Welcome to SEGA Extra, the blast processing powered Substack that covers the parts of SEGA’s story that literally didn’t appear in the history book. In this entry we’re looking at the history of a video game series that, at first glance, may not have seemed like and obvious hit.
The 90s was a time of attitude and brashness. Kids were too cool for school, and every hero was edgier than a razor blade. “Cute” was out, being “rad” was in. Given this you could forgive the average gamer being somewhat bemused when they saw that the hero of SEGA’s newest game was…a dolphin?
Ed Annunziata had been working for Sunburst Communications where he had been developing educational software. During the research for these titles he had delved into the natural science of dolphins and whales and became fascinated. It was not long before Ed was dreaming of a video game featuring the water-based mammals and built up a proof of concept. At the time simply titled Dolphin, Ed felt that Sunburst did not have the resources to realise his vision to its full potential and so left to join SEGA in 1990.
Unfortunately, SEGA was not initially interested in Ed’s Dolphin game. However, Ed kept refining the concept while working on other SEGA titles, such as Mega Drive releases Spider-Man and Chakan: The Forever Man. Finally, Ed’s moment came in 1992. During a meeting with all SEGA staff, then SEGA CEO Tom Kalinske announced that “the games we make have got to be different.” Well, what could be more different than a video game starring a dolphin?
Ed quickly put together a prototype which was approved by SEGA. While SEGA agreed to publish the game, it was developed by Appaloosa Interactive, then known as Novotrade, a Hungarian development team who have moved to the US.
During the development process, the first gameplay element to be locked in was the dolphin’s use of echolocation. Wanting to “science the f… out of the game,” Ed was determined to have this amazing ability of real-world dolphins appear. In-game, the echolocation is activated by holding down the sonar button until the sonar wave disappears off screen and then returns to Ecco. In so doing, a map of the immediate area would be shown, allowing the player to know what dangers, items and obstacles they might have to contend with. The sonar would also act as a way for Ecco to communicate with other sea creatures - but, as stipulated by Ed, only mammals - and the game’s mysterious crystals. Communicating with the denizens of the deep would provide clues as to what players would need to do in order to progress in the game.
As Ed explained to Retro Gamer Magazine, one of the main issues SEGA had with Dolphin was that there was no combat. In order to get around this Ed decided that Ecco’s sonar could be used as a ranged weapon. Similarly, Ed had implemented a dash move into the game in order to give Ecco a burst of speed to help navigate the game’s large levels. Ed theorised this move, too, could double as a weapon. Stronger than the sonar, it would inflict more damage to enemies but also mean that the player would have to get closer to them, providing a nice risk/reward attack system.
Originally, Ed had planned to call the game’s hero “Delphinus” as his design for the dolphin featured an image of that constellation on its head. However, Sega's director of marketing, Al Nilsen, suggested the name “Botticelli the Dolphin,” arguing that characters named after long-dead Italians had worked for Teenage Mutant Ninja/ Hero Turtles. Ed, unsurprisingly, baulked at the suggestion and scrambled to find an alternate name. Thankfully his boss, Clyde Grossma, suggested “Ecco.” It was the perfect fit! Not only did it work as a play on “echolocation” but in Italian, from where Ed was descended, it would loosely be translated as “I see.”
Ecco the Dolphin released on SEGA’s Mega Drive and Mega-CD in 1992 with releases for their 8-bit consoles arriving in 1994. The game was met with great success, praised for its beautiful graphics, smooth gameplay and haunting music, especially in regard to the Mega-CD version which received an “enhanced” soundtrack due to the add-ons ability to use MP3s. Many magazines at the time scored the game in the mid to high 90%s, with only a few outliers scoring the game in the 70%s. The Mega Drive version became a bestseller and was re-released as part of the SEGA Gold/ Platinum collection in Australia and South Africa. All told, the game sold 570,000 copies worldwide.
When the game was released in Europe, SEGA France and SEGA UK joined with Europe Conservation and Ecofilms in a large awareness campaign about the dangers faced by dolphins and other sea life, and the risk of their becoming extinct due to man-made issues. SEGA France donated five francs (approximately €8.33/ $AU14.63/ £7/ $US9.48 today) from each of the first 30,000 copies of the game sold to the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals. In the UK, SEGA UK donated £5000 (approximately £ 14,370 today) to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
The one criticism of Ecco was its granite-hard difficulty. Certain sections of the game caused no end of frustration for players and, given the games’ level’s maze-like layouts, finding somewhere for Ecco to surface for air could be quite an issue. The reason for this? Ed was paranoid that gamers would simply higher out the game from their local video store, complete it in a weekend, and never actually buy a copy. He made sure the game was difficult enough that it would take time to overcome all its challenges. The problem was, for many he made it too hard, and even today people mention how punishing the game is.
Given the success of Ecco, it was not surprising to see a sequel release two years later. Ecco: Tides of Time kept much of the gameplay from the original intact, albeit with a few additional flourishes. Ecco received a few new abilities, such as the ability to transform into different animals at various points throughout the game to help him navigate different environments. By collecting a certain power-up, Ecco could also now fire his sonar in all four directions at once, allowing him to take out multiple enemies. Most impressively, the game featured a new sudo-3D section which saw Ecco swimming “into” the screen. Similar to what can be seen in Space Harrier and Sonic 2’s Special Stages, players had to guide Ecco through an enclosed area while swimming and jumping through rings while dodging enemies.
