Starship combat game Space War Arena is looking for new players at any cost. Well, almost any cost. Specifically, $100, which will be given to any players who can beat the developers at the game.
Space War Arena is made by the original Ecco the Dolphin team, but has yet to meet the same level of cult appreciation. "So, I'm going to pay kids to play this game," says developer Ed Annunziata. "[There will be] weekly bounties ($100 for victories, for example) — the bounty opponents will be us, the devs on the game."
"Obviously, we are the best in the world at this game," says Annunziata. "That's why we are willing to dangle hundred-dollar bills if anyone can beat us."
Annunziata promises that they have "a road map in mind" for the game, which has been out exclusively on the Switch since 2019. The game costs $5 / £3.99 on the eShop, but is currently on sale in North America for just $2 until August 1st — if you get good enough at it that you win the $100, that's an easy $98 profit!
Comments 43
Considering that Ecco is one of my all-time favourite games and I fancy myself quite decent at it (and stuff like Ninja Gaiden)...this might be kinda tempting
Judging by the fact that I haven't ever beaten Ecco in the last couple decades since I first played it, I'm guessing they won't need to worry about spending too much prize money.
It’s been out since 2019, probably didn’t quite hit the sales numbers they were expecting, and so they’re going to shamelessly dangle prizes of 100 dollars in front of us to get people to play their game.
That’s got sad written all over it.
@Desrever Was thinking the same. Some of those levels are no joke, (looking at you Hard Water, Dark Water, Deep City, Welcome to the Machine, and Trilobite Circle) and Tides of Time cranked the difficulty up to 11.
This is also a very strange tactic.
Do they not have the rights to Ecco anymore?
I actually played the demo a while ago and I didn’t know this was made by the same people as Ecco the dolphin! Small world.
Whatever happen to Dolphin Quest? A certain YouTuber did say that game is coming to Switch so where is it?
@PessitheMystic So what should they do instead? Sit in silence and just hope people buy the game? There’s nothing wrong with self promotion, and there’s nothing shameless about this. It’s actually a bit of fun!
@Tempestryke
Sega owns the rights to the IP.
And yeah. I never could beat Welcome to the Machine on Genesis.
I did beat it about ten years ago on PC using save states.
@OrtadragoonX I see, what a pity. I think it sucks that vg creators can't retain rights over there own work.
That's awesome that you beat it. I outright skip Dark Water and Welcome to the Machine.
@BloodNinja I would move on to something else instead. NL interviewed the guy ahead of this game’s release and then didn’t even follow it up with their own review of the game, which I think speaks volumes itself.
Realistically, how many people knew about it before today? And instead being “the new game from the Ecco the Dolphin devs”, it’ll be known (in the smallest of circles) as “that game where they need to pay you to play it”.
@Serpenterror I'm waiting for dolphin quest as well.
@Tempestryke I see, what a pity. I think it sucks that vg creators can't retain rights over there own work.
It really comes down to both the dev and the publisher. If the dev or studio allow the publisher to had full rights to the IP then it belongs to the publisher even if they left the company but if the publisher give them full rights then they could own that IP and take it with them even when they left the company. Matt Bozon of WayForward, the Shantae dev, and Greg Johnson, developer of Toejam and Earl, were able to take their IP with them even though those IPs were originally published by big name companies such as Capcom and Sega.
Sometimes the publisher will offer incentive to buy the IP due to its popularity such as the case with Microsoft and Mojang on Minecraft and sometimes the publisher will sold away the dev and their IP due to a lack of interest in the properties such as the case with Nintendo and Rare on all their IPs like Banjo, Conker, Killer Instinct, Blast Corp, and Jet Force Gemini. The thing is if you work for a big name corporation and you care enough to own your idea, make sure never to sign the dotted line where it says any and all work invented or created while under employment within the company will all belongs or became a property of the company. If you sign that then yeah anything you created for the company will be 100% theirs, if you refuse then you had full rights to take the idea with you and could even sue the company if they attempt to copy or plagiarize your work for their profit after you're gone.
I always remember making it to the last boss on Ecco the Dolphin and thinking why can't I play as Ellen Ripley here?
@PessitheMystic It's only sad if it doesn't work.
@PessitheMystic what’s shameful or sad? They want to market their game as it will continue to be updated. They could put the money into running an ad on NintendoLife, or they could do a unique competition with a prize to generate attention. Seems like they are just thinking creatively
@Serpenterror Thanks for the info.
