Title: Ecco The Dolphin（エコー・ザ・ドルフィン）
Media: Cartridge
System: Mega Drive
Catalogue: 670-3462
Released: 30/07/1993
Region: NTSC-J
Scans: Cover | Cartridge | Manual Sample | Manual [PDF]
Information:
Ecco received a bit more than just a standard translation when it came to being released in Sega's home market. In addition to the entire game being localised (if you know Japanese try reading the Asterite's text where it's entirely in katakana to melt your brain a bit,) the game also was patched to fix issues present in the original build while also making the release even more unique with its own additional levels. The Stomach is the most well-known of these, a way of dialing down the difficulty for the Japanese market wherein you'd have to navigate the Vortex Queen's stomach to escape back out to The Final Fight. It is likely this was the basis for the drone level of the same task in Tides of Time which was in production at the same time. Welcome To The Machine has an arguably harder AI to deal with in regards to the Vortex Drones that actively hunt Ecco quite aggressively, complete with new brown colours to make them stand out against the background, but softens the blow with continue crystals being scattered throughout in the event of an unfortunate screen crush or drone slap; it also patched the exit point for the level as the original game had you swim through a wall at its original exit marker, an update carried over to the Mega CD and PC versions of the game.
Other small additions included using some of the unused tracks for main levels—The Big Blue's theme in particular is nice in lieu of the title screen and home bay music, and two versions of Open Ocean (one to get to the Arctic, one to swim back south) where another unused track is featured. This build of the game has become my favourite over the years when it comes to the original Mega Drive games.
Ecco features new artwork across the board in the classic releases from the Japanese side of things. Going uncredited in every release except for the 1996 PC release, the artist in question is Hayato Takebayashi (竹林勇人) who handled the package design as well who is more well known for being a Sonic artist. You can download a monster-sized archival scan of the artwork for this game here.
Additional Photos:
Coming soon!