Thanks to Censored Gaming (which is an incredible resource), we now have some details of how Shadow the Hedgehog was changed to achieve the newly-created E10+ ESRB rating prior to its release on PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

Source: Censored Gaming (Seriously, go subscribe to this channel)

Richard C. Meyer did nothing wrong.

Earlier this year, Nintendo’s general manager Shinya Takahashi stated the company would include analog triggers for a GameCube-style Joy-Con peripheral for Nintendo Switch indicating potential GameCube VC releases.

A screenshot of the listings leaked:

Source: GameTransfers 

Here’s the text of an email announcement as reported by Riggs:

“Recently, GameStop has begun accepting retro trades, and beginning today, we have expanded these categories to include the following with most requested GameCube, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, original Xbox, and SEGA Saturn. These trades include hardware, games, and various accessories. Not all stores accept retro trades at this time, so contact your local store first to find out. More importantly, fans looking to purchase retro consoles, games and more can now do so easily from GameStop.com/collection/retro-classics. These categories are growing, and will include the expanded categories mentioned above in the near future once enough supply has been traded in.”

I guess with the GameCube library being included, you could possibly pick up sweet oldies like F-Zero GX and Skies of Arcadia: Legends. So what do you think? Are you ready to spend fifty bucks on a loose copy of Astal? Can’t wait to finally order Panzer Dragoon Saga just to find that you’ve only been sent disc 2? Oh, GameStop, you rascals!

Source: Skirmish Frogs

If you read my profile here on SEGA Nerds, you’ll see that I credit Sonic the Hedgehog with being at the centre of my ‘formative gaming experiences’, despite the fact that the first game I ever played to completion was actually Castle of Illusion on the Mega Drive/Genesis. Ergo, despite his mixed legacy 25 years on, Sonic seems like the perfect place to kickstart what will hopefully be a lifetime of shared interest.

Sonic has graced many a console during his long and colourful career, but I now find myself having to consider just which one offers the most hedgehog for the money. An authentic UK Mega Drive is a no-no because it plods along at a sluggish 50Hz and may not work with my HDTV, the Saturn has relatively little Sonic to offer and the Dreamcast lacks any official means to play those all important 16-bit classics. Hmm.

After doing a little research on which games are available on which consoles, I’ve come to a surprising conclusion. It turns out that Nintendo’s GameCube sports far and away the best selection of Sonic games.

I’m sure the irony here won’t be wasted on any gamer over a certain age. But remember: stranger things have happened, such as Sonic and Mario teaming up for their Olympic Games series, or the former gracing Super Smash Bros. or Super Mario Maker.

Let’s have look at the facts. The GameCube’s already spiffing library includes Sonic Adventure DX (which itself packs a selection of Game Gear classics), Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders plus all the essential 16-bit staples via Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection. PAL gamers will be pleased to learn that any of these can be played in full 60Hz using either the relevant in-game options or by holding down B during the console’s boot sequence, thereby forcing the faster standard.

But that’s not all. The Game Boy Player add-on allows the GameCube to play cartridges originally intended for any of the eponymous handhelds many iterations. With one of these thrown into the deal, you’ll also be able to experience full screen Sonic Advance 1,2 and 3, Sonic Battle and even the notoriously awful Game Boy Advance port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, should you feel so inclined.

It’s worth noting that the GameCube also plays host to a wide selection of non-Sonic SEGA games, such as Phantasy Star Online I & II, Super Monkey Ball, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Puyo Pop Fever, Crazy Taxi, SEGA Soccer Slam and Skies of Arcadia Legends, should you wish to broaden your horizons a bit. Plus Spartan: Total Warrior, Beach Spikers and others give you the opportunity to dabble in SEGA’s broad publishing portfolio, and a number of non-SEGA Dreamcast ports are also available: Ikaruga and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, for example.

