent waterspout pulls his pod and the surrounding sea life away, leaving him behind. His search carries him from familiar waters into a much larger mystery beneath the ocean.

Ecco swims freely through side-scrolling seas, caves, icebound waters, ruins, and other distinct areas. He can leap from the surface, but as a mammal he must regularly return for air or find an air pocket. A separate health meter is depleted by hazards and enemies and can be restored through the resources encountered on the journey.

His sonar is central to exploration. Ecco can sing to communicate with other dolphins and sea creatures, interact with the enormous crystal Glyphs found in several areas, and use echolocation to reveal a map of the surrounding level. Some Glyphs provide guidance while others block progress until Ecco finds the corresponding key-Glyph.

For combat, Ecco can build speed and charge forward to ram dangerous creatures. Later discoveries change what his sonar can do, expanding the ways it can be used against threats. The game combines this movement and combat with navigation puzzles, currents, hidden routes, and environmental obstacles that require careful use of Ecco's abilities.

The journey is divided into levels, and a password system lets players resume from reached stages. Conversations and Glyph messages gradually direct Ecco toward the Big Blue, an ancient whale, and the Asterite, a powerful life form that needs help before it can aid him in return.

The quest eventually leads to the sunken city of Atlantis, where an Atlantean time machine opens a path into Earth's distant past. By recovering what the Asterite has lost, Ecco gains the means to return to the moment of the harvest and follow the waterspout beyond Earth.

The final stretch turns the missing-pod mystery into a confrontation with the Vortex, an alien species that harvests life from Earth's oceans when the planets align. Ecco travels through their machine and onto their world to face the Vortex Queen, with the fate of his pod at stake.