I've been pretty disappointed in the past that there seems to be so little information available on the development history on BHatGE. All I've seen so far is that it ran on the SA2 engine. Considering what an anomaly Billy Hatcher is, I think it warrants more discussion. I was primarily wondering if there was any indication of BH ever having been planned for the DC at any point in its dev cycle. It launched 2 1/2 years post DC, but I find it fascinating that it was being developed concurrently with Sonic Heroes, yet BH utilized the SA2 engine while SH ran on the Renderware engine. Would they have utilized the SA2 engine just to save cost on dev time and resource creation? I find Billy Hatcher enigmatic, and would love any insights anyone may have. (EDIT: I made an ignorant statement that has derailed this thread from its original purpose to people continuously posting the exact same information over and over. Thank you for your dutiful pointing out of my mistake, but I only needed to hear it once, thanks.)
As far as I recall it was indeed meant for the Dreamcast much like the early Xbox exclusive Smilebit games (GunValkyrie, which had a build running on the Dreamcast and Jet Set Radio 2 before it became the overhauled Jet Set Radio Future with the new Xbox focused engine). I don't however have a source for that though I remember reading about Billy Hatcher originally being a Dreamcast game a long time ago. Hell the Sonic Adventure 2 engine was designed for the Dreamcast so it's logical that the game may have potentially had a build that ran on the Dreamcast. Amazing game though. Flawed but still held that Sonic Team magic. I loved it back when it was released. Thanks for reigniting those memories.
I'm honestly skeptical about the SA2 engine claim in the first place. I've seen little to prove this was actually the case all the way to release aside from Naka's word, and even he was rather vague. The quote I just found by quickly googling it says: "I guess you could consider it" stands out to me. On top of that, it looks and feels nothing like the SA2 engine if you ask me, but I do suppose they were trying to go for something unique, and that doesn't rule out the possibility of an overhaul. I think it needs more attention in general though. I loved the game, although I feel like it starts to get more and more visually barren the further into the game you go. It's also pretty sad how poorly the PC port was written. I can emulate the GameCube version better than I can run the native PC version. That right there says a lot. Edit: grammar
I love this game, really unique. Even outside of Sonic games, Sonic Team make really fun and creative games :v: As a platformer it was quite the departure from Sonic too... ...gameplay was slower, but more puzzle oriented or more cautious type gameplay. The characters were wonderful. Love the art style.
If I'm not mistaken, Puyo Puyo Tetris was also by Sonic Team, and that's even more recent than PSO2. But yeah, neither marks a new franchise like Billy Hatcher did.
etc Also id kill for the dc build of gun valkyrie. The xbox version controls so poorly because the dreamcast version used a light gun in one hand, and the dc controller in the other for analog control. It was wii pointer controls half a decade before the wii.
I'm trying to remember if it was ever in Dreamcast Magazine (the die hard one from the UK that lasted beyond Sega ending Dreamcast production). I think it might have been, but I could be getting it mixed up with Super Monkey Ball.
If you're going to use the "what else did Sonic Team do" card at least do it properly! When it comes to sixth generation Sega games originally intended for the Dreamcast, I think they mostly reside on the Xbox. Things like Gunvalkyrie and TomJam & Earl III... and maybe not much else (remembering of course there's a few Dreamcast ports). I'm not sure if Super Monkey Ball counts because its roots lie in a NAOMI arcade game - it wasn't originally built with the Dreamcast in mind... but then, I'm not sure if it was ever announced for the Dreamcast. I think we need more sources.
Otogi, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future, Sega GT 2002, Spikeout, World Series Baseball 2K3? Which one of them started on the DC but ended up as on the Xbox? Spikeout seems to be the least likely, being a 2005 title by Dimps. Orta is questionable (if it started on the DC they had to rework the entire game because it has some of the most impressive visuals of the Xbox).
There's been a long standing rumor that Shinobi was originally a dreamcast project, but I've seen it shot down by a number of sources multiple times. Just in case anybody was curious.
JSRF is effectively a remake of Jet Set Radio, so it seems rather... pointless to release it on the Dreamcast. I would imagine that was a quickly thrown together Xbox project. The same could possibly be said of Sega GT 2002. Though I seem to remember reading somewhere that it might have started life out on the Dreamcast... don't know.
I don't recall it. My employer now owns the rights to that magazine's content, and at least one person at the company used to work on it. I'll see what I can dig up.
I'd say it's just me remembering wrong. Since it's come up, was there ever a "final" issue planned. The last few issues were just reprints of old reviews, and I was looking forward to a proper send off. Or did Australia just miss out on that issue?
