Post by benwayshouse on Apr 27, 2005 17:55:33 GMT -5
Welcome to my Billy Hatcher review. I hope you like it.
Billy Hatcher was a game released in 2003 for the GameCube, being one of, if not the first, original game from SonicTeam in a few years; people say it was the first in a while, but I disagree; I believe Phantasy Star Online was their first original game in a while, for it was the first MMORPG for the consoles. Either way, the game, while not perfect by any means, is still good fun and is perhaps one of the better platformers (and more creative) out for the little purple/black/platinum box.
The game's concept is a weird one, but in a good way; think Super Monkey Ball meets Super Mario 64. You are Billy Hatcher, who, through an odd plotline gets transported to the 'Morning Land' where morning has not struck; the reason is the crows, or villains, have encased the Chickens across Morning Land in golden eggs, leaving them unable to bring the morning back. Upon receiving your Legendary rooster suit, you are out to free the living tons of poultry by rolling eggs around, hatching them and using what pops out to your advantage. If you didn't enjoy Monkey Ball or Mario 64, this game probably isn't going to be your thing. But if you liked both, this will be a real treat.
With the concept out of the way, the GamePlay is very well made. You begin as Billy, who starts off 100% vulnerable to everything he touches. However, everything changes once he reaches an egg. This egg must be hatched if you want something as a defense or ability; they are hatched by rolling them over fruit, eventually making the egg larger. When it starts to glow, that means it's large enough to hatch, so hold and press the R-Button and then your egg will hatch! If the egg was striped and Purple, Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange or White, you've just gotten a baby animal to use. If it's not, but has other decorative items present, it's a clothing item that gives your little Billy new tricks. For example, there's a Jet Pack that lets you glide, wings that let you double jump, and new combs to add defense to your egg, such as a barrier or spikes, to make it tougher to penetrate. And there are two more kinds: there are other more Easter-esque eggs, and these eggs hold giant monsters that you can ride, and they're used to help with other tasks smaller animals couldn't do. And then there're the Sonic eggs; these eggs house many Sonic Team characters, such as Sonic himself (who is claimed by Yuji Naka himself as the strongest animal available), NiGHTS from NiGHTS into Dreams, Tails, Knuckles, Samba from Samba De Amigo and various others, all after you get the required amount of coins.
Now let's move onto levels: there are about six to seven worlds, each with Eight stages. Five are played as Billy, others let you control Billy's other friends: Rolly Roll, Chick and Bantam. Each one really performs the same as Billy, so appearance is the only difference. Their levels are the same, too; so you're just playing another Billy level, just, not as Billy. Either way, the levels are very fun! Each stage, in the style of SM64, each stage has a special goal, and a different version of this goal is found in each world. They're definitely fun, though, because the level design is quite good and the egg mechanics add challenge. In some levels, the entire world is available for you to mess around in, and that's nice, but you can sometimes get carried away and then lose track of your job.
As said in the last paragraph, it's a tough game. The bosses, especially the last two, are quite a challenge and can pack a painful punch. They have moves that can hurt you, and when you are open to them, they won't hold back. Sadly, their strategies are very obvious; wait for the pattern, wait for him to get tired, then dash and kill. It doesn't take much, but sometimes they can be a little cheap on you, but some of the time you're to blame.
Either way, the GamePlay mechanics are nothing short of fresh; it's not really variety packed, though there are a couple of secrets embedded in the game. I've explained the Sonic eggs; search for gold chick coins, eventually more eggs become tangible, yadda yadda yadda. Then there's the JoyCarry; see, there are special eggs found throughout Billy Hatcher, and if you can complete the level without a Game Over upon hatching it a downloadable GBA mini-game is available. There's Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket, NiGHTS Score Attack, and two modes of Billy Hatcher Shoot, Easy and Hard. And they aren't just simple demos; Puyo Pop and Chu Chu have more than one mode, and CCR actually has thirty puzzles for you to solve, and since it's simple and addictive, you really can't go wrong with it! NiGHTS and Puyo are good as well; NiGHTS Score Attack is an endless level requiring you to fly around a stage collecting jewels to increase your time limit, while Puyo has an Endless Mode, where the stage never ends and you can enjoy the nice puzzler as long as you wish. I can't say much for Billy, though. You just shoot your egg at enemies, and it increases in size. Eventually, you save a chicken, then move on to another world, then after the Sand World they repeat. It's not the slightest bit challenging, and it's entertainmet value lasts only for a little while. But the other three are excellent little mini-games that are quite enjoyable.
