Ecco the Dolphin (Xbox 360) review "I glide through the sea with the grace of an Olympic swimmer. The sun's rays burst through the surface of the ocean's water, making everything sparkle beautifully. A friend nearby challenges me, dares me to see how high above the water's surface I can leap. I accept his challenge, pointing myself toward the sky and launching straight into the air. I break the water's surface, a gorgeous silhouette as I pose in midair..."

I glide through the sea with the grace of an Olympic swimmer. The sun's rays burst through the surface of the ocean's water, making everything sparkle beautifully. A friend nearby challenges me, dares me to see how high above the water's surface I can leap. I accept his challenge, pointing myself toward the sky and launching straight into the air. I break the water's surface, a gorgeous silhouette as I pose in midair... My friend will never get to see it, though. A whirlwind appears out of nowhere and vacuums all life out of the ocean. Before gravity even pulls me downward, I know one undeniable fact: these waters are dead.

My name is Ecco and I'm going to save my friends.

It won't be easy. I have to swim through twenty-seven underwater locales. From the tropical islands where I played with friends (complete with clams, puffer fish, and schools of brightly coloured fish I could eat to restore my health) to the arctic ocean filled with sharks, icebergs, and giant spider-things, each locale is rich in detail and variety. The puzzles and nefarious foes that pack each area are all too willing and able to make a meal out of me. To top it off, there's the ever-present risk of running out of air--I'm a dolphin after all--as I navigate the tight passageways and caverns that make up these areas.

It's an ever-present danger. Imagine this scenario: I have to leap from the water and over a small island, land in the depths on the other side and dive deep underwater, then swim past nefarious sharks and puffer fish, through a right alcove guarded by a shelled creature, past a confining row of sharp coral and just barely arrive at a dead-end with a ring of rock-eating starfish. Using my fearsomely-named Death Sonar, I have to blast the starfish back across the spikes and head upward with them, evading a nasty giant octopus that will hit me if I move too quickly, just so I can get to a small rock near the cephalopod's face, which the starfish will eat so I can slip through and save a friendly dolphin. All of this has to be done before I run out of air, and before the starfish retreat to their dead-end.

It should also be noted that the above example is from only the fourth of the twenty-seven stages I must endure.

Later stages will have me surging as fast as possible to get away from shark-infested waters, navigating the sunken city of Atlantis to find a time machine, using it to travel to the prehistoric age, and swimming through a mechanical death drap with an automatically-scrolling screen while guns shoot green blasts of energy at me.

Yes, I'm in for a rough ride.

It's made even rougher by one of my quest's only flaws: bad controls. You see, my adventure was designed to be played with the Genesis controller. The 360's Control Stick--and most certainly the horrible d-pad--can't offer the same ease of motion that the Genesis d-pad offers. It occasionally makes my jumps awkward, as I find myself heading straight for the glamorous sky... only to suddenly slam head-first into the rock face of an island.

In the end, though, Ecco the Dolphin is a faithful port of everything that made my Genesis outing great, with a few improvements to boot. The old, clunky password system has been replaced by the option to save my progress wherever I wish, and the many secrets in the game were left intact. Finding some of them even became achievements. With the only problem marring my quest being a hardware difficulty and not a software one, it's reassuring to know that my quest is just as good as it's always been... arguably even better.

My name is Ecco, and I'm going to save my friends. But I'll need your help.

Freelance review by Kyle Stepp (August 21, 2007) Espiga likes big butts, and cannot lie.