For game club this month, Gibbon suggested this overlooked Sega title. Like other off-topic Sonic Team games like Ristar or Nights, the Sonic influence can be felt but it builds heavily around a central gameplay gimmick, to create an experience quite unlike anything else.
Think of it as 3D Sonic meets Katamari or Super Monkey Ball Adventure. It’s got platforming and combat in equal measure, but everything revolves around rolling a big egg. Having an egg unlocks an array of techniques for traversal and fighting: dashing, bouncing, rolling while gripped onto it, throwing for damage. Billy is helpless without one. Of course, different egg patterns can be hatched for different benefits: powerups, usable items, and best of all cute animal companions who are used to defeat enemies or get around certain obstacles. Just make sure there’s another egg nearby when you’re ready to hatch.
Just as the gameplay is built around the one egg concept, the theme of the game is built around chickens. Billy has a chicken outfit, all of the NPCs are chickens, and of course eggs are everywhere. It honestly is a bit monotonous, even though there’s some nice cartoonish variety in the different worlds (prehistoric volcano, pirate ship, ice castle, spooky funfair, etc). The story is that Billy and his friends (almost transparently expies for Sonic and his core group, or to put it another way, filling the same tired character trope roles of stock hero one, the small one, the big one, and the girl one) are transported to Morning Land, and have to stop the evil Crows who’ve possessed various creatures, saving the chickens so that morning will come again. It’s pretty basic, with only the chicken theme helping it stand out, and I got in trouble from my fellow clubbers for skipping too much NPC dialogue… I got a tad lost at times, but so much of the text is boring! Sorry!
I’m a little mixed on the game. As inventive as the “push an egg about” concept is, it’s easy to lose control while rolling, or drop the egg by accident. I also commonly found myself failing to meet the platforming demands, or getting ambushed by enemies thanks to the camera. You also return to the same environs multiple times for different tasks, Mario 64/Sunshine-style, and traversing the same areas wore thin.
As long as the game was doing something new with level design or current objective, or when you’re discovering new egg patterns, it felt fresh and exciting. The team clearly worked hard on the egg mechanics that are the heart of the game, and although it doesn’t work 100% of the time, it’s a fun idea. A bit rough at times but definitely worth checking out, like many of Yuji Naka’s side-projects.