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As
any parent could tell you, Disney’s latest animated adventure Chicken
Little will shortly be gracing big-screens near you. Following
form its arrival has been preceded by the multi-format release of a
tie-in Platform title. Platformers have been around since time
immemorial, and whilst the  years have seen many changes and
groundbreaking innovations in the genre, these have seldom been the territory
of Disney
motion picture
tie-ins. That said, many of the Disney titles have provided hours of
enjoyment to young fans of the related films. Chicken Little
is a game primarily aimed at a young audience, and the pockets of
their parents. The key question about Chicken Little is how
well it appeals to this younger audience, and how long it is likely
to hold their attention, thus justifying their parents’
investment.
The storyline of Chicken Little is based loosely on
the children’s tale of Chicken Licken, of “the sky is falling”
fame. Chicken Little is based some time after this infamous
incident. Chicken Little himself is now considered a laughing-stock
by all-and-sundry, and nothing he does or said is taken seriously.
He is bullied by most of the other school kids/animals, with the
exception of his three friends; Abby the mallard, Runt (a rather
inappropriately named pig) and Fish Out Of Water. Most of the
initial stages of the game encompass Chicken Little’s battle
against this bullying. However, one night whilst thanking the stars
for enabling him to become the hero of the town by winning them the
annual game of baseball with their biggest rivals, h
e spots and alien ship. From here Chicken Little’s life become a
lot more interesting; first he has to rescue his friends from the
aliens, before telling the adults of their arrival. The adults
believe this is just a repeat of “the sky is falling”. However
it soon becomes clear to the adults that he is telling the truth.
However the adults completely misjudge the situation (how typically
Disney), they immediately think the aliens are invading, ignoring
Chicken Little’s greater knowledge of the situation. In fact the
aliens have arrived only to rescue a child, the later stages of the
game are taken up by Chicken Little and his finally convinced father
returning the child the aliens, and then escaping from the Spaceship
for the second time. Unsurprisingly it falls to Chicken Little
himself to rescue his dad, thus proving himself to all his doubters.
From the very opening of the game Chicken Little is
charmingly animated, and reminiscent of the film’s animation
itself. In fact, several of the Cut-Scenes appear to be directly
taken from the movie itself. Upon
starting the title it quickly becomes clear that the game would
stick loosely to the storyline, but divert enough to keep the
attention of the young players. Whilst it starts off with a typical
Platform Level, the player will quickly find themselves facing all
sorts of different challenges as diverse as piloting alien
spaceships, playing dodge-ball, and using a bottle of pop as a
jetpack to make it to school on time. This initial variety is one of
the best points of the game; each task is worked perfectly to
challenge a young player enough without being too difficult for said
players to master. In addition, the tasks are placed so that a young
player is confronted by a completely  new challenge before he becomes
bored of the game. This
is unfortunately not the case in the last-third of the game. It
seems that towards the end of the game the developers ran out of
ideas, and the Levels become formulaic and simply slightly extended
repetitions of earlier Levels. A particularly poor Final Boss
compounds this: the Boss is possibly the easiest part of the game,
any player who had managed to play through the preceding Levels,
which should be just about anybody, should have already mastered all
the methods required in defeating the boss; namely how to aim
Chicken Little’s Pocket Slingshot.
This aside, Chicken Little is game that seems well
designed for its target audience, and I would expect it to appeal to
kids who are fans of the movie. A more experienced gamer would
recognize in it a very competent Platformer, but would find little
to excite them. Film tie-ins have provided some of the worst games
on market, and resultantly their publication is often heraled by a
collective wince by serious gamers; 50Cent: Bulletproof being
a recent case for suggestion. They do however have an appeal to fans
of their films, and often even the  poorest of games have a few
disciples. Whilst Chicken Little does not have such a limited
appeal, I cannot see it being a game that will be remembered much
longer than the film, unlike 2005’s The Chronicles Of Riddick:
Escape From Butcher Bay. However it does have a charm often
lacking from Disney titles. It would be untrue to claim that the
game does anything new, but what it does do is recognize what is
expected of such a game. It appeals directly to its target audience,
and is exactly the sort of game a parent would like their child to
be playing. It doesn’t contain any over-the-top violence, and the
most dastardly weapon Chicken Little has at his disposable is his
rather scampish Pocket Slingshot; which he uses to fire acorns.
The graphics seen in the release, or at least on the GameCube
version, are relatively good. There doesn’t appear to be any major
errors, although the Default Camera can be annoying at times. The
game may also look far too cutesy to the older player. The same is
true of the sound - the music is relatively good, but is sickly
sweet and will annoy the older gamer. The individual sound effects
are slightly over-the-top in a typically cartoony fashion. The Voice
Acting is good, and relates to the movie production. Listening to
the in-game speech can also be quite amusing, with constant
references to the fact that the game is based on a movie. At one
point Chicken Little complains about the amount of related
merchandise available, a feeling parents of Disney fans will
certainly relate to.
As a game, Chicken Little represents the correct way
to produce a children-orientated film tie-in: it’s funny and fun
without being too taxing. A young child will be entertained for
hours with this game, truly appreciating the small jokes and
subtleties, like hatching screens replacing Loading Screens. Whilst
not a title for the hardcore gamer, a parent buying this will find
they have made a much better purchase than other recent tie-ins such
as Zathura, The Incredibles:
Rise Of The Underminer and Robots.
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