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Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg: I’m rolling

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For years I had the theme tune from Billy Hatcher on my phone to use as an alarm, though I had cut the initial spelling off the front so I would be woken with a cockerel crowing.

I never really played much of the game, however – this was back in the days where I had more money than spare time, and £20 spent at HMV on the reduced-price GameCube stock was good for an afternoon of entertainment. At the time there was a glut of 3D platformers, and despite its Sonic Team heritage this just didn’t feel like it stood out. It didn’t help that the first part of the game is set in comparative darkness, with shadowed colours and a lack of spark.

Going back to it today, though – albeit via the slightly glitchy Dolphin emulator, since I currently can’t connect my GameCube to the TV – the egg rolling mechanic does actually make the game a bit different to the standard platformer, adding in a sense of vulnerability when you lose your egg, and fostering an element of wanting to collect and hatch different egg types.

The controls work pretty well, and the camera doesn’t get in the way as much as other games of the era. I have rescued the Chicken Elder, who has brought morning back, and then found and beat a big lizard thing who tried hiding in the grass. The relatively free-form nature of the levels (as opposed to something like Crash Bandicoot) has meant I’ve had to do a fair bit of exploring at times, which is only problematic because I’m still not sure I’ve got the controls down pat.

I died a fair few times falling off those rails, even though I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be able to.

Another Code: Recollection (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Another Code: Recollection, is a remake of two games that were originally on the DS and Wii (Another Code: Two Memories and Another Code: R). These games are essentially point-and-click adventures with puzzle elements and some great visual novel-style storytelling that digs into family secrets, memory, and loss. You play as Ashley, a young girl trying to uncover memories of her past while helping others do the same. See, the name is clever because it’s a “re-collection” and also a “recollection”.

The first game, Two Memories, starts with 14-year-old Ashley heading to a deserted mansion on Blood Edward Island, where she’s supposed to meet her dad for the first time since her mum passed away when she was only three. Her parents had been working on a memory-manipulating system called Another, which apparently her dad kept working on in secret on this remote island. But just as Ashley and her aunt arrive, they get separated, leaving Ashley on her own to explore the eerie mansion. Along the way, she encounters a ghost named D, a young boy who’s been stuck on the island for decades with no memory of who he is or how he died. As Ashley solves puzzles and navigates the mansion, she gradually pieces together not only her family’s secrets but also D’s lost memories.

The second game, Another Code: R picks up two years later. Now 16, Ashley is off to visit her dad again, this time at a lake near the research lab where he works. She’s hoping for a relaxing camping trip with him, but things get complicated when she meets new characters—some teens in a band, lab employees, camp staff, and yet another young boy with missing memories, though fortunately, he’s not a ghost this time. While the game ultimately ties back to the events of the first game and her mother’s research, it spends a lot of time exploring this boy’s story and his quest to remember.

Now, if you loved the original games like I did, you might find a few changes in this remake a bit of a letdown, especially in the puzzle department. The developers of the originals, Cing, really took advantage of the DS and Wii’s unique features to create some inventive, memorable puzzles. One of the best from the DS required you to close the DS slightly so one screen could reflect on the other—a real out-of-the-box experience. Sadly, those creative moments didn’t make it into the Switch version, aside from a few gyro-tilting puzzles.

And honestly, even the puzzles they did include are a bit hand-holdy. Often, Ashley or D will point out the solution before you have a chance to think it through yourself. You’ll come across a mechanism, and instead of having to work it out, you’re nudged in the right direction before you’ve even really started. It makes things a bit too easy and, well, takes away some of the charm of figuring things out on your own.

But, it’s all very charming and makes me miss Cing.

Sonic Advance: completed!

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You may notice an uptick in the image quality on this post compared to the last.

I tried to persist, and played Sonic Advance on my GBA SP all the way through the six acts and to the final boss. The first two boss battles made me smile, being replicas of the Green Hill and Emerald Hill bosses from Sonic 1 and 2 respectively. And then the proper boss battle nearly led to my console being embedded in the wall.

The screen resolution on the GBA isn’t amazing. It’s better than the GBC, of course, but it still needs to have some allowances made for a relatively small viewport. A famous example of this is Sonic Genesis, a port of the original Mega Drive game, which suffers from you not being able to see far enough ahead. Generally, Sonic Advance avoids this through clever level design, slightly smaller sprites, and a more exploratory nature.

