Despite its success, the Ecco franchise has been relatively untouched by Sega for over two decades.
North American box art by Boris Vallejo
Developer(s) Novotrade International[a]
Publisher(s) SegaSega/Supplied
After more than 20 years lost at sea, Sega’s classic Ecco the Dolphin is swimming back to video game waters, the latest in a growing trend of remastering games for modern consoles.
The game’s original creator, Ed Annunziata, revealed earlier this month in an interview with Xbox Wire that the popular game and its sequel, which both debuted in the 1990s, will return in remastered form. These repolished versions will make Sega’s beloved, yet sometimes disturbing, digital dolphin widely available for the first time in decades.
“It lowers the barrier to entry,” said GrimShins, an American livestreamer who holds multiple world records for the Ecco games. He uses a pseudonym to keep his online gaming identity separate from his work life.
“Instead of having to acquire a Sega Genesis [game console] and a copy of the game, or go through old emulated collections of varying quality and limited availability, a new version makes it easier for people to get into the game.”
No date for the launch of the remastered games has been announced, but the Ecco the Dolphin website features an ominous ticking clock, counting down from 8,500 hours and into April of next year. Fans speculate this could be leading up to a full reveal of the remasters or even a new game in the franchise.
With the last major Ecco game ending on a cliffhanger, fans such as GrimShins are excited to see what happens next in their favorite franchise.
“Even if it were just remasters, I’d be excited for that, but the prospect of a new game in the same vein as Ecco the Dolphin and Tides of Time, after over 30 years at this point, the nostalgia factor is overwhelming.”
The announcement is just the latest example of remaking and remastering classic titles for modern audiences.
Wil Noack, an instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Media, likens it to remastering older movies, similar to what Disney has done with the original Star Wars trilogy. Studios will touch up an older game by upgrading the graphics and cleaning the audio.
The original Ecco the Dolphin – released in 1992 on Sega Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear – sends its cetaceous hero on an epic quest to save its pod from time-travelling aliens. It sold more than 570,000 copies worldwide and netted a sequel (1994’s Tides of Time), a kid-friendly spinoff (Ecco Jr.), and a reboot on the Dreamcast and PS2 (2000’s Ecco: Defender of the Future).
The series has been praised for its innovative play style, excellent pixel art and soundtrack. Gaming news outlet IGN called it “one of the most innovative titles of its time.”
“The overall gameplay experience was, and still is, unlike any other action game,” said GrimShins. “You’re moving around in eight directions, and Ecco’s movement is more akin to a race car than a typical video game character.”
The series is equally infamous for frightening players, for as much as the game is about the beauty of underwater life, some parts can be distressing to younger or unknowing players.
“Obviously there are games that are meant to be scary, like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but what makes this one of the scariest for me is how unassuming it seems on the surface,” said gaming journalist Andy McDonald, who, in a 2015 Vice article, called the original Ecco “the most terrifying game I’ve ever played.”
“It looks like a game for kids, and just descends from the minute you start it.”
Despite its success, the Ecco franchise has been relatively untouched by Sega for over two decades. The last game in the series, Ecco: Defender of the Future, came out in 2000, and while a sequel was planned, it never got made.
Now, Ecco will get the same upgraded resurrection that other classic big-name games have enjoyed over the past several years.
In 2023, Konami sold an estimated 900,000 copies of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection, three remasters of their popular Metal Gear Solid games bundled with digital extras.
Capcom‘s The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a collection of both remastered Great Ace Attorney games, reached a million copies in 2024. This year, Bethesda’s remaster of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is the third-best-selling game of the year, with more than four million players in the first three days after release.
Experts such as Noack say it‘s a safe business strategy for game studios to appeal to existing fan bases instead of risking new IPs.
Mr. Annunziata also hinted at a possible new game in the Ecco series in the Xbox interview, which he says will have more modern gameplay and visuals.
“To see the original two games be made into a trilogy, over 30 years later, is so exciting” McDonald said.
“Where the series is going to go next, with 30 years of speculation and excitement, it kind of feels like a parallel world.”
