Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GameCube)

With games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Samba de Amigo, and Phantasy Star Online under its belt, Sonic Team has established that, if nothing else, it's capable of conceiving some colorful, visually striking characters. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Sonic Team's latest platformer, carries on this tradition with aplomb, creating an adorable protagonist and an equally warm-and-fuzzy world for him to run around in. Indeed, "cute" is the most appropriate way to describe Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, though "frustrating" may also come to mind as you make your way through the game.

The fittingly nonsensical story of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg follows Billy Hatcher, a young boy who has, almost at random, been given the power of the legendary rooster suit by one of the chicken elders. With this funny-looking costume at his command, Billy is charged with the task of ridding Morning Land of the evil crows, who have imprisoned the rest of the chicken elders. Without the chicken elders there to coax the sun out of its slumber with their crowing, all of Morning Land will remain in darkness forever. The story plays out with a certain level of sincerity, never really acknowledging the extreme silliness and absurdity of the whole situation. The closest the game comes to an ironic nudge-nudge is that you're rewarded with a "courage emblem" by a giant chicken upon completing a goal.

The world of Morning Land is divvied up into six different stages, each with its own unique theme, most of which are pretty predictable--there's a forest stage, a fire stage, an ice stage, and so on. There are initially five different goals within each stage, though that number increases as you progress through the game. The specifics differ slightly from stage to stage, but most of these goals remain largely the same throughout. Each stage kicks off with finding and freeing that stage's chicken elder. The second goal will likely have you scouring the area, looking for specific items to collect or destroy, and the third goal has you hunting down the stage boss.

The other goals, which are mostly extracurricular, will challenge you to defeat a certain number of enemies within an area, to collect coins in a set amount of time, or to make your way to a specific point within the level. Though each goal may seem different, in actuality you'll be doing the same types of things in the different stages. Even the boss fights tend to rely on the same basic mechanics, requiring you to run circles around an arena, dodging attacks until the boss reveals his weakness. As a small aside, Billy Hatcher also features a four-player battle mode where you face off against your friends in an arena, but there isn't a whole lot of depth to this feature, and despite being one of the three main menu options, it's not really that significant an addition.

If the gameplay mechanics were really polished and enjoyable, a certain amount of repetition would have been just fine--but the mechanics of Billy Hatcher are just a little too clunky. Billy is pretty much worthless on his own and is only able to run, jump, and climb up ledges. In order to launch any sort of attack, Billy needs eggs--giant ones, preferably. Luckily, the game is absolutely brimming with eggs. Simply walk up to an egg, and Billy will start pushing it around the level. You can use eggs to attack enemies, either by simply rolling over the enemies with the egg, using the B button to throw the egg at an enemy, or using the A button to perform a jumping attack. Once you've taken out an enemy, it will leave behind some fruit. Roll over the fruit with your egg, and your egg will increase in size, causing attacks to deal more damage but at the cost of moving more slowly.

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