“But hold on”, I hear you cry “the Wii is backwards compatible with GameCube games and has a number of its own Sonic releases. Why not just get one of those instead?” The reasoning here is simple: it’s absolutley worth sacrificing the Wii’s own questionable Sonic catalogue in favour of the Sonic Advance series, which aren’t playable on the Wii without the use of risky softmods and the dark art of emulation. Yes, Sonic Colors was decent and Unleashed had its moments, but the less said of Sonic and The Secret Rings and/or The Black Knight the better.

So, if you’re a longtime Sonic fan yourself, or indeed, looking to indoctrinate a friend or relative, the GameCube might just be a better purchase than any of SEGA’s own consoles. Plus, there’s plenty more SEGA to go at should you tire of collecting rings and popping badniks.

All this talk of a Dreamcast 2 recently may have gotten many of us all misty eyed, but perhaps we’ve not been seeing the wood for the trees all these years. Maybe we had one all along.

Time to give the game a bit of The Requiem’s trademark TLC … Prepare for bemusement!

What is it?

M.U.S.H.A … Who the hell has even heard of this game? It has a dumb name, anyway. What exactly is a MUSHA in the first place? Well, SEGA-tards, “musha” translated from Japanese (武者) means “warrior,” and in terms of the title itself, M.U.S.H.A. IS AN ACRONYM FOR (sorry- left the caps lock on there) “Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor.” So that’s not convoluted at all. Now you definitely want to play the game, yes?

Well, you friggin’ should! M.U.S.H.A. is truly one of the great vertical shooters of the 16-bit era. Developed by Compile and published in the United States by Seismic, if you give any kind of flying fork about shooters, you would do well to play this game.

So, now let’s reminisce.

Let’s remember.

Let’s retrospect.

M.U.S.H.A. (Known as MUSHA Aleste in Japan) is the third installment in the Aleste series of games by Compile. The story takes place in an alternate history of the Tenryaku era (天暦), which, for those of us not formally acquainted with Japanese history, that’s roughly 947-957 AD. In this alternate history, Japan has advanced technologically at a ridiculous rate and has begun colonizing space. But in true sci-fi form, the computer controlling the space colony of “Little Japan” decides that all humans are bad. The computer, known as Skynet Dire 51, thus turns the environmental control system against all mankind.

You play as a woman named Terri, (Ellinor in Japan), the pilot of this special Metallic Uniframe Super-thingy. As the sole survivor of the attack force sent to counter Mother Brain’s Dire 51’s threat, only you stand between HAL’s Dire 51’s forces and humankind’s total annihilation!

And then you shoot a lot of stuff, and you sometimes run into a recurring boss robot named “Big Asia” (大亜). Yep, that’s his really-real name. Does anyone play shooters for their rich and engaging story? Nah, me neither. So let’s talk about where the game really shines: pretty much everywhere else.

In short, the game looks, sounds and plays fantastic. Throughout you collect P-chips which both power up your main gun and provide you “option” satellites, which hover around you, adding to your arsenal. You also pick up special weapons including bombs, lasers and shields (I stick with the shields, mostly). Otherwise, I won’t go into the game mechanics in too much detail as my esteemed editor-in-chief assures me that someone else, not me, is going to take the lead on doing a full review. Some other jerk, anyway…

I digress.

Almost everything in the game is masterfully crafted. Certainly one could wax ad nauseam over the soundtrack, so let’s take a quick listen …

Not bad for 1990, just two short years into the Genesis’ life span. This was the work of Toshiaki Sakoda (only known as Washija in the end credits), who not only did the amazing tunes in M.U.S.H.A. (including the above track, Full Metal Fighter, which was given a spot on Hardcore Gaming 101’s Best Video Game Music of All Time list), but he also composed tracks for- holy crap – Alien Crush and Devil’s Crush (The latter known as Dragon’s Fury on Genesis, for you non TG-16 aficionados).

Based on the game’s credits, it’s more difficult to pin down who exactly was responsible for M.U.S.H.A.‘s level designs (possibly Kazuyuki Nakashima, more on him in a bit), but especially some of the aesthetic choices in the backgrounds are worth mentioning.