Next, we have music; the music is, while overall a tad obnoxious, it does fit the game's quirky atmosphere. It mostly uses nice drumming, soft yet loud guitars, and flute-esque instruments. It overall fits great for the game, but otherwise it's not what you'd want to hear in another video game. It also has an official song, called "Chant this Charm", by an artist I don't know the name of, but it's a decent song. Personally, I enjoyed the music, but it's still not for everyone.
Then there's the multiplayer. It's not necessarily deep (only three modes with the four characters), but the frantic chasing for eggs and killing your friends can be fun. It was fun for me, but I sort of had the win in the bag; my friends in Alabama weren't exactly what you'd call a challenge, but I had fun nonetheless. You mostly just try and earn the most kills or hatch the most eggs, which while fun, it could use more variety.
Overall, Billy Hatcher's a creative platformer. The GamePlay was well done, and the music is certainly upbeat and fit for the game, with okay multiplayer, polished, yet not quite the best, visuals, an obscure plot and fun gameplay, with the right amount of challenge and quirkiness. For those looking for a bit of entertainment, this game is one of those sleeper-hits everyone should try, yet hasn't. I reccomend Billy Hatcher, not only for the excellent overall game, but for the fun JoyCarry minigames you can download on your GBA! It simply ranks among the best platformers in GCN's life cycle.
Score: 9.2/10
+ Creative GamePlay mechanic
+ Excellent unlockable minigames!
- Subject Matter no doubt could turn some off
- Multiplayer not the best it could've been
Thus concludes the review. I hope you enjoyed it!
- Publisher: SEGA
- Developer: Sonic Team
- Price: $12.99, last time I checked
- Release: September 6, 2003
Billy Hatcher was a game released in 2003 for the GameCube, being one of, if not the first, original game from SonicTeam in a few years; people say it was the first in a while, but I disagree; I believe Phantasy Star Online was their first original game in a while, for it was the first MMORPG for the consoles. Either way, the game, while not perfect by any means, is still good fun and is perhaps one of the better platformers (and more creative) out for the little purple/black/platinum box.
The game's concept is a weird one, but in a good way; think Super Monkey Ball meets Super Mario 64. You are Billy Hatcher, who, through an odd plotline gets transported to the 'Morning Land' where morning has not struck; the reason is the crows, or villains, have encased the Chickens across Morning Land in golden eggs, leaving them unable to bring the morning back. Upon receiving your Legendary rooster suit, you are out to free the living tons of poultry by rolling eggs around, hatching them and using what pops out to your advantage. If you didn't enjoy Monkey Ball or Mario 64, this game probably isn't going to be your thing. But if you liked both, this will be a real treat.
With the concept out of the way, the GamePlay is very well made. You begin as Billy, who starts off 100% vulnerable to everything he touches. However, everything changes once he reaches an egg. This egg must be hatched if you want something as a defense or ability; they are hatched by rolling them over fruit, eventually making the egg larger. When it starts to glow, that means it's large enough to hatch, so hold and press the R-Button and then your egg will hatch! If the egg was striped and Purple, Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange or White, you've just gotten a baby animal to use. If it's not, but has other decorative items present, it's a clothing item that gives your little Billy new tricks. For example, there's a Jet Pack that lets you glide, wings that let you double jump, and new combs to add defense to your egg, such as a barrier or spikes, to make it tougher to penetrate. And there are two more kinds: there are other more Easter-esque eggs, and these eggs hold giant monsters that you can ride, and they're used to help with other tasks smaller animals couldn't do. And then there're the Sonic eggs; these eggs house many Sonic Team characters, such as Sonic himself (who is claimed by Yuji Naka himself as the strongest animal available), NiGHTS from NiGHTS into Dreams, Tails, Knuckles, Samba from Samba De Amigo and various others, all after you get the required amount of coins.
