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Ecco: The Tides of Time
Tides

Released:

November 1994 (US)

Ecco: The Tides of Time is an action-adventure video game developed by Novotrade International, published by Sega, and released for most of Sega's then-supported gaming consoles in 1994. It is the second game in the Ecco the Dolphin series. The Tides of Time continued the story of the first game and featured similar gameplay with a few new additions. The game is also known informally as Ecco 2 or Ecco II. Additional versions of the game were later released for Sega CD, Game Gear and Master System.

Gameplay[]

The Tides of Time maintains the same gameplay as its predecessor. Ecco's main attack is to ram into enemies at high speeds, while his sonar is used to communicate with other cetaceans and interact with certain objects such as crystal Glyphs, as well as bring up a map of the area through echolocation. By combining his charge and sonar, Ecco can attack enemies from a distance. As a mammal, Ecco is also required to surface for air at regular intervals.

New puzzles include following other dolphins through an underwater maze and a "scavenger hunt" in which Ecco must collect the Asterite's missing globes. Two new power-ups were also introduced. The first is the "Pulsar", which grants Ecco the ability to fire a multi-directional sonar attack at enemies for the duration of the stage. The second is the "Metasphere", which transforms Ecco into different animals. The transformations are level-specific and include a seagull, a jellyfish, a shark, a school of fish, and a Vortex Warrior Drone.

Some stages use a pseudo-3D effect. In these stages, Ecco must swim through moving rings while avoiding or attacking enemies. The player is forced to restart if Ecco misses too many rings or takes too much damage.

Plot[]

The Tides of Time continues from the ending of the original game, in which Ecco had saved his dolphin pod and the Earth from the Vortex aliens. Still wielding the powers granted to him by the ancient life-form known as the Asterite, Ecco has since returned to his peaceful life in Earth's waters. One day, while Ecco is out exploring an underwater cave, a powerful earthquake goes off and causes an avalanche. As Ecco recovers, he discovers that the Asterite's powers have left him (indicated by the return of his need to surface for air). His fellow dolphins explain that something has killed the Asterite and is now spreading fear among the ocean life.

Soon after, Ecco meets a dolphin with unusually long fins. She is his descendant, Trellia, who takes him to the distant future to speak with "an old friend". In the future, the ocean has developed its own mind and is connected across the planet by waterways traveling through the sky. The dolphins of the future have also evolved, as they are now able to fly through a combination of internal helium sacs and telekinetic powers.

After exploring the future, Ecco finds his old friend the Asterite, who explains the events that had transpired in Ecco's time. Though Ecco had defeated the Vortex, the Vortex Queen survived and followed him back to Earth, where she killed the Asterite of Ecco's time and now nests and feeds to restore her brood. The Asterite then tells Ecco that when he used the Atlantean Time Machine to save his pod, he split the stream of time in two. One possible future for Earth is a bright, happy world of flying dolphins, while the other is a dead, mechanical world sucked dry by the Vortex. As a result, Ecco is referred to as "the stone that split the stream of time in two".

Once back in his own time, Ecco travels to the Moray Abyss, where he finds the first two globes of the Asterite after clearing out the giant moray eels. He then journeys to revive the Asterite by finding its many globes that have been scattered across the ocean. Slowly, the Asterite begins to recover, and eventually is able to hold a full conversation with Ecco. However, it cannot help Ecco, as the Vortex of the dark future took its last pair of globes back to their own time. As the Atlantean Time Machine can only go into the past, Ecco must find another way to reach the dark future.

Ecco makes his way to the Lunar Bay, which the Vortex have stripped of all ocean life as they continue to grow and multiply. As he explores, Ecco is ambushed by Vortex drones and taken to the dark future. Unlike the future of before, the Vortex Future is a lifeless planet-spanning machine consisting of water tubes, artificial gravity, and dangerous Vortex creatures. Ecco locates the Asterite's last two globes in a chamber, where a bubble-chained holding device called the Globe Holder resides. After destroying it, Ecco obtains the globes and is warped back to his era.

