History VideoGame / EccoTheDolphin

* InNameOnly: not much in common with the other games.

** One of the developers on Twitter admitted to making the game a bit harder on purpose so that kids who rented it wouldn't beat it in a weekend.

* BullFightBoss: The Globe Holder from ''Tides'' has elements of this in the second phase, although it's not really a "boss." The great white shark in ''Defender'' is a somewhat straighter example.

->''"No matter where you go, you know I'll find you/No matter where you've been, I'll bring you home"''

* AscendedFridgeHorror: One of the main means by which Tides of Time is DarkerAndEdgier than the first; it simply addresses the darker implications of time travel in further depth than the original did.
** Also, at a couple of points late in the game, you can take a wrong turn and accidentally get turned into a Vortex creature. But wait, [[ItGotWorse it gets worse.]] Notice how the mechanical floating things look like jellyfish? Now take another look at that creature you've turned into. No real legs, but kind of a tail, a large head, and two short arms where the flippers would be. Yeah. That's what the Vortex Queen would turn all the dolphins into, if it didn't outright kill them.

** {{Prehistoria}}: And ''how!''

A {{SEGA}} video game series about a [[TimeTravel time-travelling]] [[HeroicDolphin bottlenose dolphin]] who fights space aliens. His friends include a pteranodon, a telepathic strand of DNA, and flying dolphins from ten million years in the future. Or, if you ask some people, a telepathic crystal and various alternate future dolphins.

** The original involves [[spoiler:Ecco using a time machine to change the past and save his pod from an alient race]].

* BagOfSpilling - You start ''Tides'' with the powers the Asterite gave Ecco in the first game, but they are lost when the Asterite is killed. Which of course occurs just before the first real level of the game.
* CallARabbitASmeerp - The cetaceans refer to themselves as "Singers" and have different names for various animals: Shelled Ones = clams, Hungry Ones = sharks, Eight-Arms = giant octopus, etc.
* CatAndMouseBoss - The final level of ''Tides'''s PlayableEpilogue. The Vortex Queen is heading for the time machine, hoping to paradox you out of existence. You have to get there first and destroy it. Unfortunately, she's currently in an invincible larval state that can [[OneHitKill crush you into paste]] if she sees you. And you need her to open doors for you. [[NintendoHard Good luck]].

** EternalEngine: [[FixedScrollingLevel Welcome to]] [[ThatOneLevel the Machine]]

* ShoutOut: To ''PinkFloyd'' of all things with the level title "Welcome to the Machine".
** One of the tunes is strikingly Floyd-like, too.
** Which makes it only natural for someone to create [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdLKjdW0y4U&feature=related this]].

* ShapeShifting: Specifically, of the Animorphism variety, Ecco can turn into a shark, a seagull, a jellyfish, a vortex creature and [[BeyondTheImpossible a school of fish that can lose and gain members as you go along.]]

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Eccothedolphin-cover_4299.jpg]]

* BadassAdorable: Ecco, of course, being both a [[CaptainObvious dolphin]] and the protagonist of an adventure game series, would obviously qualify as this, but it tends towards FridgeBrilliance when you consider that the label BadassAdorable arguably applies to real-life dolphins as well.

* PlayfulDolphin: The trope's at its most active in ''Ecco Jr.'', though some minigames in ''Defender'' show the dolphins' playful side. It's nearly absent from the original two games - Ecco's podmate challenges him to see how high he can jump at the start of ''Ecco the Dolphin'', but for the most part the Singers are too concerned with surviving the Vortex assault to be very playful.
* SapientCetaceans: Aside from Ecco discussing subjects like alien invasions and lost families with other creatures, [[AnimalTalk including those of other species]], the series also involves solving [[NintendoHard notoriously challenging puzzles]] when playing as Ecco.

* SapientCetaceans: Well... yes.

''Ecco: The Tides of Time'' picked up where the original left off. Turns out the Vortex Queen was NotQuiteDead and had followed Ecco to Earth, whereupon she killed the Asterite and began a takeover. On top of that, Ecco's time-travelling in the first game had split the timestream in two. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Whoops.]] The second game, then, followed Ecco's adventures as he sought to save the Asterite (also Not Quite Dead) and the good future of Earth. It ended with Ecco vanishing mysteriously into the "Tides of Time"

A {{SEGA}} video game series about a [[TimeTravel time-travelling]] [[DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere bottlenose dolphin]] who fights space aliens. His friends include a pteranodon, a telepathic strand of DNA, and flying dolphins from ten million years in the future. Or, if you ask some people, a telepathic crystal and various alternate future dolphins.

* DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere: Of varying species, and also whales.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Eccothedolphin-cover_4299.jpg

--> ''No matter where you go, you know I'll find you / No matter where you've been, I'll bring you home''
---> -- "St. Gabriel's Mask Vocal Remix"