Lately a lot of developers use the Gamecube as a chance to try out new and experimental ideas. Just think of Super Monkey Ball, Viewtiful Joe or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and you'll know what I mean. I really like this trend, it makes this an interesting time for gamers that like to be surprised by innovating games. A very innovative games that has surprised me lately is Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. The title alone already screams weirdness and originality, but luckily there's more to this game than it's strange title.

This game is being developed by Sega's Sonic Team, famous for the Phantasy Star series and of course a lot of Sonic games. Sonic's adventures never had a really strong and deep story behind them, but Billy beats them all in terms of a cheesy story. An evil king has captured all the nice animals in a magic land, with the intent of ruling it. The only problem is that Billy lives in that land too, and he will not let this evil person get away with his evil doings. Billy is equipped with special chicken suit that allows him to control eggs. With these eggs he plans to free the sages and rid the world of evil. I'd try different weapons before resorting to eggs, but then again, I don't wear chicken suits.

The gameplay of Billy Hatcher mainly includes rolling around and hatching eggs. Billy can roll eggs at quite impressive speed and can smash enemies by rolling his egg over them. Press A and Billy jumps (with his egg). B makes him kick the egg, crushing everyone unlucky enough to stand in it's way. L centers the camera behind Billy and with R Billy can hatch eggs. Eggs can hatch only after they've absorbed enough fresh fruit, which is found on the ground of the levels and is dropped by enemies. If you hatch an egg, a fresh baby creature jumps out and can perform special moves for Billy if you press X.Controlling Billy feels surprisingly good, after a few minutes you'll be rolling around eggs like you've never done anything else in your life.

The levels you push your eggs around in are designed nicely. There are the standard 3d platform bits, but there are also a few Sonic inspired bits. When you walk off a slope your egg will start rolling, taking you with it, creating high speed Sonic-like gameplay. What also reminds me of Sonic is the rollercoaster gameplay in some places. In Sonic games you always had a few places were jump pads were aligned so you would be thrown around without having to aim or do anything. Billy Hatcher has big rings that do more or less the same when you jump in them with your egg. Parts like this are fun to watch but they get a bit boring if there are to much of them. Another thing that I always loved in Sonic games that makes a return in Billy Hatcher is fun boss fights. Expect big and inventive bosses in this game.

Billy Hatcher is a good looking game. The level on the US demodisc and the levels playable at the E3 Games Preview had a dark feel to them and looked very cool. I'm not sure if Billy Hatcher uses the engine from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. If it does, Sonic Team has put work in updating the engine, everything looks a lot sharper than in Sonic's previous Cube games. The characters look nice too, watching Billy roll an egg around that's twice his size puts a smile on your face every time. In the levels I previewed I didn't really see the “massive environments” Nintendo promises on their E3 website, but I'm sure they'll be in a later version, since the game is only about one third complete right now.

From what I've seen of it, Billy Hatcher could become a very fresh and interesting game. It reminds me a lot of Sonic games and Super Monkey Ball, which is a good thing. Let's hope Billy Hatcher will get the attention it deserves, so developers will see that it's not a bad idea to be experimental and innovative.