I really don't know why I decided to go out of my way to download an RVZ file for Dolphin to replay Billy Hatcher a few weeks ago. I think it was a combination of A) testing out a widescreen gecko code to see how it'd work (pretty dang well btw), and B) knowing that it was a platformer that I not only grew up with, but knew was pretty short (yet it took me this long to finally finish it... oops).
That aside though, it was kind of surreal to actually beat this for the first time. I always got close as a kid, but pretty much always stopped right around the third quarter, which is the Circus world. The reason, as anyone who's remotely familiar with this game knows, is evident even far back in the beginning: the wonky and inconsistent physics. Now, I wouldn't say it's like Shadow The Hedgehog level of subpar game feel, but it isn't exactly like Sonic Adventure 2 or even Sonic Heroes where you can be able to get used to it and figure out the more optimized ways to mitigate any potential issues. Instead of using standard platforming movekits, the titular Billy Hatcher controls eggs that can increase in size depending on how much fruit you roll up, as well as be the main thing in order to do the actual platforming bits with and it could've used some more fine-tuning. Sometimes you have the right gauge of momentum in order to bounce along and cross gaps, other times you'll feel like you're rolling around in a spot juuuuuuuuuuust to make absolutely sure you're gonna make that jump that looks a bit too out of the way. Most of the time doing anything with the rails is a crapshoot since eggs either stop right when they're about to go off on it, or just, fall and plummet to their demise, or even rarely exit and roll away from it entirely, until you realize you can just bypass (most) of the trouble by just jumping and then pressing the R button to do a forward push and land on it, thereby letting you and the egg roll along (this move can also be done to bypass the other infamous part of platforming where the ledge is just the right height to either make it entirely, or the egg making it and you falling off btw). The 'downhill' sections either has a consistent speed and control pushback, or ping-pongs between rigidness and looseness. Add on top of a rather janky and accidental-prone camera, and nothing really feels just right in Billy's game, and it gets worse with how little variety there is in the levels.
Levels are broken down by missions. First, you rescue an Elder Chicken from a golden egg. Then, you fight that world's boss. Next, you tackle miscellaneous tasks such as defeating an amount of enemy at a time, collect blue coins in a time limit, finding and rescuing chickens, one or two unique objectives that fit within that world's particular aesthetic and theming, or three different instances of rescuing Billy's friends from getting blown up by a bomb that then become playable for a total of there extra missions of said categories. It starts out decent enough, but by midpoint I felt exhausted having to do the same tasks with the design of each individual world having little to no alterations done to spruce the missions up. It also emphasizes combat way too much than I felt should've been possible - especially since it's so pitifully easy since you just roll up an egg to either near or full capacity, then squash them for big damage, or get an animal buddy and have them basically oneshot anything - but at the very least you can pretty much skip enemy encounters for a good chunk. Even outside of that, the actual platforming is too basic throughout, never really asking much and rarely utilizing the unique property of rolling an object.
Granted, some of the repeated missions can be short or fun enough to at least circumvent the repetitious nature, and like I said, there's some unique ones that do at least spruce it up, like having to roll up a ball of snow in order to make a snowman's head, traveling around and going up to where a windmill is and activating it by bouncing/slamming onto the sills, or lighting up fireworks for someone. And while again, I wish the platforming wasn't incredibly basic, the few times it at least changes it up - especially near the end where you actually do stuff with the egg differently - makes it a little more exciting.
Biggest thing that pushes the game into being just fine is that, again, it's pretty short and generally easy enough to at least sit through the more tedious sections with relative ease. I do think stopping the player and having them collect 25 emblems in order to get to the final world, which basically means fully completing two or three of the previous ones, is rather overkill, but again it's short and easy enough to at least make it a slightly bitter pill to swallow. It also has the right amount of graphical and musical charm to be rather comfy throughout, along with the fact that it isn't really narrative-heavy, which while I am definitely a fan of both approaches, is good for me cause after having to go through two different platforming franchises that lean towards that, having something super simple and put it at the backseat was pretty appreciative.