I’m going to drop a video here that shows off one of my favorite stages, aptly named Stage Four. I apologize in advance for some of the wonkiness in the capture which causes some of the weapons and explosions to look a bit off.

Hopefully, you got a good watch and saw how well the graphic artists used the power of the Genesis to produce something unique for the time. The cloud transparency and the eventual silhouetted enemies behind each lightning strike is still something to behold from the early days of SEGA’s 16-bit powerhouse.

At the risk of burdening this article with too many videos, I still want to exhibit one more stage as describing it goes only so far when you can see it for yourself. This is Stage Three, and with it comes one of the most masterfully executed moments in shooters from that time. Take a look, and see if you notice where exactly the “gotcha” moment is, when the developers made you, the player, the butt of their very subtle joke.

Did you catch it? At the beginning of the stage, it sure seems like it is going to be a very bland one, with nothing but metal tiles beneath your ship. But just as it gets to be distressingly dull, the tiles all fall out, the beautiful multi-tiered, parallax scrolling lava river canyon is revealed, and it’s as if the designers were saying, “Hah! Fooled you! You thought that this stage was going to suck, but it’s actually bad ass!” Add to that the perfectly timed change in the music just as your ship begins to move forward again, and its brilliant. The game really is packed with little moments like this, and they are a pleasant reward for the attentive player.

Aleste 3?

But now I am obligated to talk about how this game relates to the larger Aleste series. So how does this game fit into the overall Aleste series?

Meeeehhhhhhhh, I’m not sure that it does.

Okay, so Aleste and Aleste 2 were released on the MSX in Japan and ported to the west as Power Strike and Power Strike 2 for the SEGA Master System. According to Power Strike‘s manual, scientists accidentally created a bunch of mutant plants that take over the human body with their “creeping tentacles” (yes, it specifically mentions these) in an attempt to take over the earth. Oh, and you fly a space ship, not a mech suit … and the game takes place in the 21st century.

The title screen music is the same composition as M.U.S.H.A.‘s, and the gameplay is similar enough, I suppose, but the Power Strike/Aleste games are really more sequels to the Compile’s earlier MSX game, Zanac, though their plots tie together just as tenuously as they do to the M.U.S.H.A. timeline.

So, should we then consider M.U.S.H.A. actually as a spin off, or in the least, a spiritual successor to the Aleste/Power Strike games? Let’s take a look at the Japanese manual (image to the left) for Aleste on MSX and see if maybe something was lost in its translation to the Western markets.

Well, that certainly clears things up, right? My Japanese is … well, virtually non-existent, but I think that page says “story” up at the top, though I am not 100% certain that isn’t an epilepsy warning or something.

From what I’ve come up with, I would say that M.U.S.H.A. is, in fact, some kind of spin off from the broader Aleste series, which would continue with Super Aleste (known as Space Megaforce in the US) on that other system the Super Turd with Purple Buttons (STPB). M.U.S.H.A. would get a more dedicated follow-up of its own on SEGA CD: Robo Aleste, which takes place in the middle of the 16th century, smack dab in the middle of the Sengoku period, which was during the early days of Japan’s unification. Sooooo…. yeah. It’s a sequel, I guess. At least you play as a mech in that one.

The Men Behind the Metal

Enough trying to make sense of all this story-time nonsense. Let’s examine the good folks who made all of the bullets and explosions possible: Compile.

Compile was a Japanese developer that worked across several gaming platforms between the mid-1980s and early 2000s. The company was founded in 1983 by Masamitsu Niitani (credited as the producer of M.U.S.H.A. as Moo Niitani). Other than their early MSX games, such as the Aleste series, here’s a few more of their most notable titles from their catalogue: Golvellius (SEGA Master System), The Guardian Legend (NES), Blazing Lazers (TG-16), Alien Crush (TG-16), and, Jesus-halo-pooping Christ, Puyo Puyo (Mega Drive/Genesis).

It is worth noting Compile’s history as a shadow developer, which was a fairly common practice at the time. For those out of the know, this is a bit like the process of ghost writing, but with video games.

