Ecco 2 Prototype

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Level 7 Overview: Prototype "Skylands"

  This is a prototype version of Skylands, complete with glyphs that act as bubbles to launch you into the air, one floating island, and a water tube exit into the sky. There are also some prototype magic arms here that are pretty interesting too.  


 
Here's about where you start out. We're clearly in the Good Future as evidenced by the background, surface and sky. The background color glitch does indeed exist here. Once you clear the surface of the water and it can no longer be seen, the sky paletete takes over. It seems to contain a misplaced color though, as these cubic oddities appear around the mountains.


Here's something really weird. There's a current blowing upwards, as evidenced by the bubbles ... ... but sing at it and the current reverses and pushes in the other direction! The only other place I've seen this behavior is in the Undercaves in Ecco 1. It never occurs in Ecco 2 Final.


These glyphs are positioned like, and act just like, the bubbles in the final version of this level. They wobble around when sonared, then Ecco lauches into the air to the next glyph. Upon reaching the next glyph, you can sonar it to go to the next, and so forth. The third glyph will send you into a floating island. If you go to the fourth you'll just fly off into the air and not get anywhere.


This is the same island style as in the final version. But, it's the ONLY island. All the weird future plants are the same, too. This area is visible on a screenshot on the back of the European final version box (see the Screenshots page.


Jump off the right side of the floating island and you'll end up in this water tube leading out of the level, and to Level 11, the prototype Tube of Medusa. This odd line of random tiles is floating in midair. I'm not sure why this happens, but it is possible to obtain a similar glitch in the final version.


Near the entrance, there's this odd cave blocked by a row of crab placeholder rocks. Sonar them and they break apart. The way they shatter is just like the final version's rocks in levels like Crystal Springs and Four Islands. There's no sound, though.


There's nothing in the cave except for a crab on a string. It's longer than the others though. Maybe it's their king? ;)


This dolphin has no message, but if you sing at him, he will swim off expecting you to follow. He leads you over to the right side of the level, a large cave where a prototype Magic Arm resides.


This Magic Arm prototype acts just like he does in the final version. His tail is made up of brown segments instead of blue, it has a placeholder crab as a head, as well. If you charge-sonar it, it retracts its tail, just like the final version ...


Then it sticks it back out again and throws this spiked tail segment, instead of animating bubbles like in the final version. If you touch the segment, it vanishes and the Magic Arm goes away. Nothing else noticable happens. Since you can use the Hunter Song in 3D Stages already, this has no effect.


Backtracking to the left, we see this odd moving chain of Crab on a String segments. There is nothing like this in the final version. It tries to damage you and fails, like most things. This plant and rock are placed in broken pieces. How peculiar.


Here are some of the enemies in this level. Like most of the Good Future, there are Crabs on Strings everywhere. This one's a tethercrab and can't detach from that rock. This one is free-moving and a lot more dangerous. He'll even follow you out of the water.


Here are some jellyfish with the wrong palette. They're way too bright and using colors from the water surface.


Here's a sonar map of the level. The glyphs show up, so does Ecco and a crab on a string that followed me up into the sky (as a yellow hazard mark.) This is an unusual amount of icons to see on any map in the prototype.


Here's one of the odd Victrola-shaped plants. It doesn't shoot poison bubbles like the final version. Just sits there. Here's a correctly-placed weird future plant growing on a small island.


 




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