RetroSpective - Giant Eggs and N.0.P.3.

[Ganepark32]

Making this as a double topic. First one today, the other tomorrow. And then there'll be one final one before xmas and the new year, which will be on a really good Gamecube game. Anyways, without further ado....

 

 

Released in 2003 as a Gamecube exclusive title, later being released on the PC and Mac in 2006, Billy Hatcher was developed by Sonic Team using the Sonic Adventure 2 engine and was a platform title. The game has you playing as Billy Hatcher who, along with his friends, has been transported to Morning Land and endowed with a chicken suit to help liberate the place from the sinister Dark Raven and his crows. With the chicken suit on, Billy and friends have the ability to move, use and hatch eggs and set out to rescue the 6 chicken elders and prevent the darkness from spreading to the human world before confronting Dark Raven to banish him once and for all. The game pulls heavily on the mechanics set out in another of Sega’s titles, Super Monkey Ball, as Billy uses the various eggs lying about the level to aid him in his task, as he isn’t capable of completing the task on his own. By defeating crows, he can increase the size of the eggs, by collecting fruit which drops from the crows, up to the point where he can then hatch them to get various animal assistants or elements. The game was viewed in a positive light; however it was met with mixed reactions from gaming journalists and sits with a Metacritic rating of 71%. It, however, sits closely to many gamers’ hearts as a great title. So, 5 years after its initial release, does it still warrant the love it receives from fans? Or was it right for the reviews to be mixed?

 

The first thing to notice is that it still plays remarkably well. Using the rolling mechanics used for the Super Monkey Ball titles, the rolling of eggs around the environments is very easy and takes the forefront in the game. The game focuses substantially around the rolling of eggs to defeat enemies, solves puzzles and to do other things. Unlike true platforming titles, you rarely traverse the levels solely as Billy and are almost always rolling an egg. This is a beneficial addition because it improves the characters speed and allows him to take on the crows that inhabit the levels and also destroy barriers when he wouldn’t normally be able to on his own. The movement around the levels, while in control of an egg, is very fluid allowing for quick changes in direction to prevent falling off of platforms or from preventing harm being done to your egg. This is another nice touch where your egg will receive damage if you become too boisterous and try to take on crows without learning their attack patterns. The game makes you be preservative of the eggs you are using because they give you bonuses and if your egg breaks or cracks, these won’t be available. Learning the patterns isn’t really necessary to begin with but as you progress further through the game, it’s something you’ll have to take into consideration if you want to keep hold of a certain egg, e.g. in the levels where you have to free the chicken elders you have to take extra care to prevent them from cracking or you will fail the mission. The only real trouble with controlling the egg comes with jumping. It feels slightly frustrating when having to carry the egg across gaps to the next platform because it can be hard to judge the jump and sometimes you’ll find that the egg will manage to get across but because you’re behind it, you won’t and therefore lose a life. This problem can be over looked by the fact that you can do a bouncing jump with the egg which makes jumping slightly easier to judge and land.

 

Controlling Billy on his own is as straight forward as when he is rolling the eggs, with it being your typical control setup. Again, the jumping can be difficult to judge with Billy on his own but some of the fault lies with the camera. As this game has been created using the same engine used in Sonic Adventure 2, the same camera problems which were prominent there are carried over to this. Playing it when it was released, it felt fine probably because Sonic Adventure 2 had been released on the Gamecube and it was the norm for that period. However, playing it now, the camera can be very frustrating not only with the jumping but with keeping track of enemies moving about in the level. It seems to snag on the scenery quite a lot, narrowing the field of view down which can be problematic if you are in the midst of a fight with some of the harder enemies and bosses.

 

The graphics in the game still possess the same charm now as they did upon release, although they have dated a bit. It really wouldn’t feel out of place being released today, especially on the Wii, and would certainly tie in with the other titles on the market using the cel-shaded, cutesy style, big eyed characters. In an industry where the norm is seeing bald space marines lurking in dark corridors or in environments consisting of various shades of brown, this still feels like a breath of fresh air. The graphics are polished, apart from the minimal texture blurring on the characters clothes, colourful and generally look great. They may not hold a candle to the graphics appearing on other consoles, but then they inhabit a completely different end of the spectrum, and don’t really hold one to Nintendo’s offerings but they do look good and would certainly find it easy enough to sit amongst several of the Wii titles on the shelves. The environments are varied offering up places ranging from lava covered to snow/ice covered area. Although they aren’t very original in their themes, their designs make up for it offering up variances in platforming, enough to provide an adequate challenge to anyone.

 

The music that accompanies the game suits it very well. It’s very chirpy, cheery and upbeat in the face of Billy’s task. For the most part though, it’s very unnoticeable during playtime as you’ll never find yourself listening to it. But when you do, it’s not bad but it has that instant Sega feel to it; like it has been and will be rehashed in its other games.

