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Right, so, Ecco the Dolphin came out yesterday for Xbox Live Arcade. It is, according to some, a classic of the 16-bit era. For us (and by us I mean me), there was something truly compelling about swimming freely in the ocean and traveling through time (if you can get that far). Now, despite all this, there was something that turned Ecco into one of the most terrifying experiences of our (i.e. my) youth: the effing sharks. Brought up by movies like JAWS, seeing sharks in Ecco was more frightening than any zombie could ever be. That is why we (I) urge all of you to earn the "Shark Killer" achievement. Sure, it's only worth 10 points, but at least you'll be conquering your (my) childhood fear. Head over to GamingTalkHQ for the full achievement rundown.

It's Wednesday, which could only mean that this week's XBLA twofer is here, offering up both Hexic 2 and Ecco the Dolphin for purchase. Hexic 2 is available for 800 Microsoft points and builds upon our favorite free puzzle game Hexic, adding multiplayer gameplay, new pieces and a new mechanic look. SEGA's Ecco the Dolphin can be purchased for 400 Microsoft points and is a classic port in the truest sense with a single player campaign that spans twenty-five levels of watery fun. Both games are waiting for your download, so don't let them down and begin the XBLA downloading ritual right quick.

We just got word from Microsoft that this Wednesday we'll be treated to an XBLA twofer, Hexic 2, and Ecco the Dolphin. Hexic 2 will feature new formations, such as "lines" as the Achievements would suggest, new pieces, and a head to head multiplayer mode. Fortunately Alexey Pajitnov, who made the original Hexic, as well as Tetris, had his hand in this sequel, so fans should feel right at home. Ecco will also be available as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection, and will have Leaderboards for "Best Times" for the levels and enhanced sound and graphics. No official announcement on the pricing, but if you wanted our "professional" opinion, Hexic 2 will go for 800 Microsoft Points, and Ecco at half that price.

Update: Prices confirmed on Gamerscoreblog.

Following the announcement of Track & Field yesterday, Microsoft gave us a sneak peak at the Arcade titles coming this month and in the coming weeks. They announced that this month we'll be seeing Ecco The Dolphin, which we caught on the ESRB a while back, Hexic 2, and War Worlds. Outside of August, or potentially on the tail end as a twofer, we have Geon: Emotions, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Streets of Rage 2, Space Giraffe, and of course, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Out of that line up, what are you most stoked for?

Hope you're in the mood for sequels today, because if you're itching for a new retro title, that's what Nintendo's offering up, at least when it comes to Sega. A couple of today's titles were also released in the U.S. this week, which means you can check out the video wrap-up for a little game footage.

Also, for some reason the format of the releases on the Nintendo Europe site seems to have changed, so let us know if these costs are not correct -- we're basing this off past VC pricing.

• Dragon Spirit -- TurboGrafx -- 600 Wii points
• Ecco: The Tides of Time -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points
• Golden Axe II -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points

In a week that is admittedly pretty light on game releases, we're willing to pretty much take anything we can get. Imagine our pleasure then to find some real quality on the Virtual Console this week. Unfortunately, as you soon see, the weapondry leaves something to be desired.

• Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): Somewhere, Doki Doki Panic is having a pull off his half-empty fifth of Wild Turkey, hopeful that this may be the last time he has to be slapped in the face by the release of Super Mario Bros. 2 and reminded of what could have been.

• Ecco: The Tides of Time (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): This Ecco the Dolphin sequel is lucky that it's slipping in with SMB 2, because the only item that could make sound waves look like a good weapon are throwable onions.

• Dragon Spirit (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Completely ruining the whole "lame weapons" motif is Dragon Spirit, a vertical-scrolling shooter where your weapon is, well, a dragon. Unfortunately, having a dragon as your weapon makes vegetables and sound waves look like ... well, sound waves and vegetables.

This week's Japanese Virtual Console update brings something very rare to the Wii: a role-playing game. And by Capcom's Breath of Fire II is a pretty good one. Also available are a fossilized Konami classic, the sequel to one of the weirdest game concepts ever to become a mainstream hit, and a bizarre first-person space adventure of some kind-- we can't tell if Silent Debuggers is an action game or a graphical text adventure. Anyone out there play the US release on the Turbografx-16?

• Pooyan (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Breath of Fire 2 (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Ecco the Dolphin 2 (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Silent Debuggers (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
  

Also listed as a June release, but with no specified date, is Paper Mario. Since there are no more Tuesdays in June, this one looks like it's getting delayed.

Further validating the screenshots of SEGA's Vintage Collection discovered earlier this month, ESRB ratings have been discovered for two of SEGA's classic titles. One of them, Sonic the Hedgehog, we've known about for some time. The other, however, is something of a surprise. Ecco the Dolphin is also listed for the Xbox 360. While we love the original Sonic as much as any self-respecting gamer, we have a special soft spot for Ecco. Given an HD makeover and the spiffy new age soundtrack from the SEGA CD version and we'd really have a special title on Xbox Live Arcade.

What other titles would you like to see in the SEGA Vintage Collection? Kid Chameleon, Altered Beast, Phantasy Star?

[Via Joystiq]

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The ESRB recently rated both Sonic the Hedgehog (also rated for PS3) and Ecco the Dolphin for Xbox 360. It's not that much of a stretch to assume this gives a little bit more validation to the Sega Vintage collection screens that popped up earlier this month.

