Chicken Little: Ace in Action builds on the movie within a movie seen at the end of
Chicken Little, placing Chicken Little and his friends in the roles of space-faring adventure seekers.
Gameplay is separated into three types, though each is fundamentally the same. As you travel from planet to planet, you will play as Ace in on-foot ground missions or as Runt in tank-based ones. These two mission types share the most similarities. You’ll also play as Abby during vertical shooter levels.
Levels are set up as top-down shooters. During these levels, you use the D-pad to move and the face buttons to shoot in different directions. The setup is similar to Smash TV, and may be a little complex for the game’s audience, but works surprisingly well. Enemies come from all directions, so you’ll find yourself constantly changing the direction of your shots while pushing forward towards you next mission goal.
The scheme is different and may feel intimidating, though as you progress through the game, you come to appreciate the flexibility. Regardless of you who you are playing as, the mechanics work the same way, giving you more than enough time to learn how to do everything.
Ace and Abby’s levels are the most enjoyable of the three types, with Abby’s taking a slight edge. Runt’s levels aren’t terrible, but they aren’t as fun as the other two either. A big reason for this is that the tank isn’t the most maneuverable of vehicles and is hard to control. It isn’t to the point that it is unplayable, but it is easy to become overwhelmed by enemies as you wait for the tank’s slower reaction time. Runt’s tank does have a special cannon that can target multiple enemies, but you have to get so close to use it that it isn’t all that useful. Even the inclusion of a “run down” attack doesn’t help and makes the tank a little harder to control.
Two-player mini-games are also available, though I was unable to test them.