Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Review

Anyone who bought a GameCube knows that there aren’t very many [good] games to pick from. While just about every first-party game is a success, there is little third-party support to justify buying a GameCube over a PS2 or Xbox. This is why I was so excited to see the release of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, a game developed exclusively for the GameCube by the notorious Sonic Team of Sega. Unfortunately, this plate of eggs is not what I had ordered.

Being a platformer, Billy Hatcher is split up into separate levels. I miss the hub world, but it works without, and while the levels are somewhat linear, this doesn’t mean you have to stay on one definite path. In fact, you are encouraged to explore in order to find rare eggs and coins. The worlds that our hero, Billy, will encounter range across your typical locales: desert, forest, sea, etc. What makes the game fun is its premise: eggs. The levels are filled with different eggs that Billy can use. Once you have an egg in your hands, you can do anything, be it squashing enemies, bouncing up to higher ledges, shooting across chasms, launching from special “egg rings,” or just rolling down steep inclines. While toting an egg, you have to be aware that it can break if it sustains too much damage, but it can also be hatched after you’ve collected enough fruit. Eggs can either hatch power-ups or different animals, whose abilities can help you solve certain puzzles or just clear out enemies faster. All this is really cool, but, unfortunately, the fun stops there. It’s like Sonic Team didn’t know what to do with these ideas and ran with whatever general, mundane tasks they could think up. Nothing about the game made me stop and say, “Wow, that was really clever.” They got away with the bare minimum, which is apparent in the mission objectives, boss battles, enemies, and puzzles.

When Billy doesn’t have his hands on an egg, he is pretty much worthless. All he can do is jump, and his jump is pathetic. Luckily, you can find an egg just about anywhere, and controlling an egg feels pretty good– for the most part. Stopping and/or trying to resituate an egg can result in some hassle. Rolling down an incline, however, is a pain in the neck since it is so hard to turn. Billy Hatcher’s camera has got to be one of the worst cameras I’ve ever used. It’s stubborn and sluggish. It always aligns itself in the most inappropriate places, making it hard to calculate your next move. If you try to move the camera into a different position, it will immediately snap back as soon as you let go of the C-stick. Cameras are hard to do right, but Billy Hatcher doesn’t even try.

I don’t know why, but lately, I’ve noticed the kid-oriented games are ridiculously hard. If you’ve played Super Mario Sunshine, then you know the Secret Areas in that game were horrible. The entirety of Billy Hatcher feels just like that. Most of the game’s frustration stems from the camera. I’ve already outlined it above, but think about it: you are constantly miscalculating jumps, because the camera won’t work with you. This would be fine if Billy Hatcher wasn’t such an unforgiving game. It penalizes you severely for messing up. It’s very easy to fall into a hole or lava or sand or water, and you lose a life every time you do. You only get five lives per level. If you run out, you have to start completely over. Not even the coins you collected are saved. Poor design sees that you mess up constantly. Sometimes, you’ll try and bounce up to a ledge, but only the egg makes it and you fall back down. Sometimes, you’ll land on a very small platform and you or the egg will fall off because it’s too hard to get both of you situated. Sometimes, you’ll try to roll onto a track and fall to your doom because… well, I don’t know why that happens.

The game lasts as long as any other current platformer; expect 8-12 hours to beat it straight through. Then there are eggs to hatch, coins to collect, and better grades to earn on each mission. Honestly, by the time you’ve played every level at least once, you will never want to play them again. I’m happy to see the inclusion of four-player support, but like most platformers with a tacked-on multiplayer mode, it fails to be very engaging. It could have been a fun battle royale with eggs, but the design is uneven. It’s too easy for one person to dominate. Further, every time an animal is hatched, everybody’s screen freezes for a few seconds so you can see the animal do its dance. With four people playing, the action is constantly being put on hold. It’s one of those features that makes absolutely no sense at all as to why it’s there, and it ruins everything.

Billy Hatcher is clean, bright, and cheery with some interesting character designs. Some unimpressive animation and textures don’t help so much. The framerate, too, takes considerable hits when multiple enemies are on the same screen. While it never gets so bad that the game becomes unplayable, it is noticeable. The music maintains a light-hearted, friendly feel that is (surprisingly) more catchy than it is annoying. It sounds like “kid jazz” influenced by the narcotics of the 70’s. In other words: it’s wild and crazy stuff. The sound effects also uphold the same air. However, these quickly become obnoxious, especially Billy’s squeals and grunts. He is a very annoying kid.

Final Comments

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg was something I tried desperately to enjoy. The idea behind the game is great: having this world full of eggs that you can utilize in so many different ways. But it seems the developers didn’t know what to do once they had the idea and let the novelty go to waste. Add to that a horrible camera, unforgiving gameplay, and poor level design, and you have yet another GameCube exclusive that doesn’t live up to anything. It’s worth a look just to see what potential it had, but don’t go into it expecting to be blown away.