Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
- September 22, 2003 15:23 PM PST
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Today's platform sensation or tomorrow's breakfast?
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A Good Source of Protein
Young Mr. Hatcher, a bouncy kid in a chicken suit, has been whisked away to a poultry wonderland where crows have encased the world in darkness. His mission is normal enough?take back the light?but his methodology would probably make Sonic sick. Billy's only weapons in this game are eggs?very large eggs, in fact, that are found willy-nilly in each stage. Besides throwing them at (or rolling them over) enemies, Billy can hatch eggs after he's "fed" them with enough of the food that evildoers leave behind. Depending on the egg you've got in hand (there are 72 in all), you can hatch helper creatures, power-up items, energy-granting butterflies, GBA mini-games, and even a certain blue spiky animal?assuming you can find enough coins to unlock that extra.
Join the Yolk Folk
Despite the sheer novelty of rolling eggs over enemies instead of hopping on them, Billy Hatcher is just another mission-based platformer at heart. Basic game structure (not to mention a mission or two) is right from Super Mario 64?you'll know each stage like the back of your hand by the time you complete the five missions in each one. Luckily, most objectives are novel and avoid the "collect X of these" clich? like the plague?shame the controls make everything seem much harder than it actually is. The problem comes down to this, basically: Although the GameCube's got an analog stick, Billy cannot roll eggs unless he's full-on running. This forces you to run in circles, miss jumps repeatedly, and pull your hair out upon every game over. It's like the 16-bit days all over again?you'll die at one jump repeatedly, but everything after that will be so much easier.
A Cracking Good Time
Still, this is a Sonic Team production, and as such, the platform action is addictive when it clicks. The graphics are lovely, of course, and while the multiplayer modes aren't much, everything (except the controls) is finely polished. It's nice to see Sega's studio try something new?and, even better, to see it mostly succeed. Besides?it's not just another Sonic! Yippee!