Overall, Billy Hatcher is one weird fucking game, and I guess that's why it has some level of memorabilia available in the general sphere of not only platformers, but the Sixth Gen as a whole. Not really polished or known enough to have widespread appeal, but also not engaging or bursting ideas to establish a cult following (or at least, a larger one than you'd expect). It just kinda... is.
That aside though, it was kind of surreal to actually beat this for the first time. I always got close as a kid, but pretty much always stopped right around the third quarter, which is the Circus world. The reason, as anyone who's remotely familiar with this game knows, is evident even far back in the beginning: the wonky and inconsistent physics. Now, I wouldn't say it's like Shadow The Hedgehog level of subpar game feel, but it isn't exactly like Sonic Adventure 2 or even Sonic Heroes where you can be able to get used to it and figure out the more optimized ways to mitigate any potential issues. Instead of using standard platforming movekits, the titular Billy Hatcher controls eggs that can increase in size depending on how much fruit you roll up, as well as be the main thing in order to do the actual platforming bits with and it could've used some more fine-tuning. Sometimes you have the right gauge of momentum in order to bounce along and cross gaps, other times you'll feel like you're rolling around in a spot juuuuuuuuuuust to make absolutely sure you're gonna make that jump that looks a bit too out of the way. Most of the time doing anything with the rails is a crapshoot since eggs either stop right when they're about to go off on it, or just, fall and plummet to their demise, or even rarely exit and roll away from it entirely, until you realize you can just bypass (most) of the trouble by just jumping and then pressing the R button to do a forward push and land on it, thereby letting you and the egg roll along (this move can also be done to bypass the other infamous part of platforming where the ledge is just the right height to either make it entirely, or the egg making it and you falling off btw). The 'downhill' sections either has a consistent speed and control pushback, or ping-pongs between rigidness and looseness. Add on top of a rather janky and accidental-prone camera, and nothing really feels just right in Billy's game, and it gets worse with how little variety there is in the levels.
Levels are broken down by missions. First, you rescue an Elder Chicken from a golden egg. Then, you fight that world's boss. Next, you tackle miscellaneous tasks such as defeating an amount of enemy at a time, collect blue coins in a time limit, finding and rescuing chickens, one or two unique objectives that fit within that world's particular aesthetic and theming, or three different instances of rescuing Billy's friends from getting blown up by a bomb that then become playable for a total of there extra missions of said categories. It starts out decent enough, but by midpoint I felt exhausted having to do the same tasks with the design of each individual world having little to no alterations done to spruce the missions up. It also emphasizes combat way too much than I felt should've been possible - especially since it's so pitifully easy since you just roll up an egg to either near or full capacity, then squash them for big damage, or get an animal buddy and have them basically oneshot anything - but at the very least you can pretty much skip enemy encounters for a good chunk. Even outside of that, the actual platforming is too basic throughout, never really asking much and rarely utilizing the unique property of rolling an object.
Granted, some of the repeated missions can be short or fun enough to at least circumvent the repetitious nature, and like I said, there's some unique ones that do at least spruce it up, like having to roll up a ball of snow in order to make a snowman's head, traveling around and going up to where a windmill is and activating it by bouncing/slamming onto the sills, or lighting up fireworks for someone. And while again, I wish the platforming wasn't incredibly basic, the few times it at least changes it up - especially near the end where you actually do stuff with the egg differently - makes it a little more exciting.
Biggest thing that pushes the game into being just fine is that, again, it's pretty short and generally easy enough to at least sit through the more tedious sections with relative ease. I do think stopping the player and having them collect 25 emblems in order to get to the final world, which basically means fully completing two or three of the previous ones, is rather overkill, but again it's short and easy enough to at least make it a slightly bitter pill to swallow. It also has the right amount of graphical and musical charm to be rather comfy throughout, along with the fact that it isn't really narrative-heavy, which while I am definitely a fan of both approaches, is good for me cause after having to go through two different platforming franchises that lean towards that, having something super simple and put it at the backseat was pretty appreciative.
Overall, Billy Hatcher is one weird fucking game, and I guess that's why it has some level of memorabilia available in the general sphere of not only platformers, but the Sixth Gen as a whole. Not really polished or known enough to have widespread appeal, but also not engaging or bursting ideas to establish a cult following (or at least, a larger one than you'd expect). It just kinda... is.