Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

"For The Love Of A Chicken"

Once upon a time in a far off magical kingdom, there lived a group of people that lived hard yet productive lives. They were content with their lot in life and toiled each day without a care in the world. Suddenly late one evening, quite out of the blue, their King approached them and gave them an impossible new task. ''I want you all to create something new.'' said the King. ''Something sooo wonderful that my rival in the next land will be forced to concede that our kingdom is indeed the greatest of them all. It has to have attitude, and it should be appealing to both adults and children alike.'' With that, they set about the new task at hand and many moons did pass. Eventually one day, the King returned to see what his people had accomplished. With great uncertainty, they wheeled out a little blue hedgehog who had both spunk and charisma by the barrow full. Sonic the Hedgehog had been born and in turn there was much jubilation across the land. So impressed was the King that he dubbed these hard working followers Sonic Team. Their duty was now to work and toil for ever more as heroes, bringing new greatness to the kingdom of Sega...

Alas, like all good fairy tales however this one also has a sad ending. Bloated and fat from their own success, Sonic Team eventually grew lazy and began living large on their reputation of old. Even though the quality of their titles remained strong throughout the 16-bit era, the sudden jump to 3D that the 32-bit machines brought was not kind to them. Where design and innovation once reigned supreme now lay sloppiness and gameplay so generic, Core would have been proud to slap a franchise on it and call it a hit. Much to the chagrin of fans everywhere, camera issues have continued to plague each and every 3D Sonic Team release right through to the current generation of hardware. From Sonic Adventure to the seminal Phantasy Star Online, no matter how solid the concept was the game always seemed to suffer from a very poor camera system. Where did the magic of old go? What happened to the Sonic Team we all knew and loved? Is the king still such a happy man?

As is the way with such things, Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg tries to draw the player in with a new gimmick that in theory, distinguishes it from the crowd. For the most part it follows ye standard tried-and-true 3D platforming formula of running around killing baddies while collecting points/powerups/keys to open doors/switches... only now it all gets done while pushing a giant egg. By using one of the many eggs scattered around each level, Billy can bounce, smash and roll his way through the hordes that stand between him and his next objective. As each egg grows larger, so does it's potential attack damage thus putting the player into something of a quandary. Should you hatch the egg now incase it holds a juicy bonus? Or should you keep it in its fully matured form so as to be better prepared for any nastiness that lays ahead. Who would have thought that laying eggs would have been an effective deterrent against the forces of evil?

Putting aside the numerous bad poultry jokes and bestial innuendo for the time being, Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg at first glance seems to be exactly what fans of Sonic Team had been waiting for. A typically cute platformer with an interesting new gimmick that looked as fun as it did surreal. It's colorful graphics and engaging character designs would seem to suggest that they were finally back on track and were ready to take on the world again. Of course as is the way with such things, first impressions can be deceiving and having spent a few hours beating my head against a giant egg, some hideous truths become apparent. Granted one can live with the horrible excuse for a story, after all platformers have been serving up premises best left on the back of cereal boxes for years. Really, compared to what has come before it, the story of a young boy and his friends being whisked off to chicken land to save its inhabitants from a plague of evil crows doesn't seem so bad. If this was the extent of the misery then Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg wouldn't have been so bad. Sadly though, like some overly enthusiastic sadist with a handful of double ribbed candles, the pain doesn't stop there...

In a recent poll, 8 out of 10 respondents agreed that a bad camera was the single greatest killer of platform heroes. Not even the inhabitants of chicken land are safe, as the senseless slaughter of innocents continues with our boy in the chicken suit, Billy being subjected to countless humiliating deaths thanks to a brutally merciless camera. Whether it's a sneak attack by a pack of bouncing bat things or a sudden drop that seemingly comes out of nowhere, rest assured you're going to be just as surprised the 1000th time as you were the 1st. This constant betrayal of the player's trust is bad enough, but when taken in tandem with the often lax controls, it becomes all too much to bear. While there may not be anything terribly wrong with the way Billy controls, put a giant egg in his hands and you can kiss your blood pressure goodbye. Billy rolls his eggs around with next to zero fine control, often dropping them from edges at the least opportune times. Oddly enough though, when the player actually needs to roll their eggs onto a set of rails the task seems almost impossible. Push too little and the egg will refuse to catch and begin rolling. Push too much and it's yet another one way drop to the icy darkness below. This lack of fine analog control is only compounded later in the game where precision jumping is required.

If the level design had been more forgiving then many of these problems would never have become an issue. Unfortunately any hope of a reprieve has been dashed as high tension situations have been mixed with platform jumping elements that penalize the player for missing a jump with the loss of a life. Do you rush across a series of finely spaced platforms and tempt fate to stop an egg from meeting a bad end? Or do you take the time to traverse the space safely and run the risk of finding an oversized omelet waiting on the other side? In the end it won't matter though as sooner or later it becomes clear that banging your head on a wall will achieve much the same results in a vastly shorter space of time. That is of course providing that the rampant clipping doesn't prevent oneself from partaking in said self abuse. Occurring at seemingly random intervals, Billy will often pass through a set of rails when a successful jump looks certain. If you're not feeling frustrated by now then you're either a saint or you're playing a different game.

In the defense of our chicken loving friends, it's not all perforated rectums and busted prostates. Some solace may be found in Billy Hatcher's previously mentioned outstanding graphics and sound. Though there is some slowdown present, it rarely interferes with gameplay to any great extent. Character designs are of course excellent as always and show that in this field at least, Sonic Team still have what it takes. Special note must also be made of the theme music as it's an infectious little ditty that is sure to get stuck in the player's head. Don't be surprised when you find yourself humming the tune in the shower! Still by this late stage it's going to take a lot more than colorful graphics and addictive tunes to save Billy Hatcher from the slaughter house. Though the idea of using a giant egg to vanquish enemies is both novel and unique, the previously mentioned faults sap any potential joy from the game.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for the Nintendo Gamecube was supposed to represent the culmination of Sonic Team's efforts to finally enter the 3rd dimension trouble free. To put the sense of monumental disappointment into perspective, this game represents 2 years of hard work! Lets let that sink in, 2 years of development... It could be argued that had another developer released Billy Hatcher then perhaps people wouldn't be so tough on it. But then again I could argue the finer points of solid game design and the merits of beta testing and we would still both walk away correct. In the end though, some gamers may be able to overlook Billy Hatcher's faults and enjoy the game for what it is. Others will be disappointed to see the once great Sonic Team reduced to such lows. This is one game that's better left in the coop, fairytale beginnings or not...

Pros
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* Colorful graphics
* Typically great character designs
* Addictive theme music that you will be whistling for weeks
* Sonic the Hedgehog's buddy Tails makes an appearance

Cons
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* Sonic Team have YET to perfect a good 3D camera system
* Eggs are next to impossible to control in some situations
* Instant deaths aplenty
* Clipping occurs at the least opportune moments usually resulting in loss of life
* Experienced gamers should find this game rather easy to complete
* Wherefore art thou Sonic Team?

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/15/03, Updated 12/16/03