Line #22 VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billy_hatcher.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''Good morning!'']]
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4	''Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg'' is a playful little title from Creator/SonicTeam and published by Creator/{{Sega}} in 2003 for the Platform/NintendoGameCube and PC (the latter [[NoExportForYou exclusive to Europe]]). It's about four kids that go to "Morning Land," a magical land that's inhabited by chickens in great danger. [[CreepyCrows Dark Raven and his murder of crows]] have invaded their paradise, sealed away the powerful Chicken Elders, and plunged Morning Land into a perpetual, gloomy night. As our heroes don the Legendary Chicken Suits, granting them the power to command eggs, it's up to them to kick Dark Raven out of Morning Land.
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6	The game's controls set it apart from many mascot platformers of its era: Billy and friends roll giant eggs to squash enemies flat and traverse hazards, so preserving momentum, judging when to hatch eggs versus when to keep full-powered ones, and balancing the size and weight of an egg are crucial. ''Billy Hatcher'' also aims for a younger demographic than Sega's usual fare, reflected in all aspects of the game's presentation. [[SurpriseDifficulty That doesn't mean the game's easy, mind you.]]
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8	It's no surprise that ''Billy Hatcher'' takes a lot of design cues from [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure the Sonic]] [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Adventure duology]], focusing on mission-based gameplay in small, linear levels with brisk combat segments that complement the platforming more than detract from it. You also earn points during levels which culminate in a letter grade at the end, there are multiple playable characters, and there's several easter eggs to other Sonic Team projects for good measure. The game got mixed reviews upon release and has yet to receive a follow-up, but Billy and friends have made the odd appearance in Sega's promotional art and crossover titles since then.
9	----
10	!!This game provides examples of:
11	* HundredPercentCompletion: Total completion requires all the emblems, but the last emblems are only obtained by completing all the levels, finding every type of egg, getting an S rank on all the missions, and finding ''every'' chick coin. Your reward for doing this is having the title of "EGG MASTER" as the name of your save file.
12	* AmusementPark: Circus Park, the fifth world of the game, is set in a circus-themed area filled with fun-filled attractions, including a HallOfMirrors.
13	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Extra eggs are often laying about, to help you out if you lose the one you were rolling around.
14	* BadassAdorable: I mean, what other character can make a chicken suit look so cool, at the same time, so adorable?
15	* BigBad: Dark Raven is the source of the story's central conflict, as he commanded the Crows to cause havoc in Morning Land and imprisoned the Elder Chickens.
16	* BroughtToYouByTheLetterS: Billy has a yellow letter "E" on his blue hoodie at the beginning of the game; what it's supposed to stand for is never explained.
17	* BullfightBoss: Moles. The primary method of rendering him vulnerable involves dodging his charges over the ice, sending him crashing to the walls of the arena. You can then roll your egg into him for damage.
18	* TheCameo: Other Sega characters hatch out of special Sonic Team eggs, and they also appear in the minigames.
19	* CatchAndReturn: The EleventhHourSuperpower lets you grab the final boss's dark energy balls and throw them back at him [[BossVulnerability to stun him and leave him vulnerable to being flattened with eggs]].
20	* CatsAreMean: The small and large cat crow enemies are antagonist to Billy and his friends.
21	* CatAndMouseBoss: Era Gecko's boss battle is this. Era Gecko starts off big and chases after you, but eventually he will walk to the center, shrink himself, and starting running around in the grass while you search for him in the grass. [[TacticalSuicideBoss It's not actually explained in any way why he shrinks.]]
22	* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: Billy Hatcher is the title character, followed by the noun phrase "the Giant Egg."
23	* ChevhovsGunman: Dark Corvo is first encountered at the very beginning of the game as a mysterious crow creature that summons enemies for Billy to fight.
24	* CircusOfFear: Circus Park is this before Billy rescues its Chicken Elder: the Crows turned the merry mountainside carnival into a dark, monster-infested nightmare ruled by the MonsterClown Saltim.
25	* CockADoodleDawn: The Elders summon the sun by crowing.
26	* ColorCodedElements
27	** [[PlayingWithFire Fire]]is [[FireIsRed red.]]
28	** [[MakingASplash Water]] is [[WaterIsBlue blue.]]
29	** [[BlowYouAway Wind]] is [[WindIsGreen green]].
30	** [[AnIcePerson Ice]] is purple.
31	** [[ExtraOredinary Steel]] is orange.
32	** [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]] is yellow.
33	** {{Light\|EmUp}} is white/light grey.
34	* CreepyCircusMusic: Circus Park's [[https://youtu.be/PbkbxqF8Vw4 night theme]] is a DarkReprise of its [[https://youtu.be/Tl5Ysf_1-Bo daytime theme]], using its instrumentation to sound sinister instead of upbeat.
