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Is SEGA's newest Sonic alternative groundbreaking or just plain typical?
November 15, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Ray Almeda
Introduction:
Ten years ago, Yuji Naka created Sonic the Hedgehog.
A decade later, SEGA and Naka’s latest inspiration reminiscent of the Hedgehog days comes in the form of an aspiring new hero in Billy Hatcher.
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, SEGA’s newest Sonic alternative, concentrates on a new and wacky, egg-wielding adventure, filled with challenges that might surprise you, especially if one is expecting a kiddy game to say the least. Stating the obvious, Billy Hatcher is one of the most lighthearted and easy-to-learn titles currently available on the GameCube. However, the kiddy image of this SEGA platformer only goes so far. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg will surprise gamers with its never-ending, yet sometimes tedious challenges.
Story:
A story destined for kids, but visible to adults, Billy Hatcher’s story begins with the dreadful occurrences plaguing Morning Land. This location, headed by the great Chicken Elders, is being toyed by the Dark Raven, King of the Crows -- the game’s pivotal villain, who wishes to rid all of Morning Land of light, and fill the atmosphere with darkness. Now, although the plot seems quite a bit odd, it does save itself from being called standard.
The title stars SEGA’s newest hero, Billy Hatcher, a regular human who gets contacted by the great Chicken Elders to rid the darkness that the Dark Raven had conjured upon Morning Land. Oddly enough, Billy receives this rooster suit, which gives him the power to control and hatch large eggs, which in turn, allows Billy to control new creatures of various abilities vital to the mission’s objectives. Now only do these eggs provide easier routes to solving the multitude of puzzles within the game, but they also are used as weapons – big weapons might I add.
Gameplay:
Billy is controlled with ease of the control stick. Other than rolling an egg, the rooster suit allows Billy to run, hatch other eggs, climb on ledges, and in some cases, fly. However, the necessity of eggs within this title make this game for what it is. Without them, Billy is left blinded with standard actions, most of which make going through the level naturally more difficult. The good thing is – Sega has included a myriad of egg colors and sizes to complement Billy in his quest to rid Morning Land of Dark Raven’s darkness.
The different eggs, being the majority for the weapons in the game, keep the title’s sense for variety on an edge. Billy gets to roll these oval-shaped objects around with ease, simply because of SEGA’s outstanding egg-physics engine, with egg wobbling and bursting actually being more fun when experienced. Even better, Billy can use plenty of abilities with the help of his newly found powers, to bounce a large egg onto a higher platform or even blast them through walls or cracks. They can be yo-yoed towards enemies, and as expected – they can also be used like a huge rolling ball to flatten the opposition. Being as crazy as it sounds, mastering control of one of these babies takes quite a bit of precision and patience, especially with enemies in your way and the game’s camera system not performing up to expectations.
Why would you need to roll the egg in the first place you ask? Every level is packed with various fruits, all-differing in size. These fruits must be fed to the egg, as it gets bigger and bigger as it “rolls” on a fruit. Once the egg is big enough, Billy will be able to hatch it and reveal a mysterious creature from the egg, one that can exert several cool abilities, which are sometimes necessary for completing a stage. Most of the levels vary in egg types, which differ from each other in their element types. For instance, maturing and hatching a blue water egg, will reveal a water-creature, which will sometimes be necessary for dousing its water onto a fire to progress to the next area within a level. However, some of Billy’s challenges truly remain an enigma, where objectives such as killing all of the stage’s enemies to open a door may stray completely off course from the game’s overall rhythm.
Most of Hatcher’s worlds vary in difficulty early on, but soon after, you’ll be asking yourself whether or not the current mission objective had been the same the level before. That’s right – Billy Hatcher tends to fall into the abyss of standard platformer variations. Most of the time, Billy will be forced to zoom through rings and trampoline up to higher platforms – but haven’t we seen this kind of stuff already? After playing the latest Sonic adventures for the GameCube, one will find the distinct similarities between the two. As most adult gamers will agree – Billy Hatcher’s repetition will indeed make its case at least halfway through the title. Still, Billy Hatcher does make a stand with gamers of the younger generation.
Even with the additional of Sonic and two additional characters, Billy Hatcher’s single-player mode is likely to turn quite a bit of older games off, because of its early promise that fades deeper in the adventure. However, SEGA has indeed implemented a multi-player mode, which seems to be quite rare even in our days of next-generation platformers. Four players can compete in several arenas of various Deathmatch and Timed modes, most of which are quite a break from the game’s overall slow-evolving single-player experience. The Deathmatch mode finds two to four gamers rolling over each other with eggs located strategically around the map, each of course, with their differing animal abilities. The control and gameplay within these modes remain steady to say the least, and saves Billy Hatcher from being one of those single-play platformers already affecting the platformer market as a whole.