 

The single player experience is a good one, with each area having a total of 8 missions, 5 of which are available immediately upon unlocking the area but the other 3 are only unlock after Billy rescues his 3 friends, who you’ll control in the respective missions in each area. Each mission lasts a decent amount of time, as does the whole game, and there are rankings handed out after completion of the mission so you can come back later and try again to get a better rating if that is your sort of thing. The game also includes multiplayer which takes on the form of a battle mode, where you and 3 of your friends can go up against one another in time, stock and hatch battles. It’s a nice little side track from the main story. However, with much better multiplayer games available in the Gamecube’s library, you won’t be spending much time here.

 

So Billy Hatcher is a strange title. In many respects, it still holds up and plays well but when playing you just wish there was a little more too it. Some people may get bored with the whole egg rolling thing, even though there is a decent variety of missions available to complete. The title didn’t get much attention on the Gamecube as it was overshadowed by other better platformers. However, it does deserve attention for being original and an actual decent game from a deteriorating Sonic Team. The likelihood is that Billy Hatcher is forever destined to appear solely in cameo spots in Sega’s multiplayer/party titles, which is a real shame as they have created a genuinely interesting game concept and could turn it into a fantastic series. It’s a shame we may never see a sequel but if we did, would we want Sonic Team making one? With Sega’s recent run of bringing its franchises to today’s consoles, we’ve seen mixed results. Regardless of this, however, I would wholeheartedly support a sequel as either fan service or as a continuation of the series on the Wii. It wouldn’t need any complicated waggle controls, just simply keeping it the way it is would be fine. For those that haven’t played the title, it is a great little gem in the Gamecube’s library, and with it being cheap to buy now it is definitely worth it. It may not sound very interesting but believe me when I say it is fun.

 

 

 

For those smart people reading this, you may have worked out that N.0.P.3. is an anagram of P.N.0.3. which is also the next retrospective. Enjoy.

 

P.N.03 was developed by Capcom and released in 2003. It was part of the Capcom 5 deal struck with Nintendo to give the Gamecube 5 exclusive titles. After one title, Dead Phoenix (very apt name), was canned the remnants of the deal were released on the Gamecube and all but this were ported to the PS2, meaning this was Capcom’s sole exclusive from that deal. The game puts you in control of Vanessa Schneider, a lithe and agile woman who with the help various ‘Aegis’ suits is sent to take out a collection of rogue Computer Arms Management System robots at a colony where they have been killing innocent colonists, including Vanessa’s parents. The game was designed by Capcom to feel like an old school/classic title and this can be seen through inclusions such as the combo multiplayer that occurs by defeating enemies in the allotted time to continue the combo and increase it. The game was met with a rather mediocre reception from the gaming press but has however developed a cult following. The game sits with a Metacritic score of 63% which reflects the opinions of the press but not that of the gamers who have grown to love it. So, as the Gamecube’s only exclusive to come out of the Capcom 5 deal has time been good to the game or has it degenerated into an unplayable mess?

 

The game never really received much praise for anything other than being different and trying to be unique. When playing, you understand how unique the title is. While it is a third person shooting title, you are limited to shooting in a stationary position. While it may seem bad, and in some case the inability to run and shoot is bad, it means that the player has to think tactically about how he or she goes about taking on the various robots in the environment. You have ways of dodging enemy fire such as jumping, crouching and cartwheeling to the side and these all work well but you’ll find that you rarely need to jump or crouch for cover as the AI isn’t overly intelligent and you can hang at a corner and fire your palm shot or special attacks at them and they’ll normally be unable to get you. There are the occasional robots who will speed towards you when using this kind of tactic and so you will have to think fast on your feet. The game is very good at this and at its pacing gradually building up the power of the rogue robots until you come up against the really difficult ones, who can kill you in one hit with their lasers. With these, the difficult will quickly increase and you find yourself sidestepping, ducking, you name it to keep yourself alive. The overall difficulty of the game is adequate. However, on the higher settings it can get a bit overwhelming, especially when coupled with the awkward controls for moving about. As you only use the one analogue stick to move about, you movement with it is restricted to moving forwards or backwards or turning left or right. The movement forwards and backwards is well done but the turning is rather clunky and difficult to get a specific direction lined up. There are little aids to help with the movement, such as the aforementioned sidestepping and cartwheeling to the left or right, but there is also the inclusion of a 180 degree turn button and this can be a god send, especially in areas where you are having to climb high to get to the door to the next room and there are enemies about. Many games today could really benefit from the inclusion of this type of mechanic and so for it being included, P.N.0.3. deserves applause.

 

Your arsenal of weapons focuses mainly around your palm shot, which is initiated with the A button. Initially, it is weak but as you finish missions and training missions, you gain points which you can use to customise your ‘Aegis’ suits’ powerups. This kind of customisation of your suits isn’t entirely essential at the beginning, but as mentioned above the difficulty increase quite quickly meaning it becomes essential to improve your suits powerups if you want to survive long enough to finish the mission. Of course, as you progress through the game, you will unlock new suits which you can purchase. But of course, when you purchase these new suits any powerups on your existing one will not be carried over and you’ll have to gain the points again to improve that. It may not sound too bad but by the time you get your new suit up to where your initial one was, you have new suits available and have to start again. I can understand not allowing to transfer stats across to new suits but they could have at least reimbursed you some of the points to use on the new suit. Many people perhaps won’t bother with the new suits, and I know I was certainly thinking of not bothering, but they do improve on you powers and each has a specific special attack or powerup linked to it so it does do you good to explore them to find the one with the best powerup. These powerups are activated by using a combination of buttons, for example two directions on the D pad coupled with the A button. These can be tricky to pull off as sometimes they don’t always work if you are too slow but when they do work, depending on what powerup it is, you can either cause devastating damage to the enemies, and kill them in one, or you can be invincible for a small amount of time. The powerups for the most part are pretty unoriginal but others aren’t are interesting in their techniques. You will find that you use these quite often but there is a power bar that is depleted after each attack so you have to use them wisely until you can replenish the bar.

