*BILLY HATCHER & GIANT EGG* INFO y VIDEOS de la Demo

May 20, 2003 - Respected game designer Yuji Naka has always treated fans well. His Sonic, Nights, and Phantasy Star games are some of the most treasured Sega classics on the planet. Now he's busy at the helm of a new pet project, and this GameCube-exclusive title is a bit more wacky than even Sonic and gang: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. That's right, your name is Billy, and you've got a giant egg. Hey, it's Mr. Naka's first platformer since his Sega Saturn days, so give it a chance. We've played with Billy's egg this past week at the big E3 show in Los Angeles, and we must say, Naka hasn't lost his ability to hook us with his simplistic, clean, and colorful platforming charm.
Billy is a clucky little fellow tasked with bringing light back to his now darkened home world. To do so, he must free a bunch of elders that are coup up inside golden chicken eggs -- or so the E3 demo would lead us to believe. Perhaps that's the story behind the entire game -- we'll have to wait and see as Billy nears his late fall release. But the single-level E3 demo tasked us with rolling around a handful of splotchy eggs, smashing enemies and collecting fruit until they are ready to hatch, and then cracking the suckers open to bring a small, friendly animal into this world. Only we're not talking about your every-day chicks -- Billy can hatch penguins, seals, and other creatures one normally wouldn't expect hiding under the shell. Billy can command these creatures at will, so it pays off to stuff those eggs and get them hatching, as his name suggests.

Using the GCN controller to run Billy around is as intuitive as one would expect from having played other quality Sega products. The A button jumps, and rolling an egg around is as simple as just running smack into it. The egg physics (never thought we'd use the words "egg" and "physics" in a preview) feel very natural and, umm, wobbly as if we were really rolling around giant eggs of our own. The L button centers the camera behind Billy's booty, and R is used to unleash a cocka-doodle-do hatching power when the eggs are fully ripe. Once the little critters hatch from their shells, Billy can put their powers to use by hitting the X button. For example, the blue little penguin buddy will go flying through the air straight ahead at nearby baddies, while the seal will slide along the ground with a powerful iceberg attack. It's tough to get an idea of how exactly these play mechanics will take shape later in the game, but at this early point, nothing compared to the crushing power of simply rolling around your fat egg.

In typical Sonic fashion, the game also has a good sense of speed, as poor Billy will occasionally latch onto the egg as it rolls down a hill and go tumbling round and round as it steams ahead. Even in this state, hitting the A button will cause the egg to hop over gaps and pits to avoid being gobbled by lurking sharks below. Other areas feature large rings that shoot Billy and his egg through the air toward other rings in a triggered series of blasts that eventually land the pair on a far-off pedestal. There's no mistaking that this is a Naka game, in both gameplay design and visual style



Graphically, Billy Hatcher looks even more clean and vibrant than the latest Sonic title running on GameCube, and the lack of a sun in Billy's world lends this style a much darker and moodier atmosphere. The audio is crisp as well, with all of the standard chimes, chatter, and clucks that everyone expects in their giant egg games. At E3, the title was only 30% complete, so we're expecting even better things the next time we get our egg-loving hands on Billy.

In honor of Billy's unhealthy dairy infatuation, we've captured, compressed, and uploaded the entire five-plus minutes of gameplay footage from the E3 demo (the very same version that's playable on Nintendo's new Preview Disc) for you to download and check out. There's also high-res versions for subscribers over on our Insider channel, so don't forget about those -- if you thought Billy's eggs were big, wait until you get a load of them in 640x480! We'll be back with more on Mr. Hatcher in the near future as we get our hands on a more complete version of the game.

** vídeos **
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0000.mov
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0001.mov
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0002.mov
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0003.mov
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0004.mov
http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/demodisc_billy_052003_gcn_1-0005.mov


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