Did Ecco the Dolphin scare you?

[Realitycrash]

The Pink-Floyd inspired music?
The fact that you played a cute animal that was menaced by larger predators?
The dark ocean and background?
The god-damn mutant space-aliens that harvested dolphins and turned you into a monster!?

Ecco the Dolphin remains a treasured childhood memory, but it scared me, it scared me silly.

 

[Padwolf]

Yes it sodding well did scare me. Whenever Ecco got hurt and made that god awful sound it scared the life out of me. I have never completed that game, I have it on the wii, and I don't think I ever will. And let's not go into the dreamcast game, where there is a dip you can fall down and suddenly there are sharks everywhere. That game freaked the hell out of me!

 

[Chemical Alia]

I was a pretty jumpy kid, but yeah. Ecco scared me more than all of my other games combined. Deep, dark water (actually legit scared of that irl), the way some sharks just swim around but others bite the shit out of you. Crushing ice blocks and giant spider-looking crabs. That coelecanth fish thing in the Prehistoric levels made me throw my controller the first time I saw it out of nowhere, as did the first vortex alien that killed the shit out of me. DROWNING. The open ocean level with no bottom, full of sharks and bizarre music. Oh, and the appearance of the Vortex Queen. I saved up my money for months to buy this game (think it cost $10 more than usual retail price), and it was one of my most-played childhood games, but it was definitely scary.

Ecco 2 also creeped me out a bit, but not quite as much. Maybe because I was a bit older when It came out.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I loved playing Ecco as a kid. But I really never got far enough to see anything scary. I always got confused and couldn't figure out where to go, so I never played long, however fun it was.

 

[Frankster]

People laugh cos its a game with dolphins, but this game with dolphins is friggin hardcore and yeh, very creepy with scary moments.

What really scared me was in Ecco 2 when you encounter the vortex queen in her lava form which is this big white fluffy monster with horrible screaming sounds. And it would just jump on you and devour you as it screamed... I could never get past that bit until years later when i played the game through again as an adult. And i had gamefaqs to lookup that the white fluffy monster can be easily ignored.

 

[Lilani]

I remember renting it once as a kid, and it annoyed the hell out of me because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I never got far enough to be creeped out I guess, lol.

 

[FalloutJack]

Only the direct confrontation with the aliens. 'Cause why? Well...

{1} They sucked out every dolphin but you out of the water in the fist game.
{2} Try to kill or abduct you in some levels (hard to avoid the latter).
{3} Have creep-as-hell habitations with creep-as-hell music.
{4} Their queen is a frigging abomination that does not die even after using time travel and an ancient lifeform's power against it.

 

[felbot]

i didnt play that game, but the first time i saw the game, and the boss which was spoilered for me i really just thought it was comical.

how do you even get scared of that?

 

[Frankster]

i didnt play that game, but the first time i saw the game, and the boss which was spoilered for me i really just thought it was comical.

how do you even get scared of that?

Guess there was a buildup to it, when you meet that head you suddenly realize that all the food (aka ocean wildlife) isnt being fed to the aliens but to just the queen... Who is gonna do her darndest best to devour you aswell, and to weaken her, you have to ram her lower jaw and avoid getting caught in her teeth :S Its a tense experience when ya playing it.

The aliens section is only like the last 5% of the first game,and your only clue to the aliens were that they were very hungry. Then you get sucked up by aliens super vacuum (flying across space) and arrive in this greenish hell where everything wants to devour you in horrible ways whether it be aliens trying to grab you or machines trying to suck you in to grind you into pulp, it was like playing a cow in a meat factory almost, and you follow where all the "food" is going to and then you finally meet the queen and are like "oh fuck D:".

 

[deathninja]

I nearly finished it one summer as a kid, them later that year was at the beach and nearly drowned. Couldn't face playing it since, it just triggers something and makes me freak out.

 

[Skops]

I join the ranks of "I only played for 15-20 minutes before giving up" Because I had no idea what to do, and where to go. For years I thought this game was like a tech demo about "You're a dolphin, go do dolphin stuff."

No, seriously. Even when I got the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 I sat and played Ecco for like an hour and didn't mke it any further than when I did when I was 8. How in the fuck did anyone figure that shit out?

 

[TrevHead]

I rented it a couple of weekends as a kid, and yes the game did scare me, not in the Dead Space shocker horror sense but in the Dark Souls immersion, dark lonely world, this game is no pushover way.

