Chicken Little: Ace In Action Review

When the Wii’s pointer was unveiled and gamers slowly came to grips with it, it became obvious that one of the genres that would greatly benefit from it were shooters. With the ability to easily aim at anything on screen, it was clear that shooters would be a big part of the Wii’s library. Loosely based on last year’s big screen animated movie, Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace in Action is a third person shooter with plenty of personality and action. It offers third person shooter action unique to the Wii lineup, which already has plenty of first-person shooters and even a side-scrolling shooter.

The game centers around the imaginary alter egos for last year’s film protagonists as they battle Foxy Loxy’s devious plans to take over the earth.. They aren’t just neighborhood kids anymore, Chicken Little and his crew are now mighty space warriors. Ace takes care of the on-foot missions with his trusty blaster, Runt takes care of the tank missions, and Abby takes care of the space shooter segments.

Chicken Little: Ace in Action is an old-school shooter at heart. The different gameplay segments are divided into ground and aerial vehicular combat, as well as on foot shooting segments with Ace. The action is controlled using both the Wii remote and the nunchuck. Basically, you steer ace or the vehicles with the nunchuck while you aim with the Wii remote. Controlling the characters using this setup is a breeze, and for the most part, so is aiming at the bad guys. There may be a few times where you inadvertently move the pointer towards the edge of the screen and become disoriented, but most of the time you’ll have no problems navigating the linear worlds.

Ace in Action feels a lot like the arcade light gun games in that you’re basically steering your character into an open area where tons of enemy characters besiege you. Each character has different blasters and bombs, all upgradeable using the loot left behind by blowing up buildings and enemies. Besides upgrading the amount of damage that each blaster deals, you can also switch blaster types to produce different effects, such as a blaster that widens your range of attack. After you finish the enemies in an area off, you usually either flip a switch or head into another open area after collecting the loot they leave behind. It does start to get repetitive, but the game tries to deal with this problem by alternating between the different modes (flying, tank, on-foot) constantly, so that you’re never playing with the same character too long. Ultimately, however, all the modes are actually pretty similar in structure and control, leading to a “been there, done that” feeling. Except for a few sequences when you are overwhelmed by enemies or during a couple of boss fights, you won’t find too much of a challenge in this game, which may or may not be a problem. Chicken Little also offers a deathmatch-style multiplayer modes for two players, though its very basic and won’t really extend the replay value of the game.

The presentation in Chicken Little is surprisingly good. Crisp FMV sequences tell the story and lead you into each mission. The graphics are very much in line with the kiddie space theme by having cell shading and it all looks very crisp. Aside from some weak texture work on certain walls and floors, the game holds up well with the rest of the Wii’s lineup. The billowing smoke effects after you blow something up look especially good and the game throws around a decent amount of particles from explosions and blaster fire. The game has all the basic themes covered (fire, ice, etc.), and the space shooter segments offer a good sense of scale. The characters and enemies also animate very well, with over the top flair that adds to the cartoon atmosphere. The large bosses especially feature excellent animation routines that add to the presentation.

Chicken Little may be aimed at the younger crowd, but most everybody can have fun shooting tons of enemies using the Wii remote. It’s the kind of game you might “buy” for your little nephew knowing that you’ll probably play it as much as he will. In the end, it’s a very solid title in the Wii’s lineup, and a much better alternative in the shooter genre than more publicized titles like Red Steel and FarCry. Gamers who are able to look past the “kiddy” theme will be rewarded with a fun ride through the animated Chicken Little universe.