 

Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. Vanessa’s model is well done and moves well, replicating the movement of a real person to a ‘T’. When you think that Capcom managed to pull off the animation without using motion capturing it truly speaks wonders for the talent within the company. The interior environments are your stock futuristic science facility ones, with white everywhere or dark service corridors. These are the highlights for the graphics. However, the game also has a downside in this department. The exterior environments look dreadful lacking any real detail or character. Luckily, there are few occasions when you will have to encounter the exterior environments. But then the interior ones don’t really do much either. They are stock environments and one really wishes they had been a little bit more depth or originality to them.

 

The music that accompanies the game is typical of the scientific shooter that this is: techno-beat. It’s not very memorable and you won’t find yourself really wanting to listen to it specifically unless you are a huge fan of that specific style of music.

 

The game only incorporates a single player mode, which is good but can become tedious with many of the environments being rehashed over and over again. There isn’t any other modes so unless, after finishing the game, you want to try again on a higher difficulty, you’ll probably resign it to the shelve to sit until you really want to go through again.

 

Capcom set out to give the Gamecube 5 exclusive titles. This was the only one that remained as such and you have to wonder why. The game isn’t bad, it’s just not great when you consider the deal also gave us Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 4. The game performed poorly at market, and while it’s not a great game it did deserve to do better as it was an original effort from Capcom that could have been implicated and done much better than it was. For these reasons, we are very unlikely to get a sequel which is ashame as it means a truly original title will be forever forgotten by the masses and only remembered by those fans that enjoyed and played through the thing. I recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge and to those you enjoy the old school/classic style of shooter. But to those that don’t, it is a hard game to recommend but it is definitely worth a go.

 

 

The last RetroSpective of this year will appear on Sunday evening and will be on the greatest futuristic racer on any console, F Zero GX. I'm tell you now so that if you want to discuss the title after the article you can. So crack out the game and get racing.

[darksnowman]

Billy Hatcher was a decent wee game alright. I dunno if it was a true hidden gem or not because it has its fair share of dodgy moments. Its still worth picking up if you like Sonic games (Billy Hatcher does have a Sonic vibe) and if you fancy trying out a platformer thats not Mario Sunshine.

 

The thing is, I bought Billy Hatcher at the same time as BG&E so the hatcher was always in the shadow somewhat. Its a good title, but like I said its dogged with dodgy stuff like an iffy camera.

[Ganepark32]

Definitely but with the engine being based originally on the Sonic Adventure 2 engine, there was always going to be dodgy camera controls. Shame really, as it does have a nice charm about it that makes it fun to play.

[Ten10]

I loved this game (Billy), the sucky part was moving with the character when they didn't have an egg. They felt like a fridge on wheels (Just like in the sonic games) But I remember getting the demo free with NOM, and my cousins and I played the multiplayer to death so much that when I did get the game for real we were fed up of it.

[Guest Captain Falcon]

I remember picking this up quite cheap about a month after if came out in one of GAME's "deals of the week".

 

I really enjoyed it too. It's funny really, when you don't have an egg, movement feels imprecise, you move slower and you can't jump very well - and yet you'd imagine the opposite would be true, that you get more nimble without the things. Still it has an undeniable charm even today, and it's a good job too because if there is one thing I will always remember it for, it will be for it's difficulty.

 

My dad saw me playing this and asked if I was too old to be playing the game - clearly a reflection of the overly cutesy presentation. I'd love to see a child get anywhere in that game because at times it's brutal - your platforming skills have to be razor sharp as it's so easy to die.

 

And one last thing, the final boss is a right pain in the backside!

[mr_bogus]

Nice retrospectives Ganepark! I have very fond memories of both these games, Billy Hatcher had some annoying glitches like falling through rails or the one you mentioned about the egg catching a ledge an Billy falling down. But it has huge amounts of cutesy charm, blue skies everywhere, and probably the best theme music since Mr. Do! Apparently the version showed at an earlier expo had actual egg physics while rolling, which then got changed to uniform rolling (ie. a sphere) for the final game. I wonder how it would've felt with the bumpy rolling...

 

P.N.03 = can't say enough good things about this game. It had me waking up at 6am to fit in an hour before going to work, which hadn't happened since Wip3out on the PS1, and hasn't happened again since. Trivia: built on an early Resi4 engine (although Resi4 went through 4 or 5 engine overhauls during development).

[CooInTheZoo]

Billy Hatcher has been MIA from my collection for ages now, finally found another copy in this dodgy electronics shop for £3 a couple of weeks ago. Such a cute game...