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EGX Highlights: Billie Bust Up carries a tune in its musical comedy platformingHorns up
Horns up
Image credit:Humble Games
Image credit:Humble Games
Ever since rocks and sticks formed the first proto-drumkits, mankind has understood the uplifting power of a good bop. So too doesBillie Bust Up, an upcoming 3Dplatformerthat’s just as much of a Disney-style cartoon musical.
I gave the demo a play/listen atEGX 2023’s Rezzed Zone, and it’s the only game in the show that had me sneaking back for seconds. After a quiet introduction to the controls – which will feel familiar if you’ve played any 3D platformer from the past two decades, with the exception of a shorter but faster “goat hop” as an alternative to the floaty main jump – it takes only a single cutscene before breaking into the rousing opening number. Leading bovid Billie has crashed a ghosts-only party, see, and its shapeshifting beast of a host won’t permit entry until she’s fashionably deceased. Something he’s all too happy to help with, and sing about.
Image credit:Humble Games
It’s just oodles of fun, and my only concern is how often these big musical moments will come around. Once per boss fight makes sense but Billie Bust Up will have stretches of regular platforming and minion-bashing in between, and even if it’s competent at both, there’s a worry these that these will be the filler tracks to the bosses’ true bangers.
Then again, for a debut indie piece, there’s clearly a tonne of attention to detail going in. Someone, likely several people at Giddy Goat Games, spent the time and effort to design, model, animate, and implement a pool of goat-eating lobsters that is onscreen for about seven seconds, all just to match a single gag in single line in a single song. What is that if not absolute dedication to the bit?
