WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Ecco: The Tides of Time

Publisher: Sega Developer: Novotrade Release: 1994

If folks considered the groundbreaking Ecco the Dolphin a bit too difficult for its own good, this follow-up thumbs its (bottle)nose at anyone who complained by ratcheting up the challenge even further.

The Tides of Time is a direct sequel to the previous game – Ecco starts this new adventure with all the abilities bestowed upon him at the end of his recent adventure. The most important of which is the ability to breathe under water. The party, however, is short-lived, as these gifts from the Asterite are taken away pretty early on, reverting Ecco to his previous “gotta breathe air to live” limitation. This is a good thing, as it adds a level of intensity to the game that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Unlike the previous game, things get crazy almost immediately in Tides of Time. It appears that Ecco didn't actually destroy the Vortex Queen after all, and it actually followed him back to Earth to build a new hive. Ecco learns this after he runs across a dolphin with decidedly large fins, who informs him that she's his descendent and offers to help him travel to the future.

Turns out this is only one possible future where the ocean has developed its own mind, and is connected via a series of “sky tides” or floating water. Dolphins have also evolved, gaining some telekinetic powers as well as the ability to fly.

It gets better.

Ecco finds the Asterite in this future, where he learns that he split the time stream when he defeated the Vortex Queen, and that he must travel back to his time to revive the apparently-dead Asterite and set things right. What follows is a time-hoppin' adventure that would have Doc Brown spinning in his grave.

At first blush Tides of Time looks like little more than a slight graphical update to Ecco. And for the most part, that's the case – Ecco moves and controls exactly the same as before, with all of the old abilities. But this sequel does bring a few new things to the table. Travel from one major area to the next is now handled through pseudo-3D open ocean segments, where Ecco swims into the screen and must pass through a series of rings both under the surface and above it.

The sky tides are new, shooter like areas with forced scrolling. Here Ecco must navigate one or more “tubes” of airborne water, often having to jump between them in order to keep from falling to the earth far below.

Finally, at various points during the game Ecco actually transforms into other animals: a seagull, jellyfish, shark, a school of fish, and even a Vortex Drone. These transformations are level-specific, however, so each new creature features very specialized abilities.

The Sega CD version again comes complete with a fantastic soundtrack by Spencer Nilsen (though not as impressive as the previous Ecco CD soundtrack, in my opinion), as well as glyphs scattered throughout the game that trigger 3D rendered video recaps of the original Ecco the Dolphin. I'm sure these were impressive back in the day, but they sure don't look too hot at this point.

I'm not as big a fan of this as I am of the first Ecco, but that likely has more to do with the steep difficulty curve than quality. I actually think Tides of Time is a better game overall.

The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, and for good reason. There was originally a third Ecco game destined for the Genesis, which was meant to complete the trilogy. I'm not sure how far along in development Ecco 3 got, but it seems like Sega opted for the kid-centric Ecco Jr instead. Unfortunately, that means this particular storyline was never concluded. Although there was another Ecco game released – Defender of the Future for the Dreamcast in 2000 – and it was even developed by the same company (Novotrade had become Appaloosa Interactive by that point) it had nothing to do with this particular storyline. It's more or less a reimagining of Ecco's tale.