Print Article: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Review



		Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Review October 13, 2003 Marcus Yam

Summary: Sega's Sonic Team is responsible for some of the greatest games of the 16- and 32-bit generation. Sonic the Hedgehog gave Sega an identity (and maybe "Blast Processing"). NiGHTS into Dreams was a secret only Saturn owners were privy to. Phantasy Star Online made the Dreamcast ahead of its time with online play. And now, after a brief hiatus, Sonic Team is back with an original game on the GameCube. Say good morning to Billy Hatcher!

Return of Sonic Team Page:: ( 1 / 7 )
Sega’s Sonic Team has an outstanding history of producing high quality, highly playable games. Obviously it all started with the outstanding, mascot-creating Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis/Mega Drive back in 1991. Since then, Sonic Team has continued producing Sonic games, but it has also created other outstanding titles. NiGHTS will forever be one of my favorite Saturn games. Phantasy Star Online and Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast once again reminded us that Sega had some of the most talented and creative designers on the planet.

After the Dreamcast’s untimely demise, Sonic Team was stuck converting some of its older titles onto the currently standing consoles. We’ve been waiting for something new, and finally it has arrived. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is the latest from Yuji Naka and his Sonic Team, and it’s available only on GameCube.

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What the…?

As many of you can guess, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is the heartwarming tale of a boy and a really big egg. The story is quite bizarre, which is initially played out by a CG video in the game and with this prologue from the manual:

Morning Land is a peaceful land inhabited by chickens. One day, a terrible fate befell the land. Black Crows empowered by a mysterious magic appeared as ferocious monsters bent on keeping the world in eternal night. The Chicken Elders whose voices bring dawn each day were captured and sealed within golden eggs. Without their morning cries, the world will remain engulfed in darkness and human hearts will be consumed by evil. Now, only young Billy Hatcher and his friends from the human world can defeat the Crows, release the elders, and return morning to the world.

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That’s some strange stuff. Essentially, you’re a human boy in a magical chicken suit, fighting crows for the freedom of all chicken-kind to restore morning to the world since darkness is evil.

Right.

Well, elaborate, or even sensible, storylines have never been Sonic Team’s forte. Sonic Team has always been about originality and gameplay, so let’s take a look at those aspects of Billy Hatcher.

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SIDEBAR: Sonic Team also did Chu Chu Rocket, one of the wackiest puzzle games in recent memory.

…To make an omelet Page:: ( 2 / 7 )
On his own, Billy is rather useless. He can run around, jump, and climb; but to really be of any use, an egg has to be in his hands before he can progress through the level. Once armed with his chicken suit, Billy can launch offensives by throwing, dunking, bowling, and pile-driving eggs. Strangely enough, these eggs seem to be indestructible in the hands of Billy.

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The eggs have a greater purpose than just weaponry. They are vital to advancing through the game. Nearly all areas throughout levels can only be accessed with the assistance of an egg, where a launcher will send both you and your egg to a higher ledge or a new area.

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Side of bacon?

Naturally, the eggs in Billy Hatcher are more than just oddly shaped rocks and cannon balls. Billy can hatch animals and helpful items after feeding an egg a certain amount of food. These food items are Pac-man-style fruits that are freely sitting around and also left behind from dead enemy carcasses. After running over a fruit, an egg meter in the lower right hand corner of the screen will tell you when your egg is ready for Hatcher. As soon as the egg is ready for the real-world, hitting the right shoulder button will make Billy let out a “cock-a-doodle-doo” and the egg will pop open revealing whatever’s inside.

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You’ll come across many different types of eggs, each with its own distinctive outer artwork (think Easter Eggs). You’ll eventually recognize which patterns contain which animals and items so that you won’t waste any fruit hatching anything redundant or unneeded.

SIDEBAR: I’m wearing a “Sonic blue” Billy Hatcher t-shirt. It helps me get in the mood.

Billy hatches Page:: ( 3 / 7 )
Some of the helpful items you’ll find are butterflies that restore your health or monkeys that knock out all onscreen enemies with the press of the Y button. You’ll have to enlist the help of egg animals. After an animal is hatched, Billy can command their powers using the X button. Common egg animals have elemental powers of ice, water, fire, wind, lightning, etc. Just like how the eggs themselves are required to progress through a level, certain egg animal powers must be used to defeat enemies. For example, on a “fire level” you’ll need to hatch Richie the Seal to put a few mini-bosses on ice.

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Control woes

One thing holding Billy Hatcher back from greatness is the control. Understandably, Billy controls different when he’s rolling an egg around with his hands, but the controls take a change for the worse. Billy demonstrates that he’s able to turn sharp corners while dealing with an egg many times his size; but occasionally, when you ask for a slightly greater change of direction (or to stop completely), all motion grinds/skids to a halt with Billy grabbing hold of the egg and sliding a small distance. While we understand how inertia works, the controls in Billy Hatcher feel inconsistent. This often leads to unnecessary deaths, which you’ll be more often blaming the controls for rather than yourself.

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Other instances of frustrating physics show themselves as Billy jumps from ledge to ledge with an egg in his hands. If you don’t land without enough clearance from the edge, the egg will make it but Billy will not, possibly leading to another lost life.

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SIDEBAR: One of my favorite movies of all time is Hard Boiled.

It’s so happy! Page:: ( 4 / 7 )
Billy Hatcher is one bright, colorful, cheery game. Its liberal use of bright primary colors fits right in with Miyamoto’s GameCube efforts. Character models are simple and the textures look like something you’ve seen before in Mario Sunshine. The main flaw in Billy Hatcher is its framerate. Most of the time, things run quite smoothly; but as soon as some particle and smoke effects enter the picture, things slow down dramatically. Given that we’ve seen special effects run without a hitch in other GameCube titles, we can’t think of any reason why Billy Hatcher couldn’t be further optimized for a more consistent framerate.

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More happy

The sound and music is just as cheerful as the graphics. Sound effects are comical in nature and the musical score is comprised mainly of upbeat tunes. For those of you with home theatre setups, Billy Hatcher supports progressive scan and Dolby Surround Pro Logic II.

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SIDEBAR: The CGI in the Billy Hatcher is quite crisp and clear. It’s also extremely happy and cheerful in nature.

The Score Page:: ( 5 / 7 )

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Highly original

Although there are parallels to Mario Sunshine, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is a highly original game. It could be classified as a 3D platformer, but it’s one that’s unlike any other. The whole concept of eggs is more than just a gimmick – it’s an integral part of the gameplay that makes Billy Hatcher unique. The bizarre story and cheery atmosphere are all trademarks of Sonic Team. The trademark razor-sharp controls, unfortunately, did not make its way into Billy Hatcher.

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While it’s a decent platformer, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg doesn’t have the same impact as Sonic the Hedgehog. Still, Sonic Team is one of the best developers for one of the most original publishers in the gaming industry. We’re happy to see that Sonic Team is back doing more than just ports. Perhaps we’ll get a new NiGHTS?

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SIDEBAR: If you have your GBA connected to your GameCube, you’ll be able to download mini-games based on NiGHTS into Dreams, Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket, and more!

Screenshot gallery Page:: ( 6 / 7 )

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