Chicken Little: Ace in Action DS Review

If you watched Walt Disney Pictures’ movie Chicken Little, you may remember the “movie within a movie” finale. Drawing inspiration from that scene, Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace in Action becomes a mission-based shooter featuring the alter egos from the film. And just when you think that you’ve got kid-friendly movie licensed videogames figured out, Ace in Action throws enough monkey wrenches into the mix to keep things interesting……and surprisingly challenging.

Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace in Action features three gameplay types, though all are pretty similar in execution and control. You’ll play the on-foot portions as Ace, the superhero alter ego of Chicken Little. The vertical shooter portions are handled by Abby the ugly duckling, and the vehicle (tank) portions are done by Runt the pig. Fish-Out-of-Water provides intel support, in unexpectedly complex ways.

Actually, a lot of what happens in Chicken Little seems strangely complex for a kids title. Besides getting instructions about “cardinal points” and the grenade blast radius during the initial stages, you’ll also be confronted with an unorthodox shooting mechanism. Considering the game is essentially a shooter in genre, the controls for shooting are definitely not the standard fare. Developer DC Studios decided to implement a scheme where you shoot in different directions not by pointing at the target, but instead by using the face buttons that correspond with the direction you’re trying to shoot. So, for example, you would hit the A button to shoot enemies to your right and the Y button to shoot enemies to the left. Though this may seem counterintuitive (and it does feels all wrong initially), the control scheme actually helps to blend the different gameplay types together. This means that whether you are playing the on-foot portions, the vertical shooter portions, or the vehicle portions, the game controls virtually identical. This uniformity applies to other aspects of the gameplay, where (for example) you can perform the same type of dodge/barrel roll/stampede maneuver with the same button combination no matter which mode you happen to be playing. At first, the control scheme seems like a step backwards in terms of how a shooter should play, but the further along you get, the more you appreciate the consistency in control scheme between the different play modes.

The DS touchscreen is used to view a map of the immediate surrounding area (including enemies and uncovered power-ups), and to select from the different weapon types. Besides the standard blaster, all the special weapons are very similar in destructive abilities, though they all look different and some seem to fire at slower rates. The touchscreen is also used to select ground fire whenever you have to get rid of the occasional pesky ground enemy in the vertical shooter sections. Between stages, you can use the in-game currency (little aliens you collect from defeated enemies) to upgrade your shield, blaster, etc. Despite its basic nature, the leveling-up system does add a bit to the strategy to the game, because you decide if your character upgrades evenly or if you want to emphasize their offensive/defensive prowess . The game also has a two player wireless mode consisting of mini-games that I was unable to test for review.

Graphically, Ace in Action is a very competent 3D game. The models and general art are reminiscent of the movie, the backgrounds are varied and colorful, and the different enemies and protagonists are all nicely animated. This extends to the large boss characters you encounter throughout the game, all with their distinct theme and menacing animations. It all looks very clean and runs smoothly for the most part, with the exception of areas where tons of enemies are on-screen at once. Occasionally, there are some foreground objects that temporarily obscure the view of the action, but thankfully you can use the bottom screen map to see enemy positions when those rare moments occur. Besides the real-time action, the game also contains some pretty FMV sequences at certain points to move the story along, in addition to the text dialog. The locales, ranging from Venus, to Jupiter, to an asteroid belt, display enough variety to keep things fresh through the five main missions (which are in turn split into the three gameplay types). The sound design is also very reminiscent of the movie, with generally upbeat tunes contrasted with more menacing and up tempo rhythms during boss fights and later levels. I would definitely recommend playing the game with headphones, since the game sounds sort of muddy through the DS Lite’s main speakers, but clean and vibrant through the headphones.

One of the surprising things about playing through Ace in Action is just how tricky and difficult it can get at certain points. You’ll be cruising along when suddenly enemies spawn around you to complement the already existing set of enemies and turrets. During those moments, you’ll need to use the shield, grenades, and dodging techniques to survive. For the most part, this isn’t a game that can be enjoyed by the younger segment of the gaming population (ages 9 and under I would say). It’s too difficult, the instructions are too complicated, and the controls are too complex for younger gamers. Even older gamers will find a challenging shooter here, and it’s interesting that the game has an old-school feel in that the levels seem very similar to some of the old 16 bit games I played when I was younger, where learning the strategies for each level and determination was the way to beat games. This is definitely unlike some of the easier, brain-dead games that tend to populate the market for younger gamers. The game clearly serves its purpose as a holiday gift for young gamers, though you may want to stick around and help the younger ones get through some of the sticky parts. Older gamers may also want to give the game a try, especially since the game can provide a challenge even to them, and is varied and pretty enough to entertain. Overall, developer DC Studios has put together a very competent, if textbook, shooter with just enough wrinkles to keep things fresh, just in time for the holidays.