{"id":12189,"date":"2022-01-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onecontrollerport.com\/?p=12189"},"modified":"2023-01-07T21:28:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T05:28:15","slug":"abandoned-article-billy-hatcher-and-the-giant-egg-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onecontrollerport.com\/abandoned-article-billy-hatcher-and-the-giant-egg-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Article- Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Before transitioning over to doing a Balan Wonderworld video, my original intention was to do a video on Yuji Naka’s Billy Hatcher. However, eventually it got put on the back burner so long that I don’t think it’s going to resurface anytime soon.<\/p>\n

I’d consider this script *mostly* complete. If you’d think this video would be worth my time, feel free to let me know. I’m not opposed to revisiting it in the future.<\/p>\n

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Last Edited on 3\/22\/2021 7:24PM<\/h2>\n

Sonic Team is a developer that’s had a lot of ups and downs. Even their mainline Sonic games can be pretty divisive. However, what most of their titles have in common is their tone. They often have a positive and uplifting vibe that make them feel good experiences. I\u2019m someone who likes those kind of games, so I usually can get something out of them even with their rough edges. I’m also a Gamecube fan. So I knew that, eventually, I was going to check out Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Unfortunately, despite trying to, I didn\u2019t end up loving it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame because Billy Hatcher is not your run of the mill 3D platformer. You control a boy named Billy, who doesn’t have many capabilities on his own. He can jump. That’s about it. But grab onto a Billy-sized egg and it greatly enhances his moveset. It allows him to dash, roll over enemies, ground pound, spike the egg at foes, launch himself from egg launchers and so on. The levels are almost exclusively built for him to be connected with an Egg, despite them being two separate entities.<\/p>\n

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Which creates some interesting challenges. Billy is restricted by the egg’s movement, making things like, turning around on a narrow path, a difficult task as the egg has to swing out to rotate around him. It can also break which, depending on the mission, is either a simple annoyance or the loss of a life. There’s also some less intentional complications from this mechanic \u2013 like eggs getting stuck on platforms while Billy falls. Or weird glitchy collision issues due to them being able to exist on different surfaces.<\/p>\n

The Egg’s capabilities can be enhanced by rolling over fruit, increasing its size and damage output. However it’s not something you always want to do, since the larger it is, the harder it can be to navigate small platforms. It can also increase the likelihood foes will hit it, or the chances that weird buggy stuff will happen. These trade off mechanics, intentional or not, create a neat sense of choice in the size of the egg the player wants to utilize.<\/p>\n

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In general, there\u2019s quite a bit of flexibility here, as there’s almost always multiple solutions to an encounter or a platforming challenge. Utilizing these various movement options and mechanics feed into the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog-style ranking system at the end of each level. I don’t personally care about rankings, but I appreciate it rewarding the player for further exploring Billy’s more complicated movesets.
Unfortunately, for a casual playthrough, all these options and mechanics over-complicate things. Which leads to some confusion. For example \u2013 There’s a lot of states Billy can exist in:<\/p>\n