Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

"Okay, But Not Great"

I had high hopes for this game, especially since it was from Sonic Team, and especially since I love platformers. But this game wasn't exactly what I expected, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either.

Graphics :
The graphics are fine. I've seen better, I've seen worse. I don't have any real complaints in this department, nor can I praise the game either. I've seen a lot better in similar titles such as ''Sly Cooper'', ''Jak and Daxter'', and ''Ratchet and Clank''.

7.7/10

Sound :
One of my biggest gripes, and some may not care at all, was over the fact that the voices weren't translated. Its not like there is any spoken dialogue throughout the game, but hearing those repetitive voices the character makes while jumping, in Japanese, can be rather annoying. Otherwise, the music was not bad, but it didn't really strike me at all as being interesting, I never really took notice to it while playing the game.

7/10

Gameplay :
It gets repetitive. Same stuff over and over. Hell, even the levels feel the same. There's some diversity though, instead of hatching the golden-eggs every level, you can fight bosses, who usually utilize the excellent tactic of repetitive patterns, run around against a time-limit collecting coins, or beat-up a required number of enemies. Hurray. But then there's the egg. You get too close to a ledge, it falls off. Golden eggs break in one hit. And you have to utilize the eggs to do ''combos'', which are otherwise useless, in order to get a good grade. At times, it gets annoyingly frustrating. Every world is pretty much comprised of ONE level. You just have to do it five times again and again.

6/10

Replay Value :
You can replay it if you want to, get all the Sonic-eggs, all the GBA mini-games, all S-ranks, or whatever. But its more like work than like fun.

5/10

Over-All :
The game is lacking. Besides the old same-old same-old routine to the gameplay, it offers nothing very new to the genre. Its just 'another' platformer, and when you're not trying to figure out which rails you CAN roll on and which you CAN'T, how high to aim the cannon so you don't die, run around in circles so the giant bee doesn't shatter the egg you've been trying to catch for five minutes, or run in circle after circle trying to complete a mission, you may be actually having SOME fun, at the beginning of the game. I say, go buy something else. Maybe Viewtiful Joe. Or if you only want a platformer, Jak II for the PS2, or even Animal Crossing, which is relatively old by now.

Final Score : 7/10 (not an average)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/03