Did you think that Hudson developed Blazing Lazers? Narp. Ten seconds with the game, and I’m sure you’ll see how it parallels the creative hallmarks of M.U.S.H.A. Did you think Naxat Soft was the developer of both Alien Crush and Devil’s Crush? That’s what Naxat Soft wanted you to think, but Compile was actually the collective genius behind those, possibly the greatest two video pinball games ever made (However, they had nothing to do with the abysmal Dragon’s Revenge, which was the “sequel” to Devil’s Crush, and you are advised to stay away from that heap). Oh, and Compile also shadow-developed Ghostbusters on the Genesis for SEGA, too.

As you probably noticed, much of their pedigree is in the vertical shooter genre (and no, I won’t use that dumb abortion of a word to describe a “shoot-em-up”… you know what it is), but there are clearly some very distinct and successful deviations from that formula. We’ve already mentioned how super-duper the composer Toshiaki Sakoda is, but what has he done for us lately? Well, he went on to compose the soundtrack in Evolution 2 on Dreamcast and the GameCube follow-up, Evolution Worlds. He also did the tunes in a little Saturn game called Baroque, which was later re-released on both PS2 and Wii. 

Let’s move to the supervisor of M.U.S.H.A.,  Jemini Hirono. Hirono’s name is attached in one way or another to several Compile games from Zanac to Power Strike to Puyo Puyo, the last of which became Compile’s most successful franchise and was at the time ported to the west as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on Genesis and Kirby’s Avalanche on STPB. Hirono jumped from seat to seat while at Compile, doing programing work, sound and, eventually, directing and producing Zanac X Zanac on the Sony Play-the-system-upside-down-because-its-crap-Station (PSX).

The stupendous artwork and visual splendor of M.U.S.H.A. may very well be the handiwork of its art director, Kazuyuki Nakashima. Nakashima also worked on Blazing Lazers, and eventually moved on to an arcade developer, Raizing, along with several other Compile creators such as Sotoyama Yuuichi and Yokoo Kenichi. He worked on several projects with Raizing including Super Bomberman: Power Bomber W (a puzzle game with Puyo Puyo roots) and arcade games, such as Bloody Roar 2. 

So what happened to Compile? Burned to toast? Vaporized to milk shake? Pounded into the ground like an overused classic game reference?

No, unfortunately a much less dramatic fate befell them in 2002: bankruptcy. SEGA acquired full ownership of the Puyo Puyo series at that time (take THAT, Kirby’s Avalanche!) and handed off development duties for the Puyo series to Sonic Team. As for Compile and its staff, many separated into what is essentially two separate companies: Compile Heart (headed by Masamitsu Niitani himself), and Milestone Inc., both of which went on to make some pretty interesting games.

Compile Heart has maintained the legacy of the company in name, and they also took with them the rights to most all of Compile’s previous works. Their most notable game in my opinion is Hyperdimension Neptunia, published by SEGA in Japan and NIS in the US, which is an RPG that parodies the console wars of old. In the magical world of Gamindustri (Yep, no kidding), the world is split into four regions each ruled by a goddess representing a console manufacturer, who are: Vert (representing the Xbox 360), Blanc (representing the Wii), Noire (representing the PS3) and Neptune (representing the forgotten SEGA Neptune console) who is trapped int the human world of Histoire, and must be restored to save Histoire. She is of course assisted by a girl named Compa (sounds like Compile, eh?), among other girls representing developers/publishers associated with the game. I admittedly haven’t played it, but it sounds damn cool and my need to pick up a PS3 increases with each passing moment thinking about it.

In contrast, Milestone Inc. has maintained the legacy of Compile in their prowess in developing killer arcade shooters. Developing largely on SEGA’s Naomi board, several of their games saw a Japanese release on the SEGA Dreamcast even after the little white box was discontinued. Three of these shooters, Chaos Field, Radirgy and Karous saw a release in the west on the Nintendo Wii as the Ultimate Shooting Collection, which none of you jerks bought. So, if you are at all a fan, you owe it to yourself to track down a copy of this collection immediately. For the Dreamcast’s sake, it’s only $3 at GameStop right now. You can also get a standalone US version of Chaos Field on GameCube, if that somehow works out better for you. The company sadly folded in March 2013 after its president, Hiroshi Kimura, was arrested for violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act when he sold securities for his sister company, MS Bio Energy.

