Chicken Little: Ace in Action has an interesting premise. The Chicken Little
movie ended with the story’s heroes sitting down to watch a movie based on their
exploits. In Ace in Action these same characters are sitting down to play a
video game based on that movie within the movie. You control the video game
action, but the game plays it off as if it is actually Chicken Little and
friends controlling the game. Got all that? If you’re confused you can basically
think of Ace in Action as a game based on the characters appearing at the end of
the Chicken Little movie and starring the super-studly, uber-heroic, Adam
West-voiced version of the plucky little chicken. OK, enough of that, on to the
game itself…
If you haven’t guessed already, Ace in Action is aimed at younger gamers – it
is after all based on a children’s movie. While the action may be on the easy
side for older gamers and the puzzles pretty straightforward, Ace in Action is a
decent little game and will definitely please pint-sized fans of the movie.
Perhaps one of the big reasons that it succeeds is that it borrows very heavily
from one of the top game series on the PS2, namely Ratchet & Clank. The
environments aren’t as detailed, there are far fewer weapons, and the number of
puzzles have been scaled way back, but it is basically Ratchet & Clank.
Players control one of three characters in each of the game’s levels: Ace,
Runt, or Abby, each of whom has his or her own specialty. Ace is the game’s
Ratchet and runs around the planets on foot with his laser blaster/grenade
launcher. Runt also does his thing on the planet surfaces, but does so
surrounded in the comfort of a heavy tank. Abby is the pilot of the group, and
battles baddies in space or in the air above the planets.
As you blow-up bad guys, evil robots, and crates and barrels, golden acorns
are released that you’ll scoop up automatically. These serve as the game’s
currency, letting you buy weapon upgrades for all three characters as well as
some unlockables content. Health and ammo pick-ups are plentiful and you’ll take
a fair amount of damage before dying. When you do there’s no real penalty for
doing so, which is not too surprising considering the game’s target audience.
The difficulty does ramp up a bit as you progress into the game, but there’s
nothing here that will frustrate kids or challenge veteran gamers.
Ace in Action is not one of the best looking games out there and its gameplay
is a bit on the derivative side, but overall it is a surprisingly enjoyable
game. Younger gamers will probably be having too much fun helping out their
favorite Chicken Little characters to notice the game’s shortcomings.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
72%. Ace in Action is an enjoyable game that will
please younger gamers. 
