History NightmareFuel / EccoTheDolphin

A game series where you play as a dolphin [[TemptingFate couldn't possibly be dark]], right? '''WRONG!''' The entire series is a claustrophobic, haunting experience. Do ''not'' let the fact that the protagonist is [[BadassAdorable an adorable dolphin]] fool you. [[DisguisedHorrorStory Seriously]], there's a reason why this game is a mainstay on "Games that scared you as a kid" threads all over the internet...

** And why is the level autoscroll? Because the autoscroll ''is the The Machine trying to kill you''. Every time the screen suddenly changes directions, speeds up or slows down, or makes you backtrack you are witnessing The Machine at work expressly working to confuse you the player to trap Ecco and crush him. Ecco is not moving of his own volition, but following the mechanisms of The Machine to try and get out with his life. And when you reach the end of The Machine the screen very quickly snaps to the right, as though The Machine tried to swiftly crush you before you can escape.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eb9gq6ju8aiqbie.jpg]]

** And thanks to a surely deliberate plant on the password screen, it's easy to be transported to it accidentally with no knowledge of what awaits you there. (In case you didn’t know, [[SchmuckBait trying entering NNNNNNNN on the password screen]].)

* The whole game could be considered Nightmare Fuel, with the tiny, minimalist BackgroundMusic and mile after mile of bleak, cold ocean which poor Ecco is required to quest through. The sense of crushing loneliness that starts to set in after a while is bad enough on its own... but then it gets broken in the worst possible way, by bouts of heart-busting terror as killer sharks or [[GoddamnedBats giant trilobites]] blitz onto the screen from nowhere and devour you in one bite. Not to mention that the whole time you are under the constant threat of drowning to death.

** And thanks to a surely deliberate plant on the password screen, it's easy to be transported to it accidentally with no knowledge of what awaits you there.

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** And why is the level autoscroll? Because the autoscroll ''is the The Machine trying to kill you''. Every time the screen suddenly changes directions, speeds up or slows down, or makes you backtrack you are witnessing The Machine at work expressly working to confuse you to trap Ecco and crush him. Ecco is not moving of his own volition, but following the mechanisms of The Machine to try and get out with his life. And when you reach the end of The Machine the screen very quickly snaps to the right, as though The Machine tried to swiftly crush you before you can escape.

* "Fish City" is a disturbing level because of the fact that the enemies you face in this level aren’t sharks or Vortex Drones — it’s ''other dolphins''. Why are they attacking you? Because at the beginning of the level you need to use a metasphere to turn into a school of fish to navigate the level. A level swarming with your fellow dolphins who don’t know that you’re really a dolphin. They just see a group of fish and they are ''very'' hungry and determined to get their meal. And you cannot charge or fight back; all you can do is evade and get to the end of the level as fast as possible.

* "Fish City" is a disturbing level because of the fact that the enemies you face in this level isn’t sharks or Vortex Drones — it’s ''other dolphins''. Why are they attacking you? Because at the beginning of the level you need to use a metasphere to turn into a school of fish to navigate the level. A level swarming with your fellow dolphins who don’t know that you’re really a dolphin. They just see a group of fish and they are ''very'' hungry and determined to get their meal. And you cannot charge or fight back; all you can do is evade and get to the end of the level as fast as possible.

* Welcome to the Machine. Not only does the machine feature a pukish green background and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO7Fvd48By8 some really unnerving music]], but it's also pretty long, [[AutoScrollingLevel even for a level with automatic scrolling,]] and you're being accosted by chitinous beasts that lunge at you from inside walls where you can't even see them coming. Not to mention the fact that if you don't correctly keep up with the scrolling, the machine will crush you, turning the entire screen red.

* "Fish City" is a disturbing level because of the fact that the enemies you face in this level isn’t sharks or Vortex Drones — it’s ''other dolphins''. Why are they attacking you? Because at the beginning of the level you need to used a metasphere to turn into a school of fish to navigate the level. A level swarming with your fellow dolphins who don’t know that you’re really a dolphin. They just see a group of fish and they are ''very'' hungry and determined to get their meal. And you cannot sprint or fight back; all you can do is evade and get to the end of the level as fast as possible.

[[quoteright:320:[[VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vortex1_4832.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:Just in case that disembodied green head wasn't creepy enough on its own, [[AlwaysABiggerFish those jellyfish she's gobbling up used to be an enemy of Ecco's]].]]

