Hold onto your scuba gear, because Ecco the Dolphin is making a splash in 2024. Series creator Ed Annunziata and development studio A&R Atelier have officially revealed Ecco the Dolphin: Complete, a collection that bundles remastered versions of the original Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time alongside a brand new game, according to Rock Paper Shotgun.
That's right - the game that made an entire generation of kids question their life choices by drowning them in an underwater nightmare simulator is officially back. Ecco wasn't just hard, it was war crimes-level hard, and apparently we are all masochists who clicked "yes please" when the universe asked if we wanted more.
So what's actually in the box?
The collection covers the entire 8-to-16-bit era of the franchise, meaning both classic Sega titles are getting the remaster treatment. If you never played them, congratulations - you avoided years of therapy. If you did, welcome back to the support group.
The headline feature beyond the new game is the addition of "meta quests" - a system that lets players build custom courses by mixing and matching levels from any game in the franchise. You can then share these community-crafted nightmare gauntlets with other players online, which is either the most generous gift ever given to fans or an absolute war declaration against casual players. Probably both.
The dolphin's sonar scream lives on
The project was originally teased back in January, and the full reveal confirms this is shaping up to be more than just a lazy nostalgia cash-in. A brand new game built on top of two remastered classics, with community-driven level sharing? That's actually a pretty stacked package for fans of the series.
Whether the new game captures the absolutely unhinged energy of the originals - part aquatic action, part existential dread, part alien conspiracy thriller - remains to be seen. But hey, Ecco is back and that alone is enough to make any Sega kid lose their fins. Keep your sonar charged and your air bubbles topped up.