With the Asterite complete again, Ecco's former powers are restored, and the Asterite summons all of Ecco's fellow dolphins to join in fighting the Vortex. As the dolphins and the Vortex do battle in the now-transformed Lunar Bay, Ecco swims to the deepest parts and infiltrates the Vortex's New Machine, then finally confronts the Vortex Queen and seemingly destroys her once and for all.

As his pod celebrates their victory over the vanquished Vortex, Ecco returns to the Asterite and is told to go to Atlantis and destroy the Time Machine in order to prevent the stream of time from ever being split again. Arriving in the sunken city, Ecco discovers that the Vortex Queen is still alive as a larva after her supposed death, and the two of them race to the Time Machine. The Vortex Queen uses the Time Machine first and is sent to the Prehistoric Era, where she finds herself unable to rule over the creatures that reside there. Faced with the need to survive, the Queen is forced to adapt to Earth's own life-cycles, and through the eons, the Vortex are integrated into the ecosystems of Earth as arthropods. Ecco chooses to use the Time Machine instead of destroying it, and vanishes into an unknown era.

Controls[]

Controller

A - Sonar. Advance text.

B - Dash/charge attack.

C - Accelerate swimming speed.

B+A - Charge Sonar

Directional Pad - Used to move Ecco in 8 directions (Up/Down/Left/Right + diagonals).

Start - Pauses and unpauses game.

Levels[]

Release[]

The game was developed by Novotrade and published by Sega. The game has a new graphical style which features some of the best graphics seen on the Genesis console. The 16-bit chiptune music is similar to the first game but has a heavier mood to it. A departure from the first game, the "rubber dolphin" physics set was used prominently in this game.

Game Gear version[]

A version of Ecco: The Tides of Time was released for the Game Gear, though in a heavily-altered form. All the levels were redesigned to work within the handheld's weaker abilities, and several levels and story scenes were removed completely.

Soundtrack[]

As with Ecco the Dolphin, the Sega CD version of The Tides of Time features an alternate soundtrack composed by Spencer Nilsen. The Genesis/Mega Drive version features a soundtrack composed by Attila Dobos, András Magyari, David Javelosa and Andy Armer (co-writer of Grammy Award-winning single "Rise").

In 1996 a soundtrack album combining music from both Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time was released, under the title Ecco: Songs of Time.

Reception[]

Reviewing the Genesis version, GamePro commented that Ecco: The Tides of Time retains the best points of the first Ecco game, such as its gameplay concept and lifelike animations, while having much more accessible difficulty. While they cited some problems with the controls, they praised Ecco's new transformation ability, remarked that "All the game's audio is simple, soothing and effective", and recommended the game as an improvement over the original.[1] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Genesis version a 7.25 out of 10, likewise declaring it an improvement over the original, though for the opposite reason: two of the reviewers said it was much more difficult than the first game. They particularly applauded the game's remarkably colorful graphics.[2] Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Taxing puzzles, RPG elements, shooting stages, and some of the best Genesis graphics to date make you want to reel Ecco II in, but it's certainly not a keeper.

  1. Template:Cite journal
  2. Template:Cite journal

Sequel[]

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Ecco's creator, Ed Annunziata, pushed for the rights to develop another Ecco game and continue the story with a new game on either the Sega 32X or the Sega Saturn. Over the years, Sega has repeatedly turned down these requests to allow Annunziata to continue the story, despite being pitched as recently as 2013, nearly 20 years after The Tides of Time was released. Although a sequel was never developed, Ed has shared some details about what would have happened in the third game.

Trivia[]

  • In North America the first release of the game was packaged in the traditional plastic clamshell cases used for earlier Genesis titles. However unlike its predecessor, it was packaged with a cheaper black & white, non laminated paper manual common for red-label Genesis titles.
  • Like Ecco the Dolphin, this game also uses the same sprite for all dolphins in the game.

Gallery[]

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