(Normal acceleration is possible during these final five frames of the charge). 5 pixels per frame for 5 frames before ending and allowing a new charge. Performing a short charge (charging with initial speed of at least 3 pixels per frame), which immediately increases Ecco’s speed by 4 pixels per frame, followed by overriding normal acceleration for 19 frames of charge acceleration (slower than standard swim acceleration at low initial speeds, faster at high initial speeds), then decreasing Ecco’s speed by.

This is most efficient in 12 frame cycles of 11 frames down 1 frame up. Pressing the accelerate, which increases Ecco’s speed by a varying amount depending on his current speed and how long the button has been held down.

There are three ways to accelerate in this game: And, of course, the developers must have thought they were developing a PS2 game or something, because the game uses a wide variety of polygonal hit-boxes and detection boxes, and terrain collision is achieved by a bunch of invisible collision polygons that vaguely conform to where it looks like walls/floors/ceilings are supposed to be. On top of all this, the game tracks position to the 65536th of each pixel, which combines with the eight-frame steering rule to snowball tiny variations in position and timing into gigantic differences in result. Additionally, the way acceleration works is obscure, requiring a repeated pattern holding the button for 11 frames, than releasing for 1, the fastest way to get to top speed from a dead stop is to accelerate for 5 frames, charge, immediately cancel the charge, and then charge again eight-frames later when the cool-down wears off (maintaining the optimal acceleration input all the while). Otherwise it takes 30 frames without any form of acceleration before Ecco begins to lose speed, and even then does so at a maddeningly slow rate. At top speed, Ecco swims just under 40% faster than Super Sonic can run, but has an eight-frame rule on steering (except orthogonal flips), and no way to slow down, except for orthogonal flips, which take too long, or crashing into walls, which slow Ecco too much. It is also highly resistant to speed-running.

Ecco: The Tides of Time is the sequel to Ecco the Dolphin, and has been one of my favorite games for a long, long time.

Download ecco 2 tides of time