So while Milestone is gone, the spirit of Compile lives on at Compile Heart, and their fantastic game M.U.S.H.A. is considered the classic that it deservedly should be. Even though I promised my esteemed editor-in-chief that I wouldn’t review the game, here’s my mini review anyway (in your FACE Chris!):

It am good game … you like.

Is it worth $300 for a complete copy on eBay, though? No, of course not. No single game really is. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to pick it up for $20 at my local games store back in 1994 or so, before M.U.S.H.A. became the holy grail of Genesis collections.

However, is it worth $50 for a used Wii and an extra $8 to get the game on Virtual Console? Yeah, it may be. Download Alien Crush and Devil’s Crush while you’re at it … and Zanac … and pick up both the Ultimate Shooting Collection and Baroque since we’re dropping the cash (both just $3 each at GameStop). That’s still only around $80, so you shouldn’t even have to sign up for one of their new credit cards. Wow! What a timely, yet completely not ham-fistedly forced reference to close us out!

But just how ‘egg-citing’ is Billy Hatcher after all these years? Will it be a ‘cracking’ adventure? Or will it come out with ‘egg on its face’? Sorry had to get those terrible puns out of the way, always nice to have a good ‘yolk’ now and then.

Ok, I promise I’m done now.

Frying up a story

OK, so for those of you who don’t know what Billy Hatcher is all about, it’s a 3D platform game, developed by Sonic Team and released in 2003 exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube.

At its time of release, Billy Hatcher received generally good reviews from the major gaming sites, being appreciated for good visuals and generally solid gameplay. But it never really achieved the fame or popularity of many other GameCube exclusives and was totally overshadowed by the console’s other platform games, such as Mario Sunshine.

The story revolves around the main protagonist, Billy Hatcher (a very convenient last name in this case) a normal human kid who helps save a chicken from being attacked by some crows. Billy and his friends are then transported to Morning Land, a peaceful land inhabited by chickens.

However, Morning Land has been invaded by Dark Raven and his army of evil crows. Dark Raven has captured the six Chicken Elders of Morning Land, casting the entire land into darkness. So it’s up to Billy to free the Chicken Elders and bring the morning back to err… Morning Land (yeah they could have come up with some more original names for things in this game).

Rise of the morning glory

Soon into the game, Billy acquires his famous chicken outfit, giving him powers to control eggs and even hatch them.

The majority of the game is played with Billy rolling an egg around the levels, but that’s because the many puzzles and ways of travelling around levels requires an egg – such as using blue and green hoops to push/fling Billy to higher platforms or far away areas.

Without an egg in hand, Billy is actually pretty useless. He can run, jump and climb but has no direct attack of his own. Instead he uses eggs to roll over enemies, or (like a yo-yo) he can spin an egg at them and it bounces back. And you can jump and bounce with your egg to gain extra height or activate switches.

Another way of attacking comes from ‘taming’ animals. As you kill enemies, different types of fruit come out of their bodies (don’t worry it gets even weirder) and as you roll your egg over the fruit, it ‘feeds’ the egg. As the egg gets fed it grows and once fully formed it starts to glow.

As I mentioned, Billy can hatch eggs, so when an egg is fully formed you can get Billy to perform a rooster call and hatch the egg. Different eggs provide different hatches: some bring nothing, but others can bring extra lives, tokens, powers (which I never found out what they did) and also the aforementioned animals.

Once an animal is hatched, all Billy needs to do is touch it and it becomes ‘tamed’ and will follow Billy around until either you die or finish the level. When Billy isn’t holding an egg, he can direct an animal in a single direction and the animal will perform its only move (which varies between animal type). Animals become essential as they are used to solve puzzles, such as quenching flames blocking a path, as well as attacking enemies.