Never did beat it, that last boss is f**cking hard

Cute lovable dophin game this is not.

 

[Realitycrash]

I join the ranks of "I only played for 15-20 minutes before giving up" Because I had no idea what to do, and where to go. For years I thought this game was like a tech demo about "You're a dolphin, go do dolphin stuff."

No, seriously. Even when I got the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 I sat and played Ecco for like an hour and didn't mke it any further than when I did when I was 8. How in the fuck did anyone figure that shit out?

I am actually proud that I figured this game out when I was eight. I usually suck at everything even remotely cryptic. But honest answer? Too much spare time, parents with little money (and thus not being able to afford to buy you new games) and trial & error. Lots and lots of T&E..

I was a pretty jumpy kid, but yeah. Ecco scared me more than all of my other games combined. Deep, dark water (actually legit scared of that irl), the way some sharks just swim around but others bite the shit out of you. Crushing ice blocks and giant spider-looking crabs. That coelecanth fish thing in the Prehistoric levels made me throw my controller the first time I saw it out of nowhere, as did the first vortex alien that killed the shit out of me. DROWNING. The open ocean level with no bottom, full of sharks and bizarre music. Oh, and the appearance of the Vortex Queen. I saved up my money for months to buy this game (think it cost $10 more than usual retail price), and it was one of my most-played childhood games, but it was definitely scary.

Ecco 2 also creeped me out a bit, but not quite as much. Maybe because I was a bit older when It came out.

Oh, the drowning. I remember panicking whenever I got stuck somewhere deep and was surrounded by sharks and running out of air. It was a deep, primal fear. Unlike many games at the time, Ecco looked like a real dolphin, in a real world (Remember, the average graphic at the time was still at Super Mario 3 level).
Now imagine being a small child, responsible for a real, cute dolphin, who was running out of air. Slowly, slowly seeing death approach. And then..It dies. All because of your ineptitude.

..Ugh

Yes, fucking yes! It did! D:

And that music. Oh god that music...

To this day I've never completed that game.

The music is very, very good, but so, so surreal. Especially the ice-levels.

 

[Realitycrash]

Yes it sodding well did scare me. Whenever Ecco got hurt and made that god awful sound it scared the life out of me. I have never completed that game, I have it on the wii, and I don't think I ever will. And let's not go into the dreamcast game, where there is a dip you can fall down and suddenly there are sharks everywhere. That game freaked the hell out of me!

I had this deep fear of the Vortex Queen coming out of the bathtub and eating me whenever I took a bath. I always had to plug in the drain-stopper before getting in, and get out before pulling it out again.
Yes, I was convinced the Vortex Queen lived in the drain-pipes under my bathtub..

 

[omega 616]

Nooope, I found it incredibly boring and I just ended up swimming round the same 2 or 3 zones trying to fruitlessly find out the way to progress.

I was more scared playing Bubsy 3D, scared for my sanity!

Captcha: eat your vitamins ... Nice to see captchas looking out for people.

 

[Easton Dark]

I couldn't figure out where to go.

I still don't know why I have it on Steam :l

 

[GTwander]

God yes...
The worst one was where it was like under the ice cap, and you speed down some large corridor then - bam - giant screaming whale. "waaaarroooooooo!"

Shat myself.

 

[Padwolf]

Yes it sodding well did scare me. Whenever Ecco got hurt and made that god awful sound it scared the life out of me. I have never completed that game, I have it on the wii, and I don't think I ever will. And let's not go into the dreamcast game, where there is a dip you can fall down and suddenly there are sharks everywhere. That game freaked the hell out of me!

I had this deep fear of the Vortex Queen coming out of the bathtub and eating me whenever I took a bath. I always had to plug in the drain-stopper before getting in, and get out before pulling it out again.

Yes, I was convinced the Vortex Queen lived in the drain-pipes under my bathtub..

Haha I couldn't even get to the Vortex Queen! I was too scared of the music and the damn atmosphere of the game to continue it. After the dreamcast game I was a bit scared of swimming pools for a while, I thought that if I went to the deep end the sharks would come after me!

 

[Bad Jim]

I played the Game Gear version through to completion when I was about 13. I did not get scared. Maybe it's because I was older than most of you. Maybe the Game Gear version is different. Maybe it's because when you are 13 there is nothing worse than being visibly afraid in front of the girls in your class. Though it's probably because the plot seemed like something the dev team came up with while they were out drinking. I just couldn't take it seriously.