35	* CreepyCrows: The main villains are crows.
36	* CueTheSun: Successfully hatching an Elder results in them crowing out, resulting in that area's sunrise.
37	* DarkIsEvil: Dark Raven and his crow cronies spread darkness across Morning Land, use dark magic, and are unambiguously evil.
38	* DemBones:
39	** The Bone Dino [[MiniBoss mini-bosses]] you fight keletal dinosaurs.
40	** Topo rides on the back of the skeletal, sentient remains of a ''Tyrannosaurus''.
41	* DePower: At the start of the second half of the final boss fight, Dark Raven will slam into you and [[ThievingMagpie swipe]] your [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Legendary Chicken Suit]], leaving you unable to do anything but frantically run around dodging Dark Raven's attacks until Menie-Funie comes to your rescue by granting you the EleventhHourSuperpower.[[note]]No, you can't avoid Dark Raven's opening attack. Well, technically you can, but the battle won't go anywhere until you let him hit you.[[/note]] Notably, Dark Raven continues using this lunging attack throughout the battle, but he can't swipe the Courage Suit from you, so the attack just damages you from that point on.
42	* DevelopersForesight: Don't worry about any UnintentionallyUnwinnable sections if your egg breaks while platforming. There's always a new egg nearby so you can get back to bouncing.
43	* TheDragon: Dark Corvo is Dark Raven's powerful right-hand bird, using his sorcery to spread chaos in Morning Land.
44	* DungeonBypass: Possible in one mission in Blizzard Castle. There's a huge, nasty slide, full of spikes, jumps, narrow whip turns, and one "threading the needle" segment where you are pretty much guaranteed to lose your egg (and thus a life) the first time through. Looks vicious... Unless you snoop around the nearby area, and find an egg containing a JetPack that lets you hover indefinitely. Hatch the egg, accquire the item, and you can lazily float past the entire slide, and on to the next area of the level.
45	* EggMcGuffin: The Golden Eggs. Billy needs to hatch them to bring peace to Morning Land, but he has to steer them through treacherous territory to do so.
46	* EleventhHourSuperpower: The "light ball" ability you gain in the final boss fight. Billy even gains a Super Sonic-esque aura around his suit.
47	* EnergyBeing: Dark Raven's [[OneWingedAngel final form]] is [[LivingShadow a crow-shaped mass of darkness]].
48	* EscortMission: Once per world (except for the last) you must hatch a golden egg, but it must be protected and be carted through most of the level you do it in.
49	* EvilIsNotWellLit: Dark Raven's arena is so dark that it goes pitch-black on occasion.
50	* EvilSorcerer: Dark Corvo and Dark Raven are the story's villains and use magic to terrorize the Chickens.
51	* ExpositionFairy: Menie-Funie speaks to the current character at the beginning of most levels, to give you hints about the actual mission.
52	* {{Expy}}: The main characters look suspiciously like human versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy.
53	* FatBastard: Captain Glur is one of Dark Raven's minions and is rather portly for an anglerfish.
54	* FinalExamBoss: [[TheDragon Dark Corvo]] conjures "shadows" of the previous bosses and uses their attack patterns.
55	* FlunkyBoss: All but one of Dark Corvo's abilities is to summon a shadow clone and sit back and wait for the shadow clone to finish attacking; the only attack he has is when he summons clones of himself and attacks with them.
56	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the first level, when Billy obtains the Chicken Suit, three other lights erupt and separate in three directions, implied to be the reason why Billy's friends also have suits.
57	* FunnyAnimal: The Chickens aren't your average livestock, as they wear clothes, dance around, and have jobs.
58	* GangplankGalleon: Pirates Island, the second world, combines this with PalmtreePanic, a beach-like area with pirate-themed elements.
59	* GentleGiant: Bantam is the strongest of Billy's gang, but he's no less gentle with the eggs and is just as willing to help the Chickens.
60	* GogglesDoNothing: Chick only wears his goggles because they look pretty on him.
61	* GratuitousEnglish: "GOOD MORNING!"
62	** "LET'S GO!!"
63	* GreenHillZone: Forest Village, the first overall world of the game, is a village set in a grassland. Unsurprising, as this ''is'' a Sonic Team game, after all.
64	* GuideDangIt: Some of the Chick Coins and rarer eggs are so elusive that you won't find them without a guide or combing through every inch of level geometry.
65	* HallOfMirrors: The circus tent on the second level has a lot of mirrors, and most of Saltim's abilties involves mirrors.
66	* HeroicMime: Billy and his friends never talk in the whole game, although they make a lot of various sounds besides talking.
67	* HorseOfADifferentColor: The "mount" creatures. At least one of them -- a shark -- lets you avert your SuperDrowningSkills.