Don’t count your chickens…

Let’s face it, Billy Hatcher looks like a stereotypical GameCube title – bright, colourful, cartoon visuals with a kid hero and cute animals running around. So you could be mistaken for thinking this is exclusively a game for kids.

While the gameplay is relatively simple and the controls are easy to grasp, the game is actually full of tricky moments that can bring even the most hardened gamers to throw their controllers at the TV.

Each level is broken up into five main missions, with additional ones unlocked later on, the first two main ones on each level are the same – rescue the Elder (bringing sunshine back to that level) and then beating a boss. After that the other missions vary between rescuing other chickens, racing giant penguins and other random stuff.

As I mentioned, most of the game is played with an egg in hand and the controls are pretty darn intuitive, meaning that it’s really easy to get into. But after the first few missions, the game starts to showcase some of its more challenging elements.

Things like jumping onto an egg and rolling it down a river might sound easy, but five lost lives later and I was ready to give up (and that was only the fourth mission in the game!). Or having to carefully roll an egg onto a rail and then quickly climb up a cliff face and jump down some awkward platforms and stop that egg from rolling off a cliff is definitely something younger gamers will find taxing.

Another element to challenge players is protecting your eggs. Luckily the majority of missions don’t rely on your eggs surviving, but all eggs are prone to being damage or even destroyed by enemy attacks or environmental factors, such as lava. The few missions (it’s literally like 6 in the entire game) that do require an egg to survive can become quite intense and on other missions, while eggs are an abundance, should an egg become damaged it will negate your hatching potential: so essentially if you need to hatch an egg to acquire an animal or extra life then you don’t want to be too care-free with your egg.

Sunny-side up

Though Billy Hatcher is a platform game at heart, the gameplay feels totally unique, as you push around eggs and use them to solve the various puzzles.

The levels are perhaps more linear than other 3D platform games, with stricter routes to take to get to the finish points and many missions prevent you from going back to sections you’ve already been in, but with each mission objective the level route changes, with new sections being opened and new areas to explore.

Whether you like bright cartoon visuals or not, it’s hard not to be charmed by Billy Hatcher’s visuals; they hold up really well even today. Everything is clear and though some of the backgrounds look very flat and plain, the liquids (water, ice, lava etc…) and main environments are vibrant and attractive.

While the different worlds feature cliché environments, they are varied enough to maintain interest and make players curious to want to continue to the next one.

And one of the biggest complaints about 3D platform games over the years is the issue of camera angles and thankfully Billy Hatcher is in the minority where the camera angle is rarely a problem. All attention is focussed on Billy and his egg, with dynamic switching at just the right moments, but never so suddenly that you lose control (as what happens with many other games). You also do have free control of the camera, to look around at your environment and find hidden areas – but it’s really not necessary to even use the camera controls to get through a level and that is a very good thing – as all your attention is on the gameplay and not worrying that you can’t see round corners or what’s up ahead.

There is also the case of music and sounds; I think you’ll either love or hate them. Personally I really enjoyed the music in the game, it matched the visual style and gameplay brilliantly and really gets in your head. However, I do understand that some gamers will be driven mad by a lot of the music – especially the main menu tune. As I’m typing this I can totally hear it… and it’s bringing a smile to my face.

Cock-a-doodle don’t

But, like all games, Billy Hatcher is not without its flaws. The difficulty is a really mixed bag throughout the game.

Because of the visual style and simple gameplay, many gamers will expect a kiddie game and there are times where it really feels that way, as you breeze to a goal, rolling over enemies to the end. But then the game flips and the next mission you’ll be crying as a fiddly puzzle continuously causes you to die. Now, I quite liked the trickier missions, but it would be nice if the game maintained some form of consistency or gradually became harder (that’s what she said).

Some of the missions are also uninspired. Considering the totally original gameplay idea and the fun environment designs, you’d think that Sonic Team could have come up with some equally unique missions to go through, rather than basic ‘beat the enemy’ or ‘collect coins’.

