Preview: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GCN)

Hey all! My first review for quite a while! Since this forum now has Previews, I thought, "Why not?" (RHYMES!!! WHEEEEE!!)

I bet those who bought the Gamecube demo disk, after playing endless hours of Soul Caliber 2, Viewtiful Joe, Sonic DX, and Splinter Cell, you noticed a small game not previously heard of. You thought to yourself a sure, and played.
When you finished, you thought this:
SONIC TEAM IS BACK!
What, that didn't happen? Well, I did, and Sonic Team has recreated the magic!

Story:
There hasn't been an official story, yet, but from what I made out, Billy Hatcher seems to be the only human on an island full of little chicks, and each "town" has a guardian, a giant rooster. One day a group of crows came down, casting an everlasting night on the island, imprisioning all animals, and the leaders, into gigantic eggs. Now it's up to Billy to save everyone.
Suddenly I think of this one quote:
"Billy, don't be a hero!!" [img]graemlins/lol.gif[/img]

Characters:
Very few characters have been introduced, but here's some from the demo.

Billy Hatcher: The main character. You control him. He can hatch eggs, wears a rooster costume, and is the island's only hope.

Animals in the Giant Eggs: So far, you've seen 2, the penguin and seal, and they help you beat up bad guys and do the dirty work while you sit there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Uri-Uri: The town mayor that you free in the demo.

Crows: These bad guys arn't really a nuisance, but they are easy and fun to kill.

Gameplay
In my opinion, this is the most important part of the game. In the game, the eggs are VITAL. You may think they limit you're moves and jump, but Billy has obviously been working out quite a bit. The egg gets bigger when you collect fruit bubbles, and you get them by beating enemies, or finding them out in the open. Once the egg is at it's fullest, you hold R to let Billy do a "cock-a-doodle-doo!" ( [img]graemlins/rotfl.gif[/img] ) on the egg, hopefully hatching it. The animals do make the game easier, but are fun to use nontheless. The game is divided into missions, as in Super Mario 64, and it is unknown how long this game will be.

Graphics
The graphics look like what you'd expect from Sonic Team; Cute, Vibrant, Clayey ( ),etc. There are very nice graphical touches, like flattening the townsfolk, to seeing the faces on the little bad guys . Nothing special, really.

Sound
I've got that music stuck in my head! @_@. It's very Sonicey music, happy and upbeat. The graphics are, in the end, cartoony, but it's very fun.

Keep an eye on it?
Yes, most definitley. If you want a good, fresh, platformer on your Gamecube, this would be a good buy, or at least a great rent.

Overall: 7/10

[ September 11, 2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Shadow jr. needs Mario Golf BAD ]

I'd get this game if I had a GCN.

Sonic's in the game too. He's in an egg with his mug on it.
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WHOA!

Apperently a site for this game is out, and it has a lot of info!

Some quick stuff:

1-4 players! ( [img]graemlins/bounce.gif[/img] )
The island is called Morning Island

To find the site, just go to www.sega.com
There are ads everywhere, can't miss it!