Just so you know, this game is not any where near child-friendly..
The gameplay is surprisingly great. When I play games based on children's films, I always find myself bored and uninterested after about 10 minutes of through gameplay. But with "Chicken Little," it's different.. I'm actually enjoying it and I find the game pretty challenging (at times). The puzzles are simple but well-laid-out. The consequences you'll face if you fail specific stuff (like unsuccessfully jumping to another platform) are pretty fair. If I may have to say something about this game's age-range friendliness, I'll say that this game is not any where near child-friendly. The controls are simple but the makers added a level of difficulty as to how "smooth" you can control your character.. The puzzles are simple (like I said earlier) but they are challenging in one way or another and some of them are fairly hard to solve (like finding items, finding paths and what-not). There are also mini-games that are pretty fun, like playing baseball and running errands while driving a car, to name a few.. First off, the baseball mini-game is based on arrow-timing (like "Dance, Dance Revolution," for instance). It's pretty cool. Here's how it plays.. As the classic baseball theme plays out, you have to concentrate and try to match the tone (as it passes the "pad") with whatever direction (arrow) appears on-screen with what you press on your keyboard (it's a little hard to explain because I am too tired to even think -- why I'm writing this review when I'm obviously tired is beyond me. lol). The 2nd mini-game that I just mentioned is much like "Grand Theft Auto," but not in every way.. You have to finish the pig's errands (not sure what his name is: Misfit's?) in one neighborhood -- like delivering newspaper, collecting groceries, sending cookies, delivering surfboards, etc. They're good, trust me.
The graphics are cool. The colors used are vibrant (just like the movie) and they're pretty neat to look at. I have the game at the 2nd to lowest screen resolution (800x600) and it still looks perfect (I only have a 64MB videocard). The details are great, believe me.. Although, there are parts where it's too dark to see where you're going. The darkness issue gets frustrating at times, but other than that, I see no other flaws for this game's visuals, what-so-ever.
The sound is a little repetitive. Although most of the tunes are catchy, they get quite old too early. But if you ask me, it's no big deal.. The miscellaneous sound effects (when you smash items, get hit, use your weapon, etc.) are pretty cute and they "somehow" cover the rather repetitive background tune. And there are also occasional lines from Chicken Little himself, so, it's all good.
This game is definitely not suited for children under 12 years old.. There's a level of difficulty to the game, even when you set it to "Easy." And please, please, please trust me on that. I have no idea why they designed this game to be playable by teens and above, when the movie it's based from is a children's movie, but hey, it's all good.. I miss this type of platform gaming.. For anyone who's interested and curious, this game plays just like "Psychonauts" (another awesome platform game).
It's worth the buy (I bought it), and so far, it has not disappointed me yet.. And i'm not sure if it's even going to disappoint me. lol By the way, I originally bought the game for my little sister (she's 11) and when I demo'd it for her, I realized that it's too hard for kids.. I once considered returning it, but instead, I decided to keep it. I played it for about 20 minutes and I liked it so much. This is not exactly the type of games I'm into (I'm more into 3rd-Person Shooters and Racing games, but good 3d-Platformers are an exception at times), and I'm pleased to say that I'm loving it.