Completion Time: 6h:02m:00s
Rating: 4/10

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A Cup of Good Intentions

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In keeping with the licensed games that I've found myself writing these posts on as of late, I bring you Disney's early-aughts flop "Chicken Little". It's a 3D Platform/Adventure style game based on the movie of the same name, and... it isn't great. Cutting right to the chase here, there isn't a whole lot that I would've expected otherwise to speak the truth, but I think the at least mediocre nature of both the Winnie the Pooh and Muppet games that I've played put me in a positive mood when thinking back on my experiences with this one. No, this is more like The Polar Express than anything else. It doesn't help that it's based on a movie that already doesn't look great, so there isn't much place to go but up, right? Wrong!

How could you see this as anything but grotesque?

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A Tablespoon of One Big Mess

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The first thing that I've gotta say is that at the very least, there is a wide array of different level styles that get introduced in the game, which proves there was at least some planning and thought that went into this one, however it might've panned out. You of course have the standard 3D platforming segments, usually involving going from point A to point B while beating up enemies and solving puzzles with grabbable coins and your trusty yoyo (I guess Chicken Little's famous signature weapon). But you'll occasionally get the oddball stage thrown in. Skateboarding tub segment that reminds me a little too much of The Polar Express? Yep! Driving segment with poor car controls and weird environmental hitboxes? Of course! Segment that's just ripping off Crash Bandicoot but with a goose girl instead of a boulder? You'd better believe it!

Part of me wishes Nathan Drake had played this in Uncharted 4

The core of the issue with the majority of the game is the platforming itself. It's functional at the very least, which is more than can be said for so many others of this ilk, but it's just... so boring. It's like someone dropped a bunch of boxes down and expected you to jump through hoops to grab items or stand around waiting for platforms to come down or whatever it is that Chicken Little's do. It really makes you appreciate a break from the mundanity, which comes with the variety of other level types and mechanics. Only for you to suddenly discover that these are the parts that ARE implemented poorly and barely work. I can't begin to describe to you the lack of joy that I felt when entering the 1st person shooting mode for the first time, and how heavy the movement felt. Something that a PC slider would fix, too bad this isn't a shooter game, so the sensitivity is all out of whack. And try not to get me started on the driving and the piss-poor collision on the objects in the environment. Driving a firetruck through a collection of bushes and houses would be a hassle under normal circumstances, but add this extra detail in and it becomes an exercise in futility.

Nothing quite says fun gameplay like Superman 64 rings

But the worst (and I mean absolute WORST) of these offensives to gameplay has to be the spaceship segments. These aren't difficult to control necessarily, but the bad environmental design comes in full force here. I was constantly running into walls and rocky crags that by every logical assumption I should've been able to dodge. But nope. There are two different styles of this across about 5 levels: topdown and third person. I'd have to say that at least the topdown section kinda works in this regard, perhaps because it's easier to see perspective, but not so much for the other levels. It's even worse when you're collecting these cards like I was, because they put them in out of the way places. That makes sense usually, but not when it's impossible just to play the levels normally. The amount of time I died in these sections was too high to count.

I should be able to make it through this area by tilting the ship sideways right? Wrong, I end up hitting both sides simultaneously

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Completing the Game

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Second verse, same as the first. Or however many of these "verses" I've done at this point, because this keeps with a lot of these types of games. Make it through the game, and then buy minigames or clips or whatever with scattered collectables: that's it, that's the completion process. This game's collectables come in the form of collectable trading cards. But there isn't anything special about them, they aren't "themed" in any way like the cards in, say, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, because Chicken Little is a single feature without a lot to go on. The incentive for collecting these are, in fact, "purchasable" minigames. No one will ever play these with me, and I don't blame them. But I have them nevertheless, in case someone would want to!

Chicken Little's emotionally neglectful father celebrating his collecting trading cards

This game sucks, I'm not a fan of it and it gets pretty grating, especially in later levels where you're forced to perform in those driving collect-a-thon segments (or heaven forbid, the spaceship segments). The most fun this game ever gets would be in the two on-rail style segments that it has, just because of the momentum introduced. But even still if you're approaching this from a completionist perspective, you'll be kicking yourself for having to restart whenever you pass up one of the collectable cards. May I never have to gaze upon this one again.

This is another entry in a series where I go through and complete every GameCube game, as it is the largest part of my video game collection. GameCube Games: 17/652