A game series where you play as a dolphin [[TemptingFate couldn't possibly be dark]], right? '''WRONG!''' The entire series is a claustrophobic, haunting experience. Do ''not'' let the fact that the protagonist is [[BadassAdorable an adorable dolphin]] fool you. [[Main/SurpriseCreepy Seriously]], there's a reason why this game is a mainstay on "Games that scared you as a kid" threads all over the internet...

* The last boss, the Vortex Queen (pictured above). Imagine a giant H.R. Giger-esque alien head. Just the head. Now imagine it set against a black background, being fucking gigantic compared to the dolphin you were playing as, it could kill you by sucking you into its mouth and biting down on you, and if you were playing on the Sega CD, it looked way too good. And to top it all off, you are required to gradually mutilate it to pieces in order to win.
** A glitch means that you could easily get sucked into the Vortex Queen's mouth, then have the screen turn red - like a screen full of blood - with Ecco as a black silhouette on it, able to move but not to progress the game or do anything. People who encountered this glitch by accident often speak of it in terms that resemble a Creepypasta.
** The whole game could be considered Nightmare Fuel, with the tiny, minimalist BackgroundMusic and mile after mile of bleak, cold ocean which poor Ecco is required to quest through. The sense of crushing loneliness that starts to set in after a while is bad enough on its own... but then it gets broken in the worst possible way, by bouts of heart-busting terror as killer sharks or [[GoddamnedBats giant trilobites]] blitz onto the screen from nowhere and devour you in one bite.
*** Not to mention that the whole time you are under the constant threat of drowning to death.

* Big Blue's appearance is pretty sudden and he takes up about three whole screens on account of being so huge (being a blue whale and all). He's a completely friendly character and won't hurt you at all, but at least a few young players were frightened of him back in the day.
* A beginning of the game where at first it seems like a calm kid-friendly game about a dolphin. You talk to your friends about what controls to use in the game and one of them challenges you to jump very high so Ecco does a mega jump out of the sea and... BAM! Ecco spins around while his friends get sucked out from the sea with alien sounds! It's scary because it comes out from nowhere!

* Even the hero of the game dishes out some of this. In the Genesis games, Ecco lets out a [[HellIsThatNoise bone-chilling scream]] whenever he takes damage... As if you needed more encouragment to not screw up.

** The whole game could be considered Nightmare Fuel, with the tiny, minimalist background music and mile after mile of bleak, cold ocean which poor Ecco is required to quest through. The sense of crushing loneliness that starts to set in after a while is bad enough on its own... but then it gets broken in the worst possible way, by bouts of heart-busting terror as killer sharks or [[GoddamnedBats giant trilobites]] blitz onto the screen from nowhere and devour you in one bite.

* As well as the WombLevel that's the last boss. You have to destroy the Foe Queen's heart from the inside nu freezing it with antibodies and ramming into it, making iu beat faster and faster as a rising pool of blood threatens to drown you. There's also the levels it takes to ''get'' there; you begin by going into the Queen's hatchery area where she lays eggs, then get inside her body via the...egg-laying organ, then tear a hole in her body as you escape. Then you change into a small fish and burrow into her ribcage.

** Thankfully, this is also the easiest level in the Man's Nightmare chapter, and one of the easiest in the entire game. And the sound effects in the level cover up the music enough that you probably won't notice how terrifying it is.
** As well as the WombLevel that's the last boss. You have to destroy the Foe Queen's heart. From the inside.
*** There's also the levels it takes to ''get'' there; you begin by going into the Queen's hatchery area where she lays eggs, then get inside her body via the...egg-laying organ, then tear a hole in her body as you escape. Then you change into a small fish and burrow into her ribcage.
** In one level, you have to go past a huge octopus sitting in an almost completely blacked-out cave. In the following level, drowning suddenly becomes a much more immediate problem and a giant eel hides in the ceiling so that it can eat you if you forget where you're swimming. One or two tunnels lead to brightly-lit pools, and it can be ''very'' hard to bring yourself to leave them in order to beat the level.
** Even further into the game, you get ghostly white sharks with red eyes, strange aliens hiding in the dark roofs of caves, and in one level [[LivingShadow dolphin shadows that don't belong to any dolphins]].

* A beginning of the game where at first it seems like a calm kid-friendly game about a dolphin you talk to your friends about what controls to use in the game and one of them challenges you to jump very high and back in the sea so Ecco does the mega jump out of the sea then all of the sudden...BAM! Ecco spins around while his friends get sucked out from the sea with alien sounds in the background and flashing lights going on then Ecco goes back into the sea! It's scary because it's comes out from nowhere!