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Platform: Xbox Genre: Platformer Publisher: Beuna Vista Developer: Avalanche Software ESRB: E+10 (Everyone) Released: October 18, 2005
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Chicken LittleScore: 7.0 / 10
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Pros: - Good adherence to the source material while new material is added - Bright colorful graphics - Straightforward platforming should appeal to the younger crowd
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Cons: - More taxing on my patience than Ninja Gaiden - Doesn’t offer anything in the way of innovation as it pertains to platformers
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Related Articles: Review: The Incredibles (Xbox)
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"...a deceptive “kiddie” game that brought back frightening memories of the mental anguish I battled after losing race after race to a 16-year old Japanese school girl while playing Mario Kart 64."
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I’m getting older – it’s the one thing we all have in common – but that’s really no excuse for the kind of beatdown I suffered at the hands of Chicken Little – a deceptive “kiddie” game that brought back frightening memories of the mental anguish I battled after losing race after race to a 16-year old Japanese school girl while playing Mario Kart 64. My therapist says it shattered my self confidence. Chicken Little didn’t quite crush my gaming spirit but it is a challenging platformer with plenty of twitch gameplay and many taxing hand-eye coordination.
The game follows closely the events of the film while also filling in some of the gaps, like the way The Incredibles did about this time last year. The story unfolds in a linear fashion – beat level one to proceed to level two and so on – and it’s a fairly light hearted plot, even if it does end with a massive (attempted) alien invasion.
Like all platformers, Chicken Little mixes up the gameplay to keep things interesting. One level you’re jumping from stumps and maintenance buildings in the school yard, whipping the odd mechanical bit of merchandise with your yo-yo, the next you’re flying through the air trying to avoid obstacles. For the most part there’s good variety, but oh man, is it ever unforgiving! The “whap and you’re dead!” phenomenon is no more apparent than the “racing” portions that are extremely unforgiving. Even after spending time memorizing and replaying the same section of a level again and again I continually got “whapped!” and |
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plunked down at the start of the level or the nearest checkpoint. It’s beyond frustrating to “die” in the same spot over and over, mostly because you know there’s some smarty pants 10-year old just waiting to show you up. I’m no slouch when it comes to platformer games and my reflexes are pretty good – I have actually finished Ninja Gaiden – but that didn’t seem to help. Watching a bunch of kids have fun with it is a bit disheartening.
Graphically, Avalanche did a great job integrating clips from the film right into the game and it’s actually more seamless than most of the licensed movie-to-game conversions. |
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The animation also moves at a smooth clip and during load screens you get to watch Chicken Little bop to some tunes. On the sound side of things, many of the actors from the film have provided their voices to lend even further authenticity.
At the end of the day, Chicken Little is a tough platformer that does some good things with the movie license. The difficulty may be too high for younger gamers so parents might want to try a rental before a purchase.
Omni (December 10, 2005)
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