Ecco Jr.

Ecco Jr. is a video game in the Ecco the Dolphin series, released in North America on August 15, 1995, and in Australia in November 1995. It had the controls and basic gameplay of the other two Mega Drive/Genesis titles, but is geared towards younger players, lacking the high difficulty of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time.

Gameplay

In this game, a younger version of Ecco goes to see the Big Blue, completing tasks such as herding seahorses, swimming through rings, and finding lost balls for sea lions along the way. The gameplay is similarly controlled to the other Ecco the Dolphin games, but mainly revolves around using these abilities for solution of simple puzzles and problems. One key difference is that the player character cannot drown by staying underwater too long. Likewise, there are no enemies to attack the player character. Two other playable characters were introduced: Tara the baby orca (there is also a bottlenose dolphin character named Tara in Ecco: The Tides of Time) and Kitnee the young Atlantic dolphin, who is darker gray than Ecco. The player can switch characters at any time.

Ecco Jr. features a password system, though all the passwords are included in the instruction manual. Ecco Jr. also features a "Parent's Menu" that includes a difficulty settings menu, level selection option, and facts about real dolphins.

Release

A slightly modified port of the title, called Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt!, was also available on the Sega Pico.

Ecco Jr. was released on the Sega Mega Drive in Australia, the only PAL version of the game released on cartridge, in November 1995. In November 2007, it was released in Japan for the first time via the Wii's Virtual Console. The game also made its European debut on August 7, 2008 via the Virtual Console. Ecco Jr. was featured in the Sega Genesis Collection for PlayStation 2 and PSP.

Reception

Upon release, GamePro gave the game a rave review, commenting that "All the creatures and background scenery have the same breathtaking visual appeal of the grown-up Ecco adventures." They particularly approved of how the game, unlike previous games in the series, is accessible to younger players.^[1] A reviewer for Next Generation, however, gave it two out of five stars, commenting that "To Ecco Jr.'s credit, it has some beautiful graphics and simplistic gameplay that'll be an easy play for the youngest of gamers. However, this game is nothing more than a way for Sega to dig its claws into the impressionable minds of young children and make them believe they need to graduate to the first (and more original) Ecco."^[2]

References