Chicken Little: Ace in Action is an interesting game which takes the intellectual property it is based on and builds its own storyline and gameplay while still focusing on the great characters from the Disney film. In the game you play movie versions of all the main characters. And when we say movie versions we mean that you play a videogame based on the movie within the game. Confused? We'll make some sense of it in a second but basically you play the high strung alter movie ego of Chicken Little and his friends as you fight enemies on foot, in a massive tank and in the air in an interesting 3D platformer that feels like Rachet & Clank Lite - but without all the extra cool gadgets.

In this story within a story you play as Chicken Little and all his friends as they sit down to play a videogame.. based on a movie of their lives that was shown at the end of the CGI animated film. In this movie the kids are all super buff heroes with special talents set in Star Trek style theme with all the bravado and over acting you'd expect. In the game Chicken Little is a buff space captain named Ace; The portly Runt is a heavy duty tank commander and ugly quacker Abby is a space pilot with all the right moves.

Each character tackles a specific location in acts tailored to their skills - The acts on land are Ace's and Runt's forte, while the space combat missions are taken on by Abby. All three characters use mostly the same control scheme, though there are additional functions for Abby's space craft that allow you to move the way a fighter should, albeit in a simplistic manner that youngsters can pick up.. There are a total of four planets for this trio to tackle, with Ace and Runt taking on anything on the planet's surface, while Abby finds herself battling fighters and taking down planetary defenses in the skies and in space.

Ace uses a blaster for the bulk of his combat, but can also use grenades that are abundantly available all over each level - as well as energy for his shield and health. Ace can also use his jetpack to hover briefly, which comes in handy for jumping areas that are certain death the regular way. Runt uses a beefy tank to take on the enemy and those forces are considerably larger than anything Ace will face on the ground. Abby does her best work in the hovership, blasting alien fighters and taking down select targets to keep the boys on the ground from dying.

As the game opens the challenges aren't all that.. challenging. But as the game progresses things pick up for all three of our heroes and the sheer number of enemies increases dramatically. As you get deeper into each level you'll hit checkpoints, collect currency (acornium) and grenades and dying. Because this game is geared towards youngsters you'll find that dying isn't that big of deal in the grand scheme of things. That's because the game is very forgiving if you die - it will simply plunk you right back in fresh as a daisy and ready to renew your fight.

Ace in Action is a pretty straightforward game, but unlike the previous Chicken Little game, this one is actually worth your time because it has a lot of fun moments and offers a bit of replayability. Like any action platformer you're going to find some light puzzling, exploration, secret areas and large boss battles that are fun without being too taxing. As you zip through these missions you'll collect acornium, which can be used to buy unlockable content like concept art, weapon upgrades for all three characters and some nice side challenges for two players.