Now let's move onto levels: there are about six to seven worlds, each with Eight stages. Five are played as Billy, others let you control Billy's other friends: Rolly Roll, Chick and Bantam. Each one really performs the same as Billy, so appearance is the only difference. Their levels are the same, too; so you're just playing another Billy level, just, not as Billy. Either way, the levels are very fun! Each stage, in the style of SM64, each stage has a special goal, and a different version of this goal is found in each world. They're definitely fun, though, because the level design is quite good and the egg mechanics add challenge. In some levels, the entire world is available for you to mess around in, and that's nice, but you can sometimes get carried away and then lose track of your job.
As said in the last paragraph, it's a tough game. The bosses, especially the last two, are quite a challenge and can pack a painful punch. They have moves that can hurt you, and when you are open to them, they won't hold back. Sadly, their strategies are very obvious; wait for the pattern, wait for him to get tired, then dash and kill. It doesn't take much, but sometimes they can be a little cheap on you, but some of the time you're to blame.
Either way, the GamePlay mechanics are nothing short of fresh; it's not really variety packed, though there are a couple of secrets embedded in the game. I've explained the Sonic eggs; search for gold chick coins, eventually more eggs become tangible, yadda yadda yadda. Then there's the JoyCarry; see, there are special eggs found throughout Billy Hatcher, and if you can complete the level without a Game Over upon hatching it a downloadable GBA mini-game is available. There's Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket, NiGHTS Score Attack, and two modes of Billy Hatcher Shoot, Easy and Hard. And they aren't just simple demos; Puyo Pop and Chu Chu have more than one mode, and CCR actually has thirty puzzles for you to solve, and since it's simple and addictive, you really can't go wrong with it! NiGHTS and Puyo are good as well; NiGHTS Score Attack is an endless level requiring you to fly around a stage collecting jewels to increase your time limit, while Puyo has an Endless Mode, where the stage never ends and you can enjoy the nice puzzler as long as you wish. I can't say much for Billy, though. You just shoot your egg at enemies, and it increases in size. Eventually, you save a chicken, then move on to another world, then after the Sand World they repeat. It's not the slightest bit challenging, and it's entertainmet value lasts only for a little while. But the other three are excellent little mini-games that are quite enjoyable.
Next, we have music; the music is, while overall a tad obnoxious, it does fit the game's quirky atmosphere. It mostly uses nice drumming, soft yet loud guitars, and flute-esque instruments. It overall fits great for the game, but otherwise it's not what you'd want to hear in another video game. It also has an official song, called "Chant this Charm", by an artist I don't know the name of, but it's a decent song. Personally, I enjoyed the music, but it's still not for everyone.
Then there's the multiplayer. It's not necessarily deep (only three modes with the four characters), but the frantic chasing for eggs and killing your friends can be fun. It was fun for me, but I sort of had the win in the bag; my friends in Alabama weren't exactly what you'd call a challenge, but I had fun nonetheless. You mostly just try and earn the most kills or hatch the most eggs, which while fun, it could use more variety.
Overall, Billy Hatcher's a creative platformer. The GamePlay was well done, and the music is certainly upbeat and fit for the game, with okay multiplayer, polished, yet not quite the best, visuals, an obscure plot and fun gameplay, with the right amount of challenge and quirkiness. For those looking for a bit of entertainment, this game is one of those sleeper-hits everyone should try, yet hasn't. I reccomend Billy Hatcher, not only for the excellent overall game, but for the fun JoyCarry minigames you can download on your GBA! It simply ranks among the best platformers in GCN's life cycle.
Score: 9.2/10
+ Creative GamePlay mechanic
+ Excellent unlockable minigames!
- Subject Matter no doubt could turn some off
- Multiplayer not the best it could've been
Thus concludes the review. I hope you enjoyed it!