A short overview of all the different Versions of Ecco 2.
The Genesis is the first version that has been released. If you want to read about it, go to the Introduction page. Like for Ecco the Dolphin, this game is good as it is and even though the Sega CD version adds a couple of nice features, this is one has enough to stand out alone.
Like in the Sega CD version of Ecco the Dolphin, here you will find some nice features that make the game even better!
The whole game itself is actually exactly the same as the Genesis version. There are no extra levels, special intros or outros. There are still those 3 difficulty levels, no special graphics, so yeah, all the same.
However also with this CD you'll get a very awesome CD Audio soundtrack! Songs remain in the same style as in Ecco the Dolphin CD, though the songs seem even more unique and powerful, and more beautiful. The composer, Spencer Nilsen so you know his name, really has advanced and you can hear that with this great music. It even got released as an official soundtrack later after the game was released.
There's one more thing that really stands out. Those are the history glyphs which are hidden in some of the stages. They are in fact rendered videos which show the story of Ecco the Dolphin in really great quality! The whole animated 3D world, the animals and other creatures and everything looks brilliant, and when the game got released these videos were some of the best CG-videos around. All in all this is around 15 minutes of great cinematic action which shows the story before this game in a great way!
This item has gotten quite rare, so if you got it, call yourself lucky. The music and the videos really are worth it!
Awhell... the GameGear version again... Well let's get it started.
Again, this is rather a shrinked version of Ecco, not only in quantity or stages, but also in quality. You really have to laugh at the messages sometimes. Though, the graphics have gotten a little better, they converted even those 3D-stages into this, but of course it's not by far as good. The music is better too, but you still rather want to switch it off. The controls are as horrible as in the previous game.
Still, like in Ecco the Dolphin for GameGear you get pretty much a new game with unique designed stages. The puzzles where you have to move around a box to trap a deadly enemy return and give this game something special that makes it still worth to try.
So, if you can handle the GameGear controls, you should try this thing out. Either you like it or not, you got nothing to lose.