Together Retro: Ecco The Dolphin

[Ivo]

SPOILERS (The Tube)

The Tube is harsh, but not as much as Dark Water would have been on the Genesis version.

If it weren't for the superpowers it would be nearly impossible (obviously Ecco would drown without air so that part is impossible pre-powers, but I mean actually dodging everything would be nearly impossible).

The regular sonar can destroy the flying stuff that moves (you do not need to do a sonar dash), and a charge can actually destroy the barriers (I did it a couple of times). The horizontal lightning shots are annoying but you can afford to catch most of them and not die as long as you can avoid hitting the barriers and can sonar every flying stuff without too much difficulty (the way I cleared this level was not even dodging the lightning - some hit you, some don't and I just lived with that). It seems to be worse to "panic" trying to dodge something and hitting two or three things in a row; the barriers are the worse and you should take hits in order to focus on avoiding them IMO.

Ivo.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I was busy mapping The Machine, pausing and drawing, and after a while I found myself farther into than I had ever been. I thought this was going to be it, the time when I finally put this meat grinder behind me. Well, then a power surge happened and the lights flickered in my house for a couple of seconds. It reset the Sega CD!

[noiseredux]

^ that's evil.

[Ivo]

I finished!

I was busy mapping The Machine, pausing and drawing, and after a while I found myself farther into than I had ever been. I thought this was going to be it, the time when I finally put this meat grinder behind me. Well, then a power surge happened and the lights flickered in my house for a couple of seconds. It reset the Sega CD!

The Machine is the hardest by a good margin (Dark Water in Genesis is also very harsh as it has enough insta-kills by crushing in a long level, and then the boss fight without a checkpoint... In Sega CD The Machine is easily the hardest by far). You don't seem to need tips but here goes for others.

Once again, regular sonar can kill stuff just fine, don't bother sonar charge. Only rarely you will need to actually use the C button swim. D-pad should be enough. In most of the level you will do well by swimming in circles and spamming sonar machine-gun style in all directions. That is enough to kill the enemies well before they touch you the vast majority of the time. If the head is still alive they will keep harassing you and can easily kill you if you let them.

The worse is not the enemies (after you are used to them - the above circling tactic helps). You will die the vast majority of times by being crushed (either because you got trapped due to the scrolling or because you have a hard time navigating.

After a while you will rarely die from navigating. You get a bit used to the navigation style which is after all similar to the Tube as well.

The worse is In some parts of the level (I'm afraid you will have to memorize a bit or map it) there are "traps" to crush you where you need to be on your toes and swim through a narrow part and sort of already know where the scrolling will go next. There are about 3 parts in the level where I think that even a very skilled navigator will hardly make it the first time.

After all that the last boss fight is easy by comparison. You really don't need to die in this one unless you try to be a hero and "speed run it". You regen - the enemy doesn't. Take your time and play carefully here and you can clear it on the first time if you can figure out what to do (it is more obvious than the other boss fight).

Ivo.

[alienjesus]

you regen? Are you sure? Im pretty sure I didn't get any regen when I took on the boss.

[gtmtnbiker]

you regen? Are you sure? Im pretty sure I didn't get any regen when I took on the boss.

He probably forgot that he enabled "cheat" mode.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Just another update. Since the power surge (or alien interference) I have died about 15 more times trying to conquer The Machine. I still haven't gotten as far as I did during the surge. I am however getting better at the early parts of the maze. I'm not giving up, yet.

[alienjesus]

Just another update. Since the power surge (or alien interference) I have died about 15 more times trying to conquer The Machine. I still haven't gotten as far as I did during the surge. I am however getting better at the early parts of the maze. I'm not giving up, yet.

The cruel part is that it takes about 7 minutes to get through the machine. Thats a LOT of auto scrolling labyrinth to remember.

[hardrrocker]

I my opinion is that it is one of the earliest examples that we can define games as art.

[Ivo]

you regen? Are you sure? Im pretty sure I didn't get any regen when I took on the boss.

He probably forgot that he enabled "cheat" mode.

You get regen AFTER the first boss, so I think you will have it on the final boss battle after the Machine. I know I had it, coming straight out of the Machine into the boss.

SPOILERS:

The powers you get after returning to the Asterite in the "present" are:
you breathe underwater (the air meter is removed)
your regular sonar can destroy most stuff
you regen health (rather quickly, as long as you are not taking hits those bars replenish rather fast). Without regen, clearing the Tube would be EXTREMELY hard, and clearing the Machine would be practically impossible*. I reckon the final boss without regen would be doable with some practice if you played really carefully.

* Unless you are one of those guys that can do max combos on Ikaruga playing both ships at once or something.


Ivo.