Billy Hatcher and The Giant Egg

**NoFace** · 27 Sep 2003, 04:18 AM

Alright. Got to spend a large amount of quality time with this game this afternoon, and gave single player and 3-player battle mode a good workout.

A lot of the problems I had with the demo a few months back are either lessened or fixed. The horridly annoying pop-in has been replaced, and while there's still a large amount of fade-in going on as you play, it doesn't detract from the experience much at all. Control also seems to be a bit tighter, and cornering/turning while rolling an egg seems a bit better. I could just be imagining that though (maybe just extended playtime allowed me to get used to the controls). It isn't drastically different than what the demo exhibited, but it definitely feels improved.

The game itself... very fun stuff. It's not revolutionary in any way shape or form, but if you enjoy 3D platformers with a nice mix of action and minor puzzle solving, you won't be disappointed. The game is composed of six different worlds, each with five different emblems to collect. I'm not sure if there's more past that other than maybe a final boss fight. You might have done the math and decided that 30 different objectives doesn't sound like a lot, and in reality it probably isn't. I'll bet you could finish the game in a day if you wanted... it's short to be sure, but it's not Wario World short at least. I'd say it's probably twice as big as Wario World, and if you want to collect all the coins (to use the Sonic egg, five per objective) or hatch every type of egg (72 in all) you're looking at a much larger chunk of time. If there was nothing but the single player portion of the game, it'd still be worth it.

But thankfully, there is more. Multiplayer. As has been mentioned, it's a lot of fun. Sonic Team included a few difffernt variations on the deathmatch formula, but nothing spectacular. Choose from a timed match, a points match (which has an interesting catch... if you take out an opponent you get all their points. So you're constantly playing for a larger and larger pot, and going crazy trying to knock out the player in first), and a standard survival match. Where things do get interesting, however, is in the different powerups you can get from hatching eggs. There's a pretty huge variety of powerups, and because of that battles are usually nuts... which equates to a good deal of fun. I wouldn't have expected a multiplayer mode in a platformer to be that much fun... I can think of a few failed attemps (Donkey Kong 64 for example) and only one decent one (Conker). Made me think if a Mario Sunshine multiplayer mode could have been fun, with some FLUDD action.

Other things... I heard gripes about the music, but I think it's pretty good. It fits the game at least. Very cheerful stuff. I'm not sure what one expects to hear when controlling a young boy wearing a legendary egg-controlling chicken suit. Graphics... other than the fade-in, I'd say this is a pretty good looking game. Billy himself has some great animation, very cartoony and charming. The environments in the game look good, not amazing. The game's engine is also able to throw a very large amount of enemies on screen and usually this doesn't result in slowdown... the slowdown that's there usually comes at odd times.

Last thing... the game has some great boss fights... very clever all around.

So, like when all is said and done, I'd probably give this game an 8 as well. Need a 3D platformer fix for your Gamecube? This'll do nicely.

**Scourge** · 29 Sep 2003, 02:50 AM

Well, I've put some real quality time in on this this weekend, as well. I'd like to say that Frogacuda is correct about the camera. During play for my first impressions, I did not become aware of the 'snap to' feature using the left shoulder button until very late in my play time. After several more hours of play, mostly today, I am a LOT happier with the camera in this game. I was originally using the C-stick when I first played, and that's extremely slow and really only works well in conjunction with the left shoulder button as a 'look feature.'

Also, I didn't even notice that each level was broken up into several stages in my early rounds with the game. Normally, I'd think that was fine, like in Mario Sunshine where you go back in to a stage a bunch of times to complete a new task. In Billy Hatcher, it's actually WAY better because you don't simply replay the stage with a new objective to focus on: the stage itself opens up into a new area, so you're treated to a new level connected to a portion of the previous level! There are actually between 5 and 7 emblems to collect in each stage, and so far, the ones with 7 are played with Rolly, the Amy-ish girl character, instead of Billy, so that's cool.

I am totally enjoying this game! The platforming is really clever and there's actually more beat-em-up action than I realized early on (or crush-em-with-an-egg, as the case may be.) It's pretty fun to go tumbling your egg over 10 or 15 little enemies as quickly as possible to get your egg hatchable, but it's REALLY cool when there are several mini-bosses strewn about to impede your progress, which makes it more challenging and involves more thought as how to kill them than do the small enemies, since you have to kill them in a particular manner or wait til the time is right.

Everything remains fast paced in this game, which is really a plus. Sure, there are times when you come to a ledge and need to look ahead to figure out your path, but overall it's hectic platforming that harkens back to the days before platformers became collect'o'thons. I'm really surprised at the half-hearted reviews I've read of this game, even though they've been in the 7's, because their biggest complaint seems to be that the one-player experience isn't all that compelling. I'd like to state that if you are a fan of classic platformers, that view is 100% wrong. While nothing is really groundbreaking in this game, the levels are really well designed with quite a lot of diversity, the bosses are very fun (and I was right, things picked up quickly after the first boss), and the control is tight. Puzzles are strewn about liberally, and while none of them are of the brain-cramping variety, they all actually compliment the platforming well.

Buy this for the one-player experience. The multiplayer experience just happens to be one hell of a bonus.

--Scourge .

**Schlep** · 29 Sep 2003, 04:28 AM

Has anyone gotten to the level where you have to beat "Champion Runny"? I'm going nuts trying to beat this.

**sggg** · 29 Sep 2003, 07:15 PM

Hrm. My posts in this thread are redundant and somewhat pointless, but I'll say it again! Thanks for all the feedback to everyone. I was already anticipating this game quite a bit but your comments have obliterated any doubts that I'll love the game. It's totally up my tree.

It might even be the killer app that gets me to buy a Cube. While there are a handful of decent Cube games, this is the first one that really makes me excited enough to consider a purchase.

I am not sure if this was mentioned yet, but there are some nice goodies on Sonic Team's Japanese site:

* http://sonicteam.com/giantegg/ge_dl.html

Must.. own... this... game...

**bahn** · 29 Sep 2003, 07:16 PM

get it now. it's really fun. (and i LOVE the character designs of the main cast. I'd dare say the best word for them is, adorable)

**NoFace** · 29 Sep 2003, 07:44 PM

How come they can't animate Sonic as well as they can animate Billy (and company) for this game? His facial expressions are great... I love the way he can go from looking surprised to a big toothy smile... adorable is a good word to describe a lot of this game.

**sggg** · 29 Sep 2003, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by bahn

get it now. it's really fun. (and i LOVE the character designs of the main cast. I'd dare say the best word for them is, adorable)

I adore the character designs too! And the music! It's remarkable how the music in this game is soooo good when the music in the recent Sonic Adventure/Heroes games is sooooooooo bad.

Anyway, as great as the game looks, I don't feel like spending $100 usd + the cost of the game just to play it tho'. I wish there were more GCN games I wanted so I could justify it. I dunno, maybe in a few months.

**NoFace** · 29 Sep 2003, 07:45 PM

Oh and thanks for the link sggg... some nice, big, colorful wallpapers to be found there.

It's cool how when you first start a stage and it's covered in darkness, the music has darker tones to it, but once you brighten the island the music switches gears into full-blast, umm, "sunny" music. The levels just feel more fun once that happens.

And I'll agree that the one track from Sonic Heroes is eye-rollingly bad ("Sonic Heeeeroes..."), but a lot of the Sonic Adventure music I find to be pretty awesome (save for almost all of Knuckles stages... the lyrics in particular "This is Knuckles, and you have reached the Death Chamber... death chamber... death chamber"). Billy Hatcher music isn't nearly as cheesy though, that's for sure.