Game music of the day: Billy Hatcher

Game: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Song: World Select

Above: World Select from Billy Hatcher

Can you imagine a harder sell in 2003? A GameCube-exclusive game from Sonic Team starring a little boy who pushes eggs around while dressed as a chicken? What? Yet despite this enormous handicap Billy Hatcher went on to some moderate retail success and, while neither rising to Sonic levels of popularity nor spawning a sequel, managed to pack in enough memorable gameplay to earn him a place in this year's Sega All-Stars Racing. It also happened to have some of the cheeriest,run-around-like-an-idiot music of all time.

I have to admit, I've never played Billy Hatcher. I've actually only listened to this one song for the past five years, usually during times of great stress. If a group of kindergarteners planned a BYOB hoe-down inside a barn, this is pretty much what it would sound like. Sure it's potentially annoying, especially if you hate the sounds of children chanting "G-R-A-B E-G-G!" but give it a chance. Odds are you'll have to smile, and maybe leave this page 1% happier than when you arrived.

Here's the intro, which further illustrates how the game beats you over the head with "WTF?" Not much else I can say about it (hope you can in the comments!). I did find out there was a famous baseball player namedBilly Hatcher, who I'm sure has never played this game in his life. Also discovered the composer, who largely scores Sonic-related games, contributed to Panzer Dragoon Saga, one of the Saturn's tip-toppiest games ever. Sorry if today's entry is a bit light on actual information, I just wanted to spread a bit of sunshine on everyone's day with this lovely, lovely track.

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Sub Castle BGM by Koji Kondo

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.