Live the adventures of Chicken Little and his gang of misfit friends -- Fish-Out-of-Water, Runt of the Litter and Abby Mallard, AKA "The Ugly Duckling" -- as the game catapults gamers into the hair-raising adventures of the movie and beyond. But it will take more than cool moves to complete each mission. Rocket jet packs, slingshots and hover boards get the characters out of sticky situations like alien invasions, spiraling asteroids, and corn field mazes. Saving the day takes an arsenal of gadgets, friends and hero power.The sky actually does fall on Chicken Little one day, and it's up to him to convince his friends that he's telling the truth this time, and together, they're off to save the town from an alien invasion. The town of Oakey Oaks is full of acorns, and aliens apparently can't get enough of the stuff.
Chicken Little follows the movie storyline pretty closely and incorporates 20 minutes of film clips, but it also includes 15 minutes of additional cut scenes that Avalanche put together themselves, and you can't tell the difference between the two. The game will consist of approximately 20 levels, with half of them set in Oakey Oaks and the other half in outer space. You start off each level playing as Chicken Little, Abby Mallard, Fish-Out-of-Water or Runt of the Litter. You don't actually get to select the playable character, but s/he is the best candidate for the task at hand.
Each character brings a unique skill to the table, the better with which to tackle the game's 11 separate gameplay mechanics. Chicken Little wields his yo-yo as a weapon and acquires a slingshot at a later point, while Fish-Out-of-Water's ammunition of choice is bursts of water. Runt of the Litter is always seen in a vehicle or spaceship, so he can drive fire trucks through town and fly alien crafts through space in some of the F-Zero-esque missions. Last, but not least, Abby's key move is an evasive gliding maneuver, but once she picks up an alien walker exoskeleton – which shoots laser beams – she's a force to be reckoned with. Gadgets such as bottle rocket jet packs and hover boards await the gamer in later maps, which include spiraling asteroids and corn field mazes.
Younger gamers are the target audience for this title, but its accessibility can even benefit casual gamers. The controls are simple and can probably be easily picked up by anyone. In the beginning, there are plenty of arrows, animated images, and other visual cues to help guide the gamer along the correct path. Run, jump, and double-jump across platforms – be careful, some of them drop! – and balance along narrow pipes.
The characters have infinite lives, so you won't have to worry about missing a platform and plunging to your death. There are, however, major and minor checkpoints, and if you "die" after a minor checkpoint, you respawn there instead of at the beginning. Additionally, on some levels, you should be on the lookout for Buck Cluck baseball cards; once you collect all five, you'll unlock one of the six mini-games that are playable in multiplayer mode.
Other than Joan Cusack (Abby Mallard) and Don Knotts (Mayor Turkey Lurkey), the movie cast also lent their voicing talents to the PC and console versions of the game. Scrubs' Zach Braff voices the title character, and Saving Silverman's Steve Zahn plays Runt of the Litter. Chicken Little's alter-ego Commander Ace is voiced by Adam West (Pow! Crash!), which should be worth a gander.
For the Game Boy Advance release, three characters are playable: Chicken Little, Fish-Out-of-Water, and Commander Ace. Proceed through 12 side-scrolling levels and collect various gadgets and gizmos, such as yo-yos and bottle rockets, to win. The GBA version also features eight bonus racing levels and unlockable dodgeball and racing mini-games.
Look for Chicken Little in mid-October, two weeks before the movie's release.
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