This is maybe the biggest “this would be great if it was good!” game I’ve ever played. I absolutely loved Billy Hatcher but it is just a kind of middling platformer that makes the wild choice of pushing its worst levels at you first, therefore only reaching its height of “kinda fun!” halfway through, before ending with a stupidly bad final boss.

I think I’m just one of the few people who really would get as much joy from this game as I did, as frustrating as that is for me to say. Its graphics and character design and GBA link cable support add up to something that is so incredibly up my alley I became kind of obsessed! But if you just aren’t that interested in seeing kinda cute GameCube graphics animals pop out of colorful eggs then there is absolutely nothing else in the game to hook you. And its biggest flaws wouldn’t even be that hard to fix, either! I think polishing up the final boss and removing the lives system would instantly make the game leaps and bounds better.

I think if you do have some sort of interest in playing this game, whatever the reason is, it is worth trying. If you play it on emulator and don’t mind abusing save states then doubly so. I really, really hope a remake comes out someday that is more easily recommendable to more people but as is it’s still a game I enjoyed a lot.