68	* IconicItem: All of the {{Mons}} wear a red bandanna somewhere. Some of them have it as a bow -- and in one case, a saddle.
69	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Billy and his friends use ''eggs as lethal weapons'' against enemies.
70	* {{Irony}}: Billy is told to show courage. But he's wearing a chicken suit. And chickens are known to be cowardly. But it may have been intentional.
71	* IronicName: A bantam is a small chicken. Bantam is the biggest of the four kids.
72	* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: The chicken elders keep saying this to Billy 'n friends each time they give you an emblem. You actually never realize what are they used for [[spoiler:until the very end]].
73	* {{Keet}}: Billy's a kind kid who's just as loud and rowdy as his animal inspiration.
74	* KidHero: Billy and his friends look no older than ten.
75	* {{Kiai}}: Whoever you play as, they shout high-pitched gibberish when they jump, pound the ground, or hatch eggs.
76	* LethalLavaLand: Dino Mountain, the third world of the game, is set in a volcanic region with {{Prehistoria}} elements.
77	* LizardFolk: Era Gecko takes the form of a humanoid lizard.
78	* LockedDoor: It's most likely that you will find these in every single mission. They're either opened by pressing a switch button (most likely to be hidden), or defeating all crows on screen.
79	* MiniBoss: The Snake Crow, and the Bone Dinosaurs that you fight before Topo.
80	* MixAndMatchCritters: Most of the hatchable animals.
81	* MiniGame: Five different unlockable mini-games, several of which are also {{Shout Out}}s -- there are games based on ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'', ''VideoGame/NiGHTSIntoDreams'', and ''VideoGame/ChuChuRocket''.
82	* MirrorMonster: Saltim is one; he hides in the mirror and even tries to suck you in.
83	* MirrorWorld: Saltim runs around in his mirror world and jumps in and out while he fights you.
84	* {{Mons}}: The hatchable monsters could count as this, since you need to hatch all of the eggs for OneHundredPercentCompletion.
85	* MonsterClown: Saltim is a much lighter example, but still counts; the chick you meet before entering the circus tent tells you he's scared from hearing Saltim's laughter from inside, Saltim is trying to kill you as well, and when you accidentially walk into one of the wrong mirrors inside the circus tent, you can hear him laughing at you.
86	* MoodWhiplash: While most of the game is fairly lighthearted throughout, the final boss is when the horror really kicks in.
87	* MusicalNod: The Circus Park night music, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYKMvoLgsKo Odd March]]," is a song from ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix''. Mariko Nanba composed music for both games.
88	* {{Necromancer}}: Topo is this; he summons undead dinosaurs to aid him.
89	* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Unlike the other bosses, it's not clear whether Dark Corvo dies; the other bosses turn into a mass of crows or fade away, but a portal of darkness appears below Dark Corvo and he falls into it without him seen fading away.]]
90	* OminousFloatingCastle: [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Giant Palace]] floats above Morning Land and is the final level of the game.
91	* OneWingedAngel: After you beat his first form as a FunnyAnimal crow wizard, Dark Raven [[spoiler:hatches the Giant Egg, merges with it, and]] transforms into an enormous crow-shaped living shadow.
92	* PatchworkMap: Morning Land's nonsensical geography; why yes, that ''is'' a snowy tundra right beside the desert and volcano.
93	* PatternCodedEggs: The player can obtain eggs colored like the various animals they hatch into.
94	* PerpetualMolt: The Elder Chickens shed a wing's worth of feathers when they appear.
95	* PlatformHell: Especially when you play the first mission of Circus Park. Either your golden egg gets broken after reaching the zone with a ridiculous amount of big cat crows; or you end up losing your egg by using the red rails.
96	* PlayerGuidedMissile: Collect the yellow "Psychic Hat" in certain levels and you can steer the egg in any direction after shooting it.
97	* PowerUpMount: Three of the Egg Animals are these: Rikol, the kangaroo-lion who can jump quite high and spit fireballs; Datch, the sheep-ostrich who can glide and has a green-charged attack... [[BuffySpeak thing]]; and Kaboot, the shark who averts your SuperDrowningSkills and has a body-slam attack. They can also sustain several hits of damage, instead of just one.
98	* {{Prehistoria}}: Dino Mountain is a mountain full of dino bones, some of which spring to life.
99	* {{Projeggtile}}: One of the many things you do with eggs in this game is throwing them at enemies, since they're your primary way of attacking.
100	* ProphetEyes: The Crows' eyes are completely white, which reflects their supernatural powers.
101	* PunnyName: All of the kids have names based on eggs.
102	** Billy Hatcher: Chickens have bills, Billy hatches eggs.
103	** Rolly Roll: [[EdibleThemeNaming Egg rolls.]]
104	** Chick Poacher: Chicks are small chickens, poached eggs.
