• Disney

Big Fun in Chicken Little

We've entered an age where movies and video games go hand-in-hand. While it's nearly impossible to escape the ploys of the tie-in marketing machine, every so often a game comes along that does its film counterpart justice.

Disney's Chicken Little follows the trials and tribulations of a nerdy chicklet on his coming-of-age quest. Throughout the game's nearly two dozen missions you engage in a variety of minigames, interact with a cast of wacky characters from the film, and travel from the placid country into outer space. Read on for a glimpse of the action.

This game is all about the high-flyin' fun.

Jumping, Climbing, Collecting
The game begins with an obligatory training mission where Chicken Little learns the ropes of navigating his environment. Similar to other platformers, you use both analog sticks simultaneously to move your character around the landscape and control the view camera. (Those accustomed to an inverted control scheme can tailor it in the options panel.)

Don't chicken out over tall objects.

Levels in Disney's Chicken Little are high and wide, so you need to utilize every move in your feathered friend's arsenal to get around. You can double-jump to reach high locations, climb poles, slide down wires, and shimmy down pipes to reach the next checkpoint. Floating acorns are strategically placed throughout the environment to guide you along the path to completion, so you'll rarely feel at a loss as to what to do next.

This is a Disney game and it lives up to a
high standard of family-friendly entertainment.

These collectible nuts also serve as extra lives. Depending on the skill level you choose at the outset, you earn an additional life for each cluster of acorns you retrieve. If you fall off a cliff, collide with an enemy, or otherwise get taken out of the action, you are placed back in the game immediately. If you run out of lives you must continue from the last checkpoint—a handy feature during difficult missions and for players still learning the ropes (i.e. youngsters).

Kid Tested, Mother Approved
It's worth mentioning that Disney's Chicken Little is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. As such, its content is suitable for anyone over the age of 10 (there's some cartoon violence, chicken-on-chicken fighting, intense dodgeball matches, etc.). Despite the "dreaded" child-friendly rating, it's a game that provides enough challenge for an adult, so don't think that just because it's based on an animated film that it's a cakewalk.

For example, several missions into the game you are chased by Goosey, a spastic classmate, after Chicken Little beats his opponents at a heated game of dodgeball. You are forced to run down-screen through the hallways of Chicken Little's school and avoid a maniacal goose hot on your tail. You must run, jump, dodge, and punch your way through all manner of obstacles to avoid capture—a task that sounds much easier than it truly is. Embarrassingly enough, it took me a dozen attempts to clear this board on normal difficulty. So in other words, the game can be challenging when it wants to be.

A rather spastic dodgeball match.

That stated, you never have to worry as a parent about excessive violence, cussing, or questionable content. This is a Disney game and it lives up to the company's high standard of family-friendly entertainment.

Variety in Action
It's not unusual for a platform game to fall into the trap of throwing the player into repetitive scenarios inside uninspired levels. Chicken Little avoids this pitfall by changing up the action between boards. Sometimes you are scaling jungle gyms or hopping from rooftops, other times you're propelled through the air powered by a fizzy soda jetpack (eat your heart out, Space Harrier!). You never quite know what to expect from mission to mission, and it's that sort of variety that keeps the game play fresh from beginning to end.

Check back for Tips & Tricks coverage on Disney's Chicken Little where we show you how to walk on the wild side … poultry style.

Article by Franklin Beans