The game remained as difficult as its predecessor, however. As with the first game, the Mega-CD release received an enhanced soundtrack over the Mega Drive version. The game was also released on the Game Gear, but was paired back somewhat to contend with the handhelds’ capabilities.
Once again, reviewers at the time praised the game’s graphics and smooth, enjoyable gameplay. While the gameplay had not changed overly much from the original game, it proved to be refined enough that reviewers appreciated the tweaks, with Next Generations saying the game was "very nicely done, and completely charming." While the game did not receive scores quite as high as the series’ first entry, it comfortably fit within the 70-80% for the majority of publications.
The third game in the Ecco series was something of a change in direction. Entitled Ecco Jr., the game was a much more relaxed, friendly gameplay experience. Released in 1995, the idea for Jr. came from disappointed gamers who had seen images of Ecco and bought the game thinking they would have a relaxing experience swimming around as a dolphin. While the original game’s first level, Home Bay, certainly allowed for this, every subsequent level only grew more and more challenging. The game also proved to be much too difficult for younger gamers, to which Jr. was a direct response with Ed saying “I made Ecco Jr. for my daughter.”
The game acts as a prequel to the other two games, featuring a younger Ecco. While the gameplay is similar to the previous games, it is much simpler in that the majority of levels involve solving various puzzles, such as swimming through rings and herding seahorses back home. No enemies appear in the game, and the need for Ecco to surface for air is also removed, ensuring the game is much more accessible for young ones.
Interestingly, Australia was the only PAL territory to receive a cartridge release of Ecco Jr. Elsewhere, the game was made available via the SEGA Channel in Japan while Europe would not see the game released until its inclusion in the Sega Mega Drive Collection for PlayStation 2 and PSP in 2007.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jr. was not as well received as the previous two games. While the graphics again proved to be a stand-out feature, the simplified gameplay was perhaps a little too simple for most reviewers, although many did acknowledge that it was made mostly with younger children in mind.
While there were plans for a third entry in the main Ecco series, these were ultimately scrapped. As such, it would be another five years before the bottle-nosed dolphin would again swim onto SEGA consoles.
Released in Dreamcast of 2000, Ecco: Defender of the Future was the series’ first fully 3D title. Wanting to evoke the feeling of a National Geographic documentary film, the Defender team, some of whom had worked on the original Ecco, spent over a year studying film footage of dolphins to ensure they were able to animate Ecco correctly in a 3D space. Even though an extra dimension is added, the gameplay remains much the same. Ecco can use his sonar to interact with other sea creatures, as well as activate his echolocation. Similarly, his ramming move remained, albeit this time featuring a homing attack. Ecco did pick up some new abilities during the space between games, however, as he now can perform a quick 180-degree turn, quickly stop when travelling at speed, and also “tailwalk” on the water’s surface. Defender also retained the series’ difficulty. In a rather fun surprise for sci-fi fans, the game is narrated by none other than Fourth Doctor Tom Baker.
In keeping with the legacy of the series, Defender of the Future was praised for its graphics, with some reviews calling the game the most realistic-looking on the Dreamcast. However, this graphical capability did bring some drawbacks as when underwater the game featured a lot of fog in order to hide distant details. The game’s engine was unable to generate a large amount of highly detailed objects, with gameplay slowdown and pop-in being a result of this. The fog was added to minimise these issues.
One again, the game received mostly positive reviews with most scores being in the 80%-90% areas. There were a few outliers, such as Next Generation who only scored the game two stars out of five, but for the most part people appeared pleased with Ecco’s (then) next generation adventure. A sequel was planned, but due to the discontinuation of the Dreamcast never came to fruition. The game was released on the Playstation 2 in 2002.
Since Defender of the Future, Ed has tried to get an Ecco spiritual successor, Big Blue, off the ground. Trying to raise funding via Kickstarter, the project sadly failed to meet its goal. However, in May of 2025 SEGA renewed the trademark for Ecco, and Ed announced that remasters of the original games were on the way, as well as a planned fifth game. What exactly this new game will involve is unknown at this time, but hopefully it won’t be long before the bottle-nosed hero swims back into gamers’ lives.
If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out The History of SEGA, my book from Pen & Sword chronicling the history of one of gaming’s most influential companies. Now available for pre-order, you can all the info by hitting the button below.
Sources:
Annunziata, Ed. Tweet, Twitter, September 24, 2012.
Bailey, Eric, An Interview with David Brin on Videogames and Science Fiction, Gameranx. Retrieved September 10, 2022.
Ecco 2: The Tides of Time, Next Generation . Imagine Media. March 1995.
Ecco the Dolphin – 2004 Developer Interview, shmuplations.com
Interview with Ed Annuziata, Designer of Ecco the Dolphin, Gaming Fervour, 2014
Preston, Joel. Interview: Ed Annunziata, Sega-16.com, July 26, 2012
Woods, Sam. Ecco The Dolphin Is Seemingly The Next Franchise Sega Is Reviving, The Gamer. Retrieved 2025-05-05.