105	** Bantam Scrambled: Bantam chickens, scrambled eggs.
106	* RainbowSpeak:
107	--> "My name's '''[[color:orange:Menie Funie]]''', I'm the god who watches over '''[[color:orange:Morning Land]]'''."
108	* QuicksandSucks: Sandy Ruin's quicksand drags down whoever falls in it immediately.
109	* ShiftingSandLand: Sand Ruin, the sixth world of the game, is set in a desert with Inca-like pyramids instead.
110	* ShoutOut: [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, a Chao]], a [[VideoGame/PhantasyStar Rappy]], [[VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams NiGHTS]], a [[VideoGame/ChuChuRocket Kapu Kapu]], & [[VideoGame/SambaDeAmigo Amigo]] make appearances as tamable monsters.
111	* SillySimian: Saltim, who is a funny clown monkey boss, who is a [[BreatherBoss relief]] from the difficulty of the game, and is considered to be a fun boss.
112	* SlasherSmile: The crows seem to have this, as most enemies have a massive teethshowing smile almost all the time. It's most noticeable on the bosses, if only for the harder ones, as they will kill you while smiling constantly.
113	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Blizzard Castle, the fourth world of the game, is set in a mountainous region where it snows all year around.
114	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Out of the four kids, Rolly is the only girl, and out of the seven Elders, Ponee is the only hen.
115	* SnapBack: By the end of the game, the kids are supposed to go back to the human world; however, during the post-story missions, Billy and his friends are back in Morning Land wearing their respective suits and it's like nothing happened.
116	* SoundOfNoDamage: Hitting Era Gecko while enlarged does no damage, and has a small flash as if it was shielded.
117	* SpellingSong: The song G.I.A.N.T.E.G.G. in which that's all they do. Humorously enough, due to the lack of enunciation between the "I" and "A", they sound like they're spelling it wrong -- "G-I-N-T-E-G-G" -- which is kind of a liability for a Spelling Song.
118	* SphereFactor: The gameplay consists mainly of rolling eggs around. However, Billy is on the ground and is pushing the egg around. He derives strength to battle from them, running noticeably faster when he's pushing an egg along and uses eggs as weapons.
119	* SummonMagic: Dark Corvo's magic seems to all be associated with summoning enemies.
120	* SuperDrowningSkills: Billy and his friends can't swim; if you land in any pool of water, they go ''splat'' with a faceplant and you lose one life. You ''can'', however, cross bodies of water with the purple Joker Hat (which allows you to ride your egg across water), and with the Kaboot the shark.
121	* TacticalSuicideBoss: With most of the bosses, all you have to do is dodge everything until they mess up and become vulnerable to a strike. Sometimes the bosses do the dumbest things to allow them to be harmed and still repeat their actions ''over and over again'', which makes them seem stupid even though [[ThatOneBoss they may be owning you anyway.]]
122	* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Ponee, the female Elder, appears to be wearing lipstick.
123	* ThemeNaming: The Chicken Elders' names are derived from the Hawaiian word for the color they are wearing. Oma-Oma wears green (''oma'oma'o''), Ponee wears purple (''poni''), etc.
124	* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Billy at the final battle. Despite having unlocked the other 3 characters by then, no one even lifts a finger to help him.
125	* ThreateningShark: Inverted. You can ride the shark in question (Kaboot) around Pirate Island, letting you avoid the issue of your SuperDrowningSkills.
126	* UndergroundMonkey: All of the small enemies come in different forms but have the same basic attacks, either inflicting collision damage, or bouncing around.
127	* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Giant Palace is the last level of the game, a giant castle floating far above Morning Land.
128	* VictoryPose: Whenever one of the characters grab an emblem, they strike a victory pose, with Billy and Rolly's looking more like a HappyDance.
129	* WaddlingHead: Most of the crow monsters are supposed to resemble other animals, but look little more than bulbous heads scooting across the ground.
130	* WarmUpBoss: Era Gecko is pathetically easy to defeat, although everything is pathetically easy at the start, but it ''will'' get harder.
131	* WeaponsThatSuck: Saltim's mirrors are these; they can be used to suck in Billy and trap him, after which Saltim will then deliver a big punch to the mirror, damaging Billy and sending him out of the mirror.
132	* WhaleEgg: Half of the animals you hatch (like monkeys, seal lions, cats, hedgehogs...) don't come from eggs. It's even {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by one of the chicks wondering who or what laid them in the first place.
133	* WhatBeautifulEyes: Mostly in the opening cutscene, you'll notice Billy's huge eyes are abnormally well detailed.
134	* WordSaladTitle: Not the game itself, but the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIVJhNm2T3g boss theme,]] named in the OST as "Bang! Bang! Big Hornes Explosion!"

Context VideoGame / BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg