Introduction
Today we are going to hatch some eggs, why eggs you ask? That is the whole meaning of the game that we are going to review, Billy the Hatcher. A secret land has been invaded by crows that want to take over a giant egg, and you are the only hope to stop the crows and restore day to this secret land. However, to do that, you also need to wear a chicken suit and hatch eggs. This sounds like a very weird premise for a Gamecube game, however, color me intrigued to hatch a review.
What did I think before playing Billy the Hatcher?
We had another Sega game review this week, Shadow the Hedgehog. Since we are in the Gamecube era, I wanted to see other games that Sega cooked up. I came across a game that I did own as a kid but never finished. All I knew was that I needed to hatch eggs and stop an evil crow dude that loves the night, for some more information we are going to the fandom page!
The Fandom page
https://billyhatcher.fandom.com/wiki/Billy_Hatcher
As this game is old coming from 2003. There is no real page anymore. Thus, we can get some information from the fandom page. On this page we learned that this is also a platformer, I bet jumping with eggs will not even break them. There also seems to be some combat. Better take care of the enemies quickly, or they might destroy your egg.
Rating
I rate Billy Hatcher with a 6.7 before playing.
A guy in a chicken suit hatching eggs? That sounds odd, I wonder who at Sega thought up this idea.
Story
The story takes place in a secret land called morning land. However, night has fallen in Morning Lands the crows have sealed the morning and the elders have gone missing. Billy gets chosen to wear the chicken suit and find the elders, along the way he needs to return morning to Morning Land.
Rating
I rate the story of Billy Hatcher with a 6.1.
The story has a quite weak plot, and it is just to drive the character to go to certain places.
Gameplay
When you start the first level, you will not yet have the ability to use eggs. First, you need to equip a legendary chicken suit. After obtaining the suit, you will be able to roll eggs, bounce them, use them in cannons and a lot more options will open up for you. You can also feed eggs and then hatch them for friends with powers or even usable items.
There are multiple worlds, however not all missions are available from the start as you need to complete certain missions to unlock those. These missions usually start with saving the elder of a land, and then defeating the boss to return morning back. However, to get the morning to return for permanent, you will need to find the legendary giant egg.
In each mission, you will be able to find coins for extras. These extras usually come in the form of eggs, Sega eggs to be accurate. These will contain characters from other games, like Sonic.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Billy the Hatcher with a 7.0
While the gameplay is not perfect, the physics and camera are quite annoying, but it is still fun if you have the patience.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of Billy the Hatcher are old, but they are still mediocre. While not good, it is also not bad. There are quite some eggs to find, but I did not make it a deal to find them all in this game. The boss fights are usually quite easy to complete.
Sound
The soundtracks have a jolly tune to it, however it is also quite loud. The sound effects are weird, who knew I could sound like a chicken to hatch eggs?
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Billy the Hatcher with a 6.2
While mediocre, it was still fun to look at all those eggs pop and release minions!
What did I think after playing Billy the Hatcher?
It was hard to get a high ranking in many of the levels. However, I did manage to get some S rankings, with some of the puzzles it took quite long to complete some puzzles. Finding the chickens for an emblem was one of the hardest missions. It was a lot more fun to kill a lot of crows!
If you like platforming games, and hatching eggs. This might be a game for you. There is also a battle mode where you can play with friends. I did like that the story mode has a lot of different worlds.
Rating
I rate Billy the Hatcher with a 6.3 after playing.
While this is a fun game, it was not per se something that I liked. The mechanics are implemented to use the camera, but that camera does not work well.
What are my personal thoughts about Billy the Hatcher?
While I did have some fun when playing this game, the annoying puzzles along with the weird camera and physics makes this an odd game to play. I was honestly glad that I finished this game and could continue on.
Rating
My personal Rating of Billy the Hatcher is a 4.6
If you enjoy odd games, you might enjoy this game more.
Last Words
Pros
- Billy the Hatcher has you wear a chicken suit and hatch eggs.
- Complete missions to earn ranks
- Each mission has different puzzles and alternate routes in each area.
- Fight bosses with your eggs
- There is a battle mode to play with friends
Cons
- Annoying camera physics will bother you.
- Some of the puzzles are long and annoying.
- To get high ranks you need to do a level perfect
If you like Gamecube games, this might be a fun game, however beware of the annoying camera!
Final Rating
6.5
Let me know what you think of Billy the Hatcher in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
Jaromir Krzyszczak
not my kind of game, but thanks!
Silentrets
It looks fun.
Glyxo
I thins it is tooo old, but as good still
PoeticKatana
Another old game I've never heard of!
Weird how much games used to struggle with cameras back then. Nowadays we take good third-person camera angles and physics for granted.
supersven
All the games struggled back then with the camera!
Halil KAPLAN
Thanks for the review 😉
Riddler
Why does he need so many eggs?
supersven
To save the giant egg off course!
Alamar
Not for me (even if i had gamecube) but i will check now video
Nicole
Never heard of this one before but it looks fun, I'm sure I would have loved it when I was younger!
DonCarlos
Don't count your eggs before they hatch 🙂
supersven
There are too many eggs!
Alex M
Cool
jon doe
give's me craving for scrambled eggs, or an omelette maybe
supersven
Break a egg!
Javier del RÃos
Looks like a Mario 64 re-skin,
Wonder
I'm not sure if I'm recalling correctly, but wasn't this game first released on the Dreamcast? I know that system had a number of weird and boundary pushing games, like Seaman and Shenmue. Anyways, thanks for the review! I like weird and obscure titles, so I think this would be the kind of game for me. I wish Sega was more creative like this nowadays instead of mostly sticking to Sonic, though Sonic Frontiers does look promising.
supersven
I do not know when the game released originally, I am also looking forward to Sonic Frontiers!
metalhead8489
looks interesting