E3 2003: Billy Hatcher Hands On

Check out our hands-on impressions with Sega's awesome new mission-based platform adventure, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Lots of screens included.

It was difficult to know what to make of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg when it was first announced. Sega weren't giving much away about the gameplay at all, but the fact that Yuji Naka was on the case personally, combined with the main character being a young boy who dresses up in a chicken suit can only mean one thing - we have a crazy Sonic Team spectacular on our hands!

"If it sounds like it might be cool, you'd be right... Billy Hatcher is an absolute joy to play."

And if it sounds like it might be cool, you'd be entirely right. Billy Hatcher is an absolute joy to play. It's essentially a mission-based platform adventure, with extremely good set-pieces and strategy elements, plus some story and character interaction as well. The gameplay is initially more complicated than your average Sonic title, but given time, Billy Hatcher is going to be accessible and enjoyable to all age groups.

So, you start off as this kid in a chicken suit. We've not quite been able to explain that bit to ourselves yet, but we've got the hang of the rest. Each level is mission based, so you have to achieve something specific by the end of each mission - and there are around five to eight missions in each level. Some missions have a boss - but not always the last mission.

Scattered quite sparsely around each level are a number of special eggs. These eggs are the key to doing anything of significance in the game - without an egg you're vulnerable to enemy attacks and can't progress very far at all. Once you find a fresh egg, you go get it, and then you can do a few things.

"The eggs are the key to doing anything of significance - without one you're vulnerable and can't progress far."

First, you can launch it at enemies to kill them. Each enemy releases a orb-like fruit, so you can quash several enemies and then you'll be able to roll your egg over the orbs, increasing the size of your egg each time. A meter in the bottom-right of the screen indicates how close your egg is to reaching its maximum size, at which point the egg will start flashing - then you can hatch it to get an animal. In the spirit of the game's bizarre theme, these animals can be anything from flying chickens, to penguins, cows and seals.

The animals you hatch often follow you around afterwards, and some will give you advice or help you when you interact with them, for example advising or helping you to tackle an imminent puzzle or obstacle. You can't do much at all without an egg in your possession, so you could even describe the eggs as characters themselves. The appearance of the enemies, the hatched animals and the eggs make for an immediately vibrant, colourful and wild graphical style.

The bigger your egg, the more damage it does when you throw it or dash into an enemy - but the easier it is to break it, or lose control when it picks up pace from rolling it too fast. If you lose or break your egg, you usually have to wait for a new one to appear, or go elsewhere to pick one up.

"Hatched animals can be anything from flying chickens, to penguins, cows and seals."

In the first level, "Pirates Island", the mission is to bring the daytime back out of the night. There's always a 'special egg' in each mission. Here, the special egg is golden, and trapped inside a cage. You have to use a fully-grown egg in your possession to switch a button on top of the cage to get the golden egg.

You frequently need the assistance of the animals you have hatched to help you through parts of the level, or to help you obtain new eggs you need - for example, one animal has a fire-breathing ability, which you must use when you encounter an object trapped in a block of ice that has to be melted. If necessary, you can use a voice 'attack' to hatch an egg before it is fully grown when you need an animal early. Sometimes you'll have no choice - enemies will always try to break your egg, as well as attack you.

Certain switches and platforms can only be reached when your egg is a certain size. You can't attack enemies without your egg, and you can't collect orbs, so getting into the habit of always having an egg is a practise that becomes quickly familiar.

"The bigger your egg, the more damage it does when used to attack an enemy - but the easier it is to break it."

Sometimes there are 'hoops' positioned in a level, often in sequence. If you have an egg, you can jump into a hoop, which then contracts to the size of your egg. After positioning the hoop in the direction you want, on your command, it will launch you and the egg - sometimes straight into another hoop, like the memorable barrel firing sequences in Donkey Kong Country. Stuff like this makes moving through the levels a lot of fun. In some levels, the style changes a little, adopting more of a top-down perspective, where the emphasis is on guiding your egg to safety without losing or breaking it.