@RubyCarbuncle Well Ruby, that's because your playing as Ecco Ripley.
@thinkhector @ninchocolate are you two gonna buy it and play it?
@PessitheMystic hadn’t heard of it before this article. The Ecco connection has me interested in checking it out
@PessitheMystic I'm gonna check out the demo.
@NinChocolate @thinkhector those are both just two roundabout ways of saying “no” hahaha! It’s alright, I’m not gonna get it either.
@PessitheMystic I hadn't heard of it before. I'm going to buy it.
Seems like a fun bit of marketing, to me.
@PessitheMystic ..and your point?
@NinChocolate I said it was sad.
ThinkHector said it’s sad if it doesn’t work.
You confirmed their marketing doesn’t work.
Therefore, sad.
@Tempestryke
Lol I was using save states so no accolades on my end.
Basically I was brute forcing my way through it. I’d save every time the auto scroll screen moved. If I guessed wrong I’d reload and try again.
What’s impressive is watching the speed runners of Ecco. Those dudes are an entirely different breed, even among other speed runners.
@OrtadragoonX I know, but the fact remains it's not an easy level to beat, even with save states. Although I'm grateful for the password that takes you right to the boss. So kudos anyway.
@PessitheMystic i would disagree about the marketing not working just based off the fact we even had this conversation. But that’s okay
Ecco the Dolphin is one of the most sadistic games ever made, so I don't consider this a selling point for the new game.
Also, who would play a game against the devs for money?? They know all the cheat codes.
@Tempestryke I don’t know why, but I always felt Tides of Time was easier than the original Echo. Now might be a good time for me to go back and play them again since my memory is foggy - I just remember the pixel art being gorgeous.
@PessitheMystic Cool! Tell the dev team that, then!
@Wilforce Tides is gorgeous
The original 2 Ecco the Dolphin games are the epitome of an amazing, amazing idea that just isn't all that fun to play. ....... but I still push through based purely on good will from childhood. ^_^
I'll check out this "new" game of theirs since I'd never heard of it before!
@FishyS It is challenging. About 5 or 6 levels are sadistic, and most people can power through good chunks of it on their own. Plus it has the password system so it's not as bad as modern reputation makes it out to be. It's beatable, just a real pain in the butt sometimes.
Well, there is a demo guys, you can try before you buy.
@PessitheMystic My thoughts exactly
@Wilforce
It’s way easier than the original in my opinion.
The development team prioritized making it more mainstream friendly. It’s still hard. But it doesn’t abuse you like the first game did.
The key difference is that the original is a much shorter game than Tides of Time. The studio decided that for the original game they didn’t want people renting it and beating it in one day.
So they made it spine crushingly difficult to compensate.
Tides is still a very hard game. And it’s puzzles are more elaborate than the original. But it feels more “fair” to me than the original did.
One funny note. Different revisions, regional versions, and platforms of the original Ecco have different difficulty traits. The OG North American release is by far the hardest, with a severe lack of polish related to poor hit detection. Weird stuff happens that ruins levels. The JP and Pal versions had bug fixes that made them marginally easier.
In addition, the easiest version is the Sega CD version. I mean it’s still insanely difficult. But it’s only arm breaking hard instead of spine crushing hard thanks to being the most polished version. It controlled better than the Genesis version with less input lag. So deliberate movements were easier.
Seems like a good way to sell a game.
@Tempestryke They traded their rights of ownership against payment.
Had to check to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind, because I couldn’t remember, but this dev sent me a DM when the game came out two years ago with a code for it! I enjoyed what I played of it and talked about it a bit on social media, but never got into it too deeply.
@PessitheMystic But, I do think it will be fun.
Bought it...
Worth $2 for sure.
It's a push/pull RTS, thankfully units pass by each other instead of always stopping to fight, which creates some unique strategies.
I find the difficulty to be pretty high, but it's one of those games that when you figure out what you're supposed to do you go from hopeless loss to dominating win.
I really, really wish it had a restart button - that feels like a big miss, but for $2? It was worth the money and the time.
$2 doesn't sound half bad for something like this, and I wouldn't mind getting an extra $100 on top of that
Goodness, I love Ecco the Dolphin, so maybe I'll give this game a try!
Aside from the two bosses, I beat everything in the original Ecco the Dolphin without save states. Yes, even "Welcome to the Machine". That was definitely one of my proudest gaming accomplishments. Surprisingly not the hardest thing I've beaten though.
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