Not the case with the final boss. Robotnik is in a spike-covered machine with multiple attacks, and you have to avoid each of them in a different way. Laser? Duck. Bouncing bomb? Jump or move to the apex of the bounce. Grabby hand? Jump out the way. You can only know which attack is happening by standing all-too-close to Robotnik, or by looking at the blurry few pixels right at the edge of the screen. The laser fires almost as soon as the weapon appears, so you have to stay in a ducking position while waiting. Then you have to peer through the blur to work out what you need to do to avoid the attack – and also to put in your own attacks.

I lost a large number of lives.

So I decided to try the game in an emulator instead, so I could see what I (and more importantly what Robotnik was) doing. I initially grabbed my save file from the GBA cartridge, but for some reason it wasn’t recognised by the emulator and I decided it was actually worth playing through the game again. So I did.

When played like this the game is immensely colourful, and it’s much easier to judge jumps with the higher quality screen. I quickly progressed through the levels, losing no lives, and exploring more. On one of the later levels I jumped on a red spring near the top of the level and it took me to a special stage – which I found entirely uncontrollable and where I failed to get enough rings to even pass the first checkpoint. Even the level with the reversed gravity wasn’t too difficult.

I reached the final boss with a full complement of lives, even getting past the annoying wobbly bridge boss (where you have to jump on the ground near to Robotnik to make his machine flip upside down so you can hit him) on my first go. I did still die a couple of times on the final final boss, but it was so much easier when I could see what was happening.

The end was ripped straight from Sonic 2, which was a bit disappointing, but otherwise the game is actually really good and enjoyable. I’m not sure I will ever explore it fully to find the springs to get to the special stages and the chaos emeralds, or even play it through as Amy Rose who is annoying, but I’ll be back at some point.

Sonic Advance: quite literally a blue blur

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I love the 2D Sonic games. The best is still Sonic 2, as in the Mega Drive game, but Sonic Mania runs it close. It probably helps that I’ve never played Sonic 4, which I know is almost universally derided – I know of only one person who liked it. Still, the Sonic Advance games are generally thought of as ‘good’ to ‘great’, and I’ve never played those either, and it’s time to rectify that – particularly because I’ve just bought a GBX Cart so can do things like back up saves and so on. I dug out my copy of Sonic Advance, my GBA SP, ordered a new USB charging cable, promptly found my old charging cable, and settled down to play.

How did we ever manage to actually use this?

The screen is incredibly hard to see, washed out colours, blurry, and it seems to have a refresh rate that doesn’t match the game. The picture above was taken in bright sunshine, and you can see that in order to get anything resembling a good picture you have to content with overly-reflective front glass. I was constantly having to contort myself to angle the screen just right, and whenever the sun went behind a cloud I had to squint to work out what was happening at all. Playing in the evening was even worse, with the house lights leading to a strong blue tint to the screen.

The game itself is actually really good. There’s not quite enough of a forward view to be able to run fast through the levels, so it feels a bit more exploratory than other Sonic games. I’ve not found out how to get to any sort of chaos emeralds or special stages yet, but the limitations of the physical hardware means that I’m very tempted to try playing this through emulation instead, once I’ve finished the first run through – so I won’t look up any other details until I try that.

Frog Detective (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Once a set of three separate games on Steam, all the Frog Detective games are now bundled together on the Nintendo Switch! Of course I bought it.

You’ll never guess the premise: you’re a frog, and you’re a detective. You know you’re a detective because you get a magnifying glass right at the start, although you never actually use it. But the point is, you’re ready to solve mysteries.

There are three mysteries in total, and each one is just as silly and low-stakes as the next. First, there’s a ghost in a hole. Then, there’s a party that’s been mysteriously trashed. And finally, you’re off to find out who’s been stealing hats. Your main job is to talk to different animal characters, ask them questions, and do a few simple point-and-click style puzzles. It’s not tough, but that’s what makes it fun and relaxing. You’re there for the characters and the humour, not the challenge.

And let me tell you, this game is absolutely full of charm and wit. It’s one of those games that you can tell was made with a sense of humour that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I know some people might look at it and say it’s “too cute” or dismiss it as “woke” because it’s wholesome and nonviolent, but honestly, who cares about those people?

So, if you’re looking for something that’ll make you smile and laugh with its ridiculous characters and silly storyline, grab your magnifying glass, even if you don’t need it, and get ready to solve some very silly mysteries.