“Me and the entire original team are going to Remaster the original Ecco the Dolphin and Tides of Time games,” said Annuziata in the interview when asked about the future of Ecco the Dolphin. “Then we will make a new, third game with contemporary play and GPU sensibilities.”

Back when it first came out all the way back in 1992, Ecco the Dolphin was praised not only for its fun gameplay and impressive art, but also for raising awareness for environmental issues affecting various oceans around the world. In the interview, Annuziata also spoke about first making the games, and how his career evolved from there.

“Long ago, back in the 8-bit days, I used to make educational games for the Apple II,” he explained. “I knew even then the potential of games to enlighten. I made a bunch of games in 6502 Assembler, or my favorite, Machine Language.”

“Once I started learning about whales (and making games about them), I became obsessed with the subject matter,” he said about finally getting to work on Ecco the Dolphin after working on TV series Voyage of the Mimi.

Ultimately, his research on sea life is what ultimately got him into developing games based on everything he had learned from books like Hank Searls’ The Sounding.

“My heart was always in video games, even though I made learning games for a living at the time,” he said. “I started to dream about a game where you experience life as a dolphin. I chose a dolphin because I figured it’s as close to a person as all the whales. But when I considered the actual play mechanics, I had to prototype it.”

In talking about the impact that video games can have when it comes to raising awareness about environmental issues that affect everyone, he credits the gaming audience as being uniquely engaged with the medium they partake in. “Like the ocean, a gaming community is an ecosystem – games like Ecco can and should be a conduit to join these realms,” he said.

“A big part of the game is understanding the ocean as a singular biological system that is made up of systems that interact with each other. This is a complex biological dance that humans can be a part of.”

While Annuziata has confirmed that work will begin on a third game in the Ecco franchise after the remasters are out, no further details have been confirmed. Interestingly, the official website for Ecco the Dolphin has a timer ticking down from, at the time of publishing, 8,500 hours, which would roughly amount to a full year. We will likely see trailers and more marketing materials closer to the remasters’ release.

Iceberg Lounge – Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City is a great game with plenty of high points, but the Iceberg Lounge isn’t one of those. And the reason behind it is simply how uninventive this section is to play, since it requires pulling the Dark Knight across an iced out pool of water through the Batclaw. If something goes awry during this process, a shark will come out of the water and eat you and you’ll have to do it all over again. In addition to this, you only get to fight a few goons during this section – so it’s also pretty light on the action as well. All in all, it’s not difficult or very frustrating, but it can be surprisingly unremarkable – which is why it deserves its rightful place in this list.

Akuma – Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Did you think that M. Bison from Street Fighter 2, one of the toughest bosses in any game ever up till that point, was a wuss? Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo’s Akuma is the fight for you. Accessible only by reaching the last stage quickly without any continues in Arcade Mode, Akuma will appear and waylay Bison, then replace him as the final boss. In terms of abilities, he possesses the Zankuu Hadoken (which fires two Hadoken in mid-air), a teleport for quickly closing the distance, and very quick combos that take off chunks of health. Hilariously enough, his playable version isn’t as powerful but was still considered broken enough to warrant banning from tournaments.

Hopping aboard the trend of re-releasing older consoles in miniature versions, Sega has announced the Genesis/Mega Drive Mini. It will retail for $79.99 and release on September 19th, with a whopping 40 games included. This version of the console is based on the Model 1 Genesis, which originally launched in August 1989 in North America.

The first ten games that Sega confirmed would be coming to the platform are:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Ecco the Dolphin
• Castlevania: Bloodlines
• Space Harrier II
• Shining Force
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• ToeJam & Earl
• Comix Zone
• Altered Beast
• Gunstar Heroes

Along with 40 games, consumers will also receive two replica Genesis controllers with USB functionality, a USB to micro-B power cable, a power adapter (in North America only)m and an HDMI cable. Sega also confirmed that M2, which worked on the Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics Collection, would handle porting the games.

Given Sega’s library of classics, re-releasing the Genesis with these games included is a pretty good idea. Time will tell if, as far as its quality is concerned, it’s more in line with Nintendo’s NES Mini and SNES Mini and less akin to Sony’s PlayStation Classic. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months regarding the remaining games.