In the second level, "Dino Mountain" there is a vibrant and visually beautiful tropical environment, with sections full of lava, which are obviously the danger zones - usually reachable by accidentally falling off a cliff. If you're speeding along too fast, then your egg will roll off a cliff and into the lava, taking you with it. This place is full of dinosaur enemies who can breathe fire, huge moving cliff faces in the shape of dinosaur bones, and prehistoric remains. The whole world is busy, very animated and very attractive to look at. The depth - the scale of the levels and the draw distance - is nothing short of amazing.

"Dino Mountain is a vibrant and visually beautiful tropical environment, with danger zones full of lava."

A cool part during the second level is tricky at first - you have to get across to another cliff, which you could do by jumping and climbing if you wanted, but how do you get your egg across with you? After asking a nearby cute dancing chick (no ambiguity intended) for advice, you learn that you have use a certain hatched animal to destroy a rock, which reveals a meandering rail leading to the 'other side'. You then set your egg rolling on the rails, before quickly jumping across the cliffs to meet your egg on the other side, just in time to stop it rolling off the edge and into the lava. There are bound to be many imaginative set-pieces like this throughout the game - and frankly this is an exciting prospect for any gamer who demands intuitive level design.

The third level, Blizzard Castle, is another distinctly awesome-looking, visually cliché platform affair - a big, white level with a nice castle. The snow effects make for a very action-packed screen, but there's never any major slowdown. The game is becoming more difficult by now; you can instantly tell this level is tougher from the scale, structure and complexity of the level, and the puzzles are getting more challenging also. If the trend continues beyond these first levels, then the challenge element will be elevated beyond the most difficult Sonic levels historically - which is probably a very good thing, for the push this game needs.

"Billy Hatcher is an original and sophisticated videogame that we've found an absolute delight to play so far."

The game uses a very natural control system that takes a few minutes of getting used to, before you can really start enjoying the Giant Egg experience. The analogue control for Billy's movement is very instinctive - you can do a Sonic-style 'skid' when you need to stop or change direction suddenly. (Do it with no skill though, and you'll let go of your egg). The R trigger is used to roll the egg along fast, (and also to hatch an egg) which produces a nice glow behind you as you speed along and knock down enemies. Usefully, when Billy is behind the egg and obscured from view, the egg turns translucent so you can still see what's going on.

From what we could hear, the music is a cross between Sonic and NiGHTS, and always suits the theme of the level in typical Sonic Team style.

Billy Hatcher is a wonderfully original, vibrant and sophisticated videogame that we've found an absolute delight to play so far. We can only look forward to playing this more thoroughly, and experiencing the later levels. A lot of gamers, and especially fans of Sonic Team titles, are going to get more than they expect from Billy Hatcher - and you can expect us to keep a very close eye on its development.

Watch out for a detailed interview with Yuji Naka next week, as we quiz him on Billy Hatcher and Sonic Heroes.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com

Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 1 (480x356) Our first video shows lots of scenes from the first level.	0.55m	7.60 MB	WMV
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 1 (320x240) As above, lower resolution.	0.55m	6.17 MB	MPG
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 2 (480x356) This next video shows off more action and some level environments.	0.55m	7.62 MB	WMV
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 2 (320x240) As above, lower resolution.	0.55m	6.18 MB	MPG
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 3 (480x356) More action, this time from the Dino Mountain and Blizzard Castle levels.	0.35m	4.87 MB	WMV
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 3 (320x240) As above, lower resolution.	0.35m	3.94 MB	MPG
Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg Video 4 (210x240) Video from the showfloor showing more crazy gameplay.	0.50m	5.70 MB	MPG

E3 2003: Billy Hatcher Hands On

Check out our hands-on impressions with Sega's awesome new mission-based platform adventure, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Lots of screens included.

Kikizo:

Kikizo Classic:

Entertainment:

E3 2003: Billy Hatcher Hands On

Check out our hands-on impressions with Sega's awesome new mission-based platform adventure, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Lots of screens included.

Kikizo:

Kikizo Classic:

Entertainment:

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