Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future- #TeamSeas (A Friend Recalls)
105#DecemberisDreamcastMonth
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A short retrospective review of Ecco The Dolphin: Defender of the Future, the only 3D outing of the time traveling aquamarine superhero to date! One of Sega's most misunderstood mascots, this is far from a cute and cuddly platformer but a hardcore, science fiction, survival horror masterpiece of its time!
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This is part of a video series providing retrospective analysis of popular culture (video games, books, comics, movies), trying to understand how our taste in entertainment has changed over the last few decades. In these videos look at topics such as the history behind their creation, the cultural impact they had on the wider world or just celebrate high watermarks - experiences that deserve to be celebrated. In 2018 video gaming became the worlds single most popular form of entertainment however that does not mean other forms are dead or deserve to be forgotten. We have been fortunate enough to reap the benefits of an evolving industry that learns from both it's successes and mistakes - and I've been learning as a consumer. This series is designed to celebrate and share important milestones and significant releases; be they good or bad.
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From Wikipedia:
Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is the fourth title in the Ecco the Dolphin series. It was released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. Defender of the Future is set in a separate continuity than the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles, hence a reboot. After the Dreamcast was discontinued in the U.S., the game was re-released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2.
The gameplay is fairly similar to the old games, except it is in three dimensions. Ecco's sonar was kept as a means of interaction with other cetaceans (no longer called Singers in the game) and certain environmental objects, and a sonar map could be brought up. The same style of movement is kept with slight alterations for the 3-D environment. The control stick now only changed the direction Ecco is facing; pressing left and right changed the direction he faced horizontally, and pressing up and down changed the vertical direction. To actually move forward, the player has to tap a button to gain speed and hold the same button down to maintain it. Out of the water, Ecco can perform the purely aesthetic flips in the air just like the original games. Charging foes is kept as Ecco's standard attack, though the designers added a homing feature. The health and air meters were also kept, though the health meter can be increased by collecting power-ups called Vitalits, and the meters have a slightly different look compared to the Mega Drive games.
Some new moves are introduced in Defender of the Future. One is a quick 180° turn, useful for battles. Another is a means of stopping quickly; when Ecco has already stopped, the same buttons can make him swim backwards. A third new move is the tailwalk; Ecco can raise his upper body out of the water, able to look at things above the surface; this is a good way to see small graphical details.
The graphics of the game are generally regarded as one of the most realistic ever seen in a Dreamcast game. Many reviewershave commented that Ecco looks like a real dolphin. One of the most major complaints against the graphics is the high level of fog; other reviewers have said that visibility in the ocean is often much reduced from what it is above the surface. There were also some pop-up problems with distant objects. This was apparently caused by the engine not being that efficient overall, and not being able to render as many on-screen things as was desirable without the generation of too much slowdown. The fog was used to obscure the distance and decrease the number of polygons that had to be drawn. The few cutscenes use the in-game graphical engine, and featured voice-over narration by Tom Baker.
Defender of the Future continues the legacy of high difficulty set by its predecessors. The levels are again divided up, but the idea of a password system was dropped in favor of a memory card save file. The game has few loading times in the levels; the levels load all at once just before they started, and these load times could be moderately long.
Team Seas, stylized as #TeamSeas, is an international collaborative fundraiser project run by YouTubers MrBeast and Mark Rober as a follow up to Team Trees. They aim to raise 30 million U.S. dollars, pledging to remove 30,000,000 pounds (14,000,000 kg) of marine debris from the ocean by the end of 2021. The fundraiser is partnered with Ocean Conservancy and the Ocean Cleanup.
To find out more visit www.teamseas.org
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