Hello friends.  This week on Old Games That Don’t Suck Thursday, it’s Ecco the Dolphin.

I’ll say it because you won’t, but what the hell is it that makes this game so fun?  You are spinning, sound-bouncing dolphin that swims around and basically tries to escape and maze of coral beds, enemies, and music that sounds like it’s from a Sim City 2000 netherworld.  But really, its a fun game.  Albeit its weird, but its fun.

My experience with Genesis is extremely limited but this was one of the few games I did have an experience to try out.  Excuse my pun but the experience was immersive for its time and the presentation was beautiful and complete.  For 16-bit system it did a phenomenal job offering a different experience.  And it was not just a jump-n-bump platformer; the series of levels that followed were all cleverly terrible to navigate.  However, exploration was fun and the entire game made me happy.

It does carry some gripes.  The camera makes me want to throw up and sometimes I get so frustrated that I want to strangle that little pixelated dolphin.

I never finished it to be honest, but I have a feeling after writing this my nostalgia will kick in and I’ll rebuy it from Xbox Live Arcade, where its available now.  Check it out there, I’m sure there’s a demo.