It’s not often that you expect to be entertained by a videogame that is based on a Disney property. The reason for this is that most seem to cater to a very young demographic and that gameplay in these titles usually lack any substance. While there have been games like Alladin for the Super Nintendo and Genesis that were widely enjoyed by a broad gaming audience, over the past few years there doesn’t seem to have been a Disney game that has received such acclaim. However, thanks to the talents of developer Avalanche, Chicken Little is one Disney-based title that is an absolute joy to play. It’s not the greatest of modern platformers but it surely knows how to entertain players very well, and not just the pre-teen crowd.

Chicken Little is a game based on the upcoming Disney film of the same name and one of the game’s strengths comes from the usage of its source material. The movie will be the home to good amount of humor and other things of that sort that most people have come to expect from a Disney movie. Chicken Little holds onto this characteristic of the film by featuring many DVD quality clips ripped straight from the film, not to mention the film’s complete voice-over cast, and a good amount of FMV using in-game assets. However, this information is inconsequential. That which isn’t is that Chicken Little (the game) can be incredibly funny at times. Some may find the humor corny, but if you’re fond of the humor found in the Shrek movies, then you’re sure to enjoy that of Chicken Little. In particular, the dialogue of the overweight pig character, Runt, and the situations he gets into are just hysterical. He’s one of those overly paranoid characters that are scared to death by almost everything and he’s the main source of comic relief in the game.

From a technical standpoint, Chicken Little is one of the better looking platformers I’ve played on the PS2 that has been developed with all three major home consoles in mind. There’s hardly ever any slowdown in the game and jaggies do not seem to be an issue in the PS2 version of the game. I was quite shocked by this fact since I’m quite used to playing PS2 games that have that rough look to them; a look which pains me so much that it feels as if my eyes are going to bleed while playing. Also, like any good platformer, Chicken Little features nicely designed and vibrantly colored levels.

After playing Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge, another Buena Vista Games published title, I feared that Chicken Little would suffer from similar gameplay faults, and those would be repetitive and tedious gameplay and level design. Fortunately, I would not have to suffer from such gameplay aspects this time around because Chicken Little is anything but repetitive.

Chicken Little is an amalgam of many different gameplay types. In the game you’ll come across some platforming and some space shooter action. The platforming elements of the game aren’t too strong but they’re not bad either. You’re likely to have already experienced much of what you’ll encounter in the game’s platforming segments in some other game so there isn’t much, if anything in the game that is new or fresh. You’ll be timing jumps onto moving platforms, swinging from poles, tight-rope walking, zip-lining, etc... It’s all in good fun but there isn’t anything that is extremely challenging -- at least not for the veteran gamer. Also, I’m not too fond of the fact that the game holds your hand when tight-rope walking and "grinding" on pipes or rails since they should be presented as obstacles, instead they’re a false threat that can be easily dealt with.

While there are other types of gameplay elements tossed into the game, including some free-roaming driving fetch quests and some tube sliding stages, the game’s space shooter portions were the most satisfying of the non-traditional platformer elements. If you’re a fan of games like Star Fox and Ikaruga, then you’ll be sure to find the space shooter elements of Chicken Little satisfying. Not only is there a pseudo 2D vertical space shooter element but there’s also a 3D on-rails segment that is very reminiscent of Nintendo’s Star Fox series, featuring double-tap barrel rolls, twin blasters and things of that sort. Since Chicken Little isn’t completely focused on these space shooter elements, you can easily see that they aren’t good enough to make you forget about your copies of Star Fox 64 or Gradius but they’re a nice treat due to the mild enjoyment you’ll find in these gameplay types. Also, these shooter stages present a decent challenge to players but not to the point where players will get frustrated. It’s more like trial and error, in which you’ll memorize the attack patterns of enemies after failing on the previous attempt or two.

The other types of gameplay variety you’ll encounter in the game doesn’t have as important of a role as the ones I’ve emphasized in this review so far, but this is to not say that they’re not enjoyable themselves. The dodgeball mini-game is fairly enjoyable, although I have to admit that it’s far too easy in approach. Additionally, the baseball mini-game is also enjoyable but it doesn’t play anything like a traditional baseball simulation or arcade game. It relies on following a random button sequence and timing the button presses correctly to build up Chicken Little’s swing meter; the more you fill it up, the greater potential you have to hit a home run when the ball finally crosses the plate.

Thanks to the its variety, the more I played, the more pleased with the game I became. It just gets better and better the more you play and because of this it’s easy to find yourself playing Chicken Little for hours straight. The gameplay’s difficulty increases at a steady rate and this is a highly appreciable since gameplay situations never become frustratingly difficult but difficult enough to enjoy a great deal. However, this is not to say that Chicken Little is without flaw.

The game’s biggest flaw is that the enjoyment of the game winds down a great deal when you reach the end. The last few platformer-type stages in the game are incredibly repetitive in design and approach and this is an incredible disappointment since up to this point the game held up so well with its variety. Not only this, but just prior to this final stage, you will have gone through a previous stage which offered the exact same thing, but the difference this time is that various moving platformers and timed jumps have been remixed a tad. It’s a shame that this had to happen.

Chicken Little is not the greatest of 3D platformers but it’s definitely a game that kids will enjoy, in particular those who will enjoy the movie when it hits theaters on November 9th. The game doesn’t bring anything new to the table, nor does it do anything exceptionally well, but it’s still a very good game for what it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if some older gamers even found it within themselves to enjoy the simple nature of Chicken Little’s gameplay and appeal. Variety is the spice of life and Chicken Little has plenty of it.