Nintendo of America has just retained the rights to the popular franchise featuring the lovable Dolphin Ecco, first seen on the Sega Genesis and Sega Mega Drive. A press conference was held at Nintendo of Japan's press quarters, where CEO Satoru Iwata had this to say on the acquiring of this illustrious new IP



" Well, with the current success of Brawl, we could clearly understand that the gamer today is deeply urging to revert back to the roots of the golden era of gaming. With sequels of Zelda and Mario already released, i wanted to give another classic title of my era it's well deserved sequel"



The last time we had seen Ecco, was in his historic battle during World War II, where Ecco piloted the mark 23 SoundSonic, leading the fight against the Nazi Horde of Germany in Ecco:Fish Over Fire. When released on the Turbo Graphics-16, sales at that time topped record numbers, with Ecco:Fish Over Fire selling over 200,000 copies in just 2 days. Currently, the title is a rare to find, as a person know only over the internet at "Chad" has mysteriously aquired over 99 percent of the stock of the game, and has refused any offers of selling even a single copy of this title.





During the press release, we were also graced with a teaser image of the work in progress, which currently is under the working title of Ecco: Lazers of Fury. A release date as not been finalized, but estimates are up that we will see a release possibly during Holdiay 2008. You can see the teaser image below, and also view it at the new webpage up for the games future release, at www.DolphinEccoMaster.com





Current speculation is that this Ecco will be another Mashup of the FPS Genre with RTS and Puzzle game elements. As seen in the past, this pairing has proved quite effective in truly capturing it's audience, proving a rich and full enviroment for the player to effectively guide Ecco on his various challenges and missions assigned to him. Of course, with the new motion controls that will be added, moving Ecco will be smoother and faster then ever, with Sonic waves and Dolphin nose pushes coming at a flick of the wrist



Personally, I'm expecting nothing but a blockbuster title here from Nintendo. This franchise has nowhere to go but up, and i expect great things, even possibly a trilogy in the making.