Gider ikke lige overstte det jeg skrev til at andet board, men det burde ikke være noget problem :)
I got my copy of Billy Hatcher in the mail last Saturday and must say I don't quite get why this game got the mediocre reviews it did.
Sure, the graphics could be better (it has a little slowdown here and there), and if you have a problem with cute games you might want to stay clear of it. The graphics are very clean and bright, with the style reminding me somewhat of NiGHTS.
The music is also very happy. It's not as good as Sonic Adventure 2 I'm afraid. The music in the levels is fairly nondescript, but fits the levels. The title theme and the muic in the menu can become somewhat grating if you become exposed to it over extended periods of time (my roommate is already humming it from time to time; it is pretty catchy nonetheless).
The gameplay is relatively simple. Without an egg or animal companion all Billy can do is run, jump and climb up ledges. give him an egg and he can either roll enemies over with it, throw the egg at them (it will come rolling back), make a dunk (throwing the egg in midair), a drop attack from the jump (this is used to press switches), or a super jump (release the button when doing a drop attack). Also, eggs are needed to use the various rings scattered around the level (reminding a lot of Donkey Kong Country's barrels).
Eggs are the primary weapon you use. By rolling them over fruit left from defeated enemies, destroyed boxes, or simply scattered around the level, they grow (certain kinds of fruit work better for some eggs than others). When the egg get's bigger, it will do more damage to enemies, and once it's fully grown, it can be hatched by a heartily cook-a-doodle-doo from Billy (R button). But be careful, the egg can be smashed by certain enemies and obstacles). Eggs contain either animal companions, extensions for the chicken suit, items, or unlockables.
Animal companions can be used to solve various puzzles, such as using a water animal to put out a fire, or a fire animal to thaw some ice. They can also be used to attack enemies. After a few uses the animal will disappear.
Items for the chicken suit enhance Billy's abilities in different ways. The circus hat for example allows Billy to jump on the egg and balance on top of it. this can be used to traverse water. Other items might enhance the attack power or even allow you to control an egg you throw remotely.
Expendable items are stored and can be activated for one time use.
The game has a few unlockables, most noteworthy a couple of GBA downloads. Most of these are an old hat if you've played the GCN version of PSO Ep1&2 (NiGHTS score attack, Puyo Pop, and ChuChu Rocket). The remaining two are something called Billy Hatcher Hyper Shoot Easy and Normal and aren't really fun (or at least the Easy version isn't I haven't unlocked the Normal one yet).
It seems the game can be completed relatively quickly; there are 6 normal worlds where you have to complete only the first two missions to progress to the next world (one where you have to hatch a Golden Egg and one boss stage). 3 more missions can be unlocked on each world by saving Billy's friends in other missions, for 48+ levels (haven't seen the final world, it lso might have 8 missions for a total of 56 missions). Also each level contains 5 golden coins to collect (afaik these will unlock special eggs in the levels containing characters from Sonic Team games, like Sonic, NiGHTS, and Amigo). Furthermore there is a catalogue of all the different eggs you managed to hatch so far (it lists 74 different ones total) and each completing a level earns you a rank from D-S, so completists should be very busy.
In addition to the story mode, the game has a split screen mulitplayer mode.
"Time" mode is a normal deathmatch mode where you try to take out your opponents. "Hatch" mode awards players for hatching eggs (points can be stolen by taking out other players), while "Survival" is a last man standing mode with each player having a changeble amount of respawns.
The game is not without flaws though. The twitchy camera we've become used to from Sonic Team's 3d offerings remains and sometimes backtracking to pick up a required egg that was broken by an enemy. Also there are some places where you have to roll your egg onto a rollercoaster like track where the collision is a bit dodgy, causing the egg to fall through the rail (usually you can avoid this by jumping onto the rail with your egg).
The game supports progressive scan and Dolby Prologic II (no widescreen unfortunately).
Definately worth a rental to see if you can stand the cuteness of the game, I doubt fans of Sonic Team games will be disappointed. I will need to play it all through for a complete review to see if there are any more problems with it, it doesn't quite have the instant gratification of Sonic, but it is definately a good game. |
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