Because of those lacklustre missions, gameplay does become tiresome at times. This is a disappointment, as the game has so much more potential than what SEGA/Sonic Team came up with.

Egg-cess entertainment

But the main story isn’t all that Billy Hatcher has to offer – there are plenty of extras to unlock and secrets to find as you venture through Morning Land. This is where the fewer

As I briefly mentioned you unlock additional missions, which are not played by Billy, but rather Billy’s friends (who are seen in the game’s opening cutscene and are also transported to Morning Land).

Each level has five golden coins hidden in them, most of which are surprisingly well hidden, which (once all collected) allow players to control the ‘blue hedgehog’ egg… wonder what that could be, eh?

Billy Hatcher was also one of the few GameCube titles to really make use of the GameBoy Advance link cable. Players can unlock GBA games such as Puyo Pop, ChuChu Rocket!, and Nights: Time Attack after certain objectives are completed within the game. To be honest, I never got to experience these GBA titles as I don’t have the link cable and haven’t used my GBA in about 8 years (don’t even know where it is!). But my understanding is that they are well worth the effort of unlocking.

Perhaps Billy Hatcher’s biggest surprise though is that it offers a pretty damn engaging four-player mode, with a mix of games to play from a standard death-match to who can hatch the most eggs. Admittedly local multiplayer feels weird these days, but if you are able to have a few friends over, then it is well worth entertaining the thought of getting everyone involved in some Billy Hatcher action. The best thing is that because the controls are so simple and intuitive, pretty much anyone can pick up and play the game – even non-gamers.

Summary

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is a pretty deceiving game. It may look like it’s made for kids, but when you get into it you’ll find it has enough moments to challenge even experienced gamers.

The gameplay is very unique and with simple controls, almost any gamer can happily pick it up and play. The presentation of the game is, again, simple but gorgeous.

It does, however, have enough downsides to hold it back from being achieving true gaming greatness. Lacklustre mission objectives are possibly the biggest drawback, as it makes some of the game time drag out. And the varying difficulty level jumping from being too easy to suddenly very taxing can be annoying at times.

But, at the end of the day, Billy Hatcher is an enjoyable game, with enough to keep gamers entertained. Just don’t let the cute, kiddie visuals fool you.

Pros:
+ Easy, intuitive controls
+ Unique gameplay
+ Plenty of extras to find/do
+ Fun multiplayer

Cons:
– Some really tricky bits can get annoying
– Looks too childish for most gamers
– Some objectives are really mundane
– 

~G~

Weighing in at approximately 20kg, this big box contains over 300 metres of cabling, it took 3,500 hours to build, cost approximately £700 (in parts, boards, wiring etc…) and can play a total of 18 different retro systems… all through ONE custom-built controller.

Made by Bacteria, Project Unity contains no emulation, just original boards – and it’s a beast of a machine. The system contains the components for 15 original gaming consoles (and with backwards compatability on certain systems, it can play games from 18 different platforms), including the main SEGA systems (of course!).

Compatible systems: Master System, Mega Drive (Genesis), Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Amstrad GX1000, Atari 7800, Atari 2600 (b/c through 7800) Super Nintendo, NES, Nintendo 64, NeoGeo MVS,  Gamecube, NEC TurboGrafx X, Colecovision, Intellivision, Playstation 2, Playstation 1 (b/c through PS2) and even GBA (b/c through GameCube).

I think one of the most impressive things about this device is the single Master Controller gamers use to play the games. Bacteria has built a game pad, which is compatible with all the systems and automatically maps the correct buttons to the system, through the use of modified NES cartridges, which provide the system specific interfaces.

Well, enough from me. Watch the video above for the full, in depth, details on the system. Bacteria goes into some very technical detail on how Project Unity was create and how it works. For footage of the system in action, skip forward to 9:25. Though I would recommend watching the whole video, to really appreciate all the effort that’s gone into this machine.

Unfortunately, Project Unity is not for sale. However, Bacteria has posted guides on his forums to help out anyone else with enough ambition to build such a beast.