Ten years ago, Yuji Naka created Sonic the Hedgehog.
A decade later, SEGA and Naka’s latest inspiration reminiscent of the Hedgehog days comes in the form of an aspiring new hero in Billy Hatcher.
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, SEGA’s newest Sonic alternative, concentrates on a new and wacky, egg-wielding adventure, filled with challenges that might surprise you, especially if one is expecting a kiddy game to say the least. Stating the obvious, Billy Hatcher is one of the most lighthearted and easy-to-learn titles currently available on the GameCube. However, the kiddy image of this SEGA platformer only goes so far. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg will surprise gamers with its never-ending, yet sometimes tedious challenges.
Story:
A story destined for kids, but visible to adults, Billy Hatcher’s story begins with the dreadful occurrences plaguing Morning Land. This location, headed by the great Chicken Elders, is being toyed by the Dark Raven, King of the Crows -- the game’s pivotal villain, who wishes to rid all of Morning Land of light, and fill the atmosphere with darkness. Now, although the plot seems quite a bit odd, it does save itself from being called standard.
The title stars SEGA’s newest hero, Billy Hatcher, a regular human who gets contacted by the great Chicken Elders to rid the darkness that the Dark Raven had conjured upon Morning Land. Oddly enough, Billy receives this rooster suit, which gives him the power to control and hatch large eggs, which in turn, allows Billy to control new creatures of various abilities vital to the mission’s objectives. Now only do these eggs provide easier routes to solving the multitude of puzzles within the game, but they also are used as weapons – big weapons might I add.
Gameplay:
Billy is controlled with ease of the control stick. Other than rolling an egg, the rooster suit allows Billy to run, hatch other eggs, climb on ledges, and in some cases, fly. However, the necessity of eggs within this title make this game for what it is. Without them, Billy is left blinded with standard actions, most of which make going through the level naturally more difficult. The good thing is – Sega has included a myriad of egg colors and sizes to complement Billy in his quest to rid Morning Land of Dark Raven’s darkness.
The different eggs, being the majority for the weapons in the game, keep the title’s sense for variety on an edge. Billy gets to roll these oval-shaped objects around with ease, simply because of SEGA’s outstanding egg-physics engine, with egg wobbling and bursting actually being more fun when experienced. Even better, Billy can use plenty of abilities with the help of his newly found powers, to bounce a large egg onto a higher platform or even blast them through walls or cracks. They can be yo-yoed towards enemies, and as expected – they can also be used like a huge rolling ball to flatten the opposition. Being as crazy as it sounds, mastering control of one of these babies takes quite a bit of precision and patience, especially with enemies in your way and the game’s camera system not performing up to expectations.
Why would you need to roll the egg in the first place you ask? Every level is packed with various fruits, all-differing in size. These fruits must be fed to the egg, as it gets bigger and bigger as it “rolls” on a fruit. Once the egg is big enough, Billy will be able to hatch it and reveal a mysterious creature from the egg, one that can exert several cool abilities, which are sometimes necessary for completing a stage. Most of the levels vary in egg types, which differ from each other in their element types. For instance, maturing and hatching a blue water egg, will reveal a water-creature, which will sometimes be necessary for dousing its water onto a fire to progress to the next area within a level. However, some of Billy’s challenges truly remain an enigma, where objectives such as killing all of the stage’s enemies to open a door may stray completely off course from the game’s overall rhythm.
Most of Hatcher’s worlds vary in difficulty early on, but soon after, you’ll be asking yourself whether or not the current mission objective had been the same the level before. That’s right – Billy Hatcher tends to fall into the abyss of standard platformer variations. Most of the time, Billy will be forced to zoom through rings and trampoline up to higher platforms – but haven’t we seen this kind of stuff already? After playing the latest Sonic adventures for the GameCube, one will find the distinct similarities between the two. As most adult gamers will agree – Billy Hatcher’s repetition will indeed make its case at least halfway through the title. Still, Billy Hatcher does make a stand with gamers of the younger generation.
Even with the additional of Sonic and two additional characters, Billy Hatcher’s single-player mode is likely to turn quite a bit of older games off, because of its early promise that fades deeper in the adventure. However, SEGA has indeed implemented a multi-player mode, which seems to be quite rare even in our days of next-generation platformers. Four players can compete in several arenas of various Deathmatch and Timed modes, most of which are quite a break from the game’s overall slow-evolving single-player experience. The Deathmatch mode finds two to four gamers rolling over each other with eggs located strategically around the map, each of course, with their differing animal abilities. The control and gameplay within these modes remain steady to say the least, and saves Billy Hatcher from being one of those single-play platformers already affecting the platformer market as a whole.
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