We're going to guess that having the original Sonic make another pass in digital distribution land is not part of Sega's reinvention tour for their mascot. It'd be nice to see Sonic Team get some blue ambition, hopefully all these re-releases of the original Sonic (which is already available on the Wii's Virtual Console) are an attempt to get some cash together for a solid next-gen Sonic title. Is this delusional daydreaming? Possibly not if Sega is serious about bringing Sonic back to his original glory.

With Nintendo dropping four new Virtual Console titles every Monday, Sega Nerds has posted a list of ten sequels they'd like to see on a console near you. Heck, we just got Ecco the Dolphin this past Monday, so is this list timely or what?

For us, the ones we'd really like to see are either an update of Skies of Arcadia, or some new hotness from Streets of Rage. We'd forgotten that game even existed until the picture slapped us across the face. Punching and kicking at its best.

What Sega classics (and we're using that term lightly) would you like to see? While you're busy wishing, Joystiq wants a solid gold PlayStation 3. Just a little holiday FYI.

Seems we were a little premature in declaring Nintendo's latest Virtual Console release as a "slow-play" of their classic library. Two new Genesis games -- Ecco the Dolphin and Golden Axe -- are now available for download at 800 Wii points each.

We can't be sure that these games didn't go up some time after Super Star Soldier late last night, but it seems that they actually hit sometime earlier today. Combined with last week's late launch of TurboGrafx-16 games on the Virtual Console, this makes two times that Nintendo has released new VC content on a day other than Monday.

Is this a sign that we should now expect Virtual Console launches to come at any time throughout the week, or is Nintendo just running into some early technical glitches in its "Virtual Console Mondays" plan? You'll know the answer as soon as we do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

[Update: Second paragraph edited to clarify the Monday vs. rest of week point.]

On the heels of 1UP's retraction of an editorially awkward review, we've been handed a similarly awkward GamePro review of Sega Genesis Collection. Website seganerds.com points out numerous issues in detail. The review's writer spells "Echo the Dolphin" incorrectly (it's Ecco) and calls it "B-grade," even though Ecco the Dolphin is generally considered one of the best games released on Genesis. The reviewer says Sega, "clearly scraped the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to beef up the number of titles." Although there is some padding, 19 of the 28 games on the disc are recognizable. He also says, "If Sega really wanted this compilation to matter, it should have included hits like Road Rash [and] Contra." But the rights to those games belong to EA and Konami. Under normal circumstances, we would say this was due to a lack of editorial oversight but, sadly, this review was written by GamePro's Reviews Editor Tae Kim, who teases in his profile, "I know everything."

To add insult to injury, there was a significant advertisement buy from Sega on the GamePro site promoting the Sega Genesis Collection. It's bad enough to an advertiser when their game gets a bad review, but if you're going to talk smack about a title, please spell the name of their game correctly ... at least we can be sure they weren't paid off for the review.

Tae Kim contacted Joystiq to explain the review. He starts off by saying that the "I know everything" comment is meant as a joke. He admits errors were made and will be corrected immediately. He says he is fully aware that Road Rash and Contra are not Sega titles and his original article included a line on how they should have tried through licensing to include the games. Kim concludes, "Mistakes do happen over the course of editing and I should have exercised better judgment in the choice of my words and should have worked harder to make sure everything was copy edited, a mistake I will try not to make in the future."

Two more Sega Genesis Collection videos have been released, and here are more games I have yet to ever play. Actually, I do believe I've played Golden Axe 3 before, but I'm positive I've never even heard of Gain Ground.

But never playing most of these games before is exactly what makes me so excited for this collection. I'll be able to revisit these classics on the PSP's big, beautiful screen anytime I want.

Sega Genesis Collection will be available Nov. 7. God, I can't wait.

See also:

Ecco Jr., Shinobi and Phantasy Star IV
Decap Attack
Virtua Fighter 2, Sword of Vermillion and Bonanza Brothers
Phantasy Star 2 and Golden Axe
Kid Chameleon
Ecco the Dolphin and Columns

Seeing Alex Kidd was good and all, but now we're talking with new videos of Ecco the Dolphin and Columns that will be crammed into Sega Genesis Collection.

I know there are a lot of young gamers around these days and some of you may not be old enough to have experienced the greatness of these two games. That's why I'm so excited Sega is releasing this collection of almost 30 Genesis games.

It's kinda funny because Sega's old slogan - "Genesis does what Nintendon't" is so fitting. You see, Sega has put all their classic games onto one disc, while Nintendo forces gamers to buy all their NES games separately. For shame!

While PS2 and PSP users won't be getting the under-appreciated classic Toe Jam and Earl as part of a recently announced Genesis collection, it looks like Wii owners might get the game on their virtual consoles. The ESRB lists these seven classics when you search for Sega games for Nintendo's upcoming system:

• Altered Beast
• Columns
• Ecco the Dolphin
• Golden Axe
• Ristar
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Toe Jam & Earl

Each game got an E rating, with descriptors for comic mischief, animated violence and animated blood thrown in for good measure. While this isn't an official confirmation that the games are Wii-bound, it does seem to confirm that they have at least been submitted for ESRB rating, a logical first step. We can only hope that we'll be able to spend hundreds of dollars on new hardware just to relive the joy that is the Toe Jam rap.

[Thanks, SuicidalMuskrat]