I've been a Disney fan for years, as they are the movies that I grew up on, but my heart lies with my favorites, such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, and essentially any of them from around that time period and shared that art style. As they've gone on the best Disney movies have tended to be those done by Pixar. With Chicken Little, however, they ventured into their own CG, and though I was prepared to hate it, I actually quite liked the film (though not saying anywhere near their greats). So when I saw Chicken Little: Ace in Action for the DS, I was already prepared for what might be a fun game.

THE STORY SO FAR
The game itself has nothing to do with the movie Chicken Little, as it doesn't feature the characters we followed through that movie's run time. Instead, at the very end there was a dramatized movie that depicted the events of the movie, but instead it was told as a highly stylized Michael Bay-esque action film with a super buff Chicken Little, sexy Ugly Duckling, and a monstrous Runt. Well, of course, that would be the direction Chicken Little: Ace in Action (Chicken Little from here on) would go.

In Chicken Little you play as all three of those previously mentioned characters, as you fight to stop Foxy Loxy and Goosey Loosey from taking over the world. Story typically unfolds through static cutscenes showing characters talking back and forth to each other, and these generally happen before a level starts, though a few times you'll see these moments happen mid-level. Beyond the conversational moments, you'll at times get some CG looking moments, usually detailing some key moment, like your ship getting sucked through a wormhole or beating a boss.

SINGLEPLAYER: GAMEPLAY
Gameplay falls into three different types, based on the character you are controlling: Ace, Abby, or Runt.

Ace seems to be the bulk of the game, though everyone gets a good amount of content. As Ace, you are the soldier on foot, as you run around, shoot your gun at enemies, dodge enemy fire, collect powerups, and complete any secondary missions that may come up. It's pretty surprising coming from a Disney game, but it can get quite tough at times, when you have a bunch of enemies on screen or you get to one of the bosses that deal massive amounts of damage. You're helped along the way by powerups, which do things like give you three-way fire, rapid fire, but these only last for a short amount of time. Luckily, by killing enemies you'll free aliens, which you can use to power yourself up, which you'll need to heal your shields (you have to press the left trigger to activate it – not automatic). The big problem with Ace's level (seemingly every character level problem for that matter) is that they are just way, way too long. Yes, you can close your DS if you need to and can't get to a save point (which is, actually, only possible after you've beat a level), but I don't particularly like doing that, which means I can generally only play the game when I have plenty of time. The DS is made for portability and quick game sessions – Chicken Little completely throws that idea out the window as you are forced to trudge forever to finally get to the end of a level.

In Abby's levels, you are the ship's pilot as you fly through top down shooter levels, much like many of the old arcade games like Galaga for example. Though you are playing as a pilot flying around and shooting, the levels basically have the same feel as Ace's levels. Runt's levels involve him driving a tank around, and are even more like Ace's levels, so though you play as three different characters, it all really feels like you are playing the same thing over and over.

An issue with the game is the controls. The game feels as if it would be more suitable on a console with two thumbsticks, because though the directional pad works to move you around, occasionally you'll accidentally double press a direction and do a dash or roll. The other problem comes in that shooting is controlled by the face buttons, with the button placements on the DS corresponding with the direction you will shoot when that button is pressed. The issue here comes in that to really be something with the gun you need to shoot diagonally as well; which is possible, though you have to press the two buttons that the diagonal you want to shoot is in between, but it doesn't feel natural. Instead, when I played the game, I never once relied on diagonal shooting and instead lined up all shots so it was straight up, down, left, and right shots.

Another problem is that your hands are full enough holding the buttons and such to help you survive through the action, and though collecting upgrades will amount you special bullets you can switch to in the levels, I often struggled trying to change them out while not getting shot; so instead I used my default weapon as long as I could and only switched over for things like bosses when I needed to beat them quickly before they beat me.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are pretty good for the game, though I've seen better on the DS. Still, for what the game is, your main characters (especially Ace) are rendered well and the action is always quick and fluid. The enemies repeat a little too often and the environments are drab, too sparse, and overall boring, but as a DS game it still isn't too bad.

SOUND
No voiceover, sounds that repeat over and over from here to eternity, and music that is only good leads to a less than stellar Chicken Little DS adventure. I mean, come on, Adam West was Ace – you couldn't have thrown us a bone and get some recorded lines from him in the game or anything?

IN CONCLUSION
Chicken Little: Ace in Action is a hard game to classify. On one hand, it is based on a children's movie, but the game isn't based around the characters you saw for most of the movie, but rather an ending gag more than anything else. The levels are also too long and tedious, which means I can't see any kids really being able to sit there for long stretches of time and enjoy the game. Meanwhile, you've got the older crowd who probably won't want to be caught playing a game with Chicken Little on it. In the end, there has been better and there has been worst, making Chicken Little: Ace in Action and okay game, but nothing really more than average at best.

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