So, can Ecco’s original mechanics survive in the modern age of gaming? Most certainly yes: not only are we seeing the re-emergence of many classical games, but Ecco is also uniquely positioned in terms of there not being that many underwater adventures and less still that would be side scrollers! The only one that comes to mind is Aquaria back from 2007, which in turn was heavily Ecco-inspired. Unlike that game though, Ecco does very well avoiding any anthropomorphizing of anything in the surrounding by steering away from showing humans anywhere which further helps in creating this “alienated” aspect for the player to feel more in-character.
One of the aspects about the original game that most certainly would not hold with the casual gamer of today is the difficulty. There is no question about it, Ecco 1 is notoriously difficult and it's not just about tough enemies or reaction times, but level hazards also play to our disadvantage. Of course, we do have an explanation from Ed himself and how the game was made this way to stop little kids from beating it over a weekend, but I think we can all agree this would no longer be a concern today. In fact, we can see how developers responded well to criticism and were able to address some of those aspects the Japanese release. Tides of Time was further improvement on that, offering a very balanced experience in terms of difficulty and truly a sequel done right. So overall it does seem the right balance has already been found and all that remains is to retain everything that has been done right and make it better.
I also have to say that Ecco Jr. was a right move: sometimes we do not feel up to saving the world and would just like to splish around with friends, so here comes an Ecco game where there is no sense of urgency and nothing can harm you! Even whilst clearly targeting a younger audience, in my opinion Ecco Jr. was a much more mature project overall, especially its soundtrack, and I feel that incorporating something like that inside the main game rather than publish it separately would be beneficial. Suffice it to say that when DoTF came out I would spend hours just swimming around the Aquamarine Bay, enjoying the very much "Dolphin Simulator" that it was. Even if that was just only one safe level to play in.
So how about Ecco's storyline? Would this still hold up in the modern day and age? Absolutely! Looking at how the Alien franchise is still fresh and in demand with new films as well as games around, there will most definitely be people interested in an evil Giger-esque insectoid race (who may have well already secretly overrun our planet). Perhaps something could be done about how their identity is kept secret almost until the very end of the game: I know way too many people who would brush Ecco off as “silly dolphin game for little girls”, having either never played it or just not having gone deep enough to discover the dark side of the ocean. I understand it is a delicate balance as we do not wish to spoil the player too quickly, but at the same time we do want to give them enough motivation to swim forward. Once again, Tides of Time was an improvement on that in every possible way and all the extra content that got cut from the main game compared to its beta versions suggests there was clearly no lack of original ideas. Which in turn means that if there ever is an Ecco 3, there is already plenty of material that could be integrated into it with minimum of extra work!
Finally, another interesting fact is that back when Sega published their Mega Drive Classic Collection on Steam and Ecco being one of the games available for it is that it very quickly obtained #horror among user defined tags. Personally I love the ocean and exploring it but from what I understand a lot of people have an absolute fear of it, some of that likely having to do with that factor of the unknown, but also because for us that means being completely outside of our element! And if that wasn't enough we also have what's possibly one of the earliest examples of a jumpscare in the very first level, aquatic enemies that are getting progressively more unsettling as we dive deeper into the game, ultimately culminating in our first encounter with the Vortex drones. Suffice it to say I personally know a bloke who, from his own recollection, having gotten to The Machine for the first time, had tossed his Ecco cartridge out of the window and hid under the bed! Therefore, I think this is another very strong aspect that Ecco is well positioned to leverage: who doesn't enjoy a good scare or two?
