Chicken Run

• Release Date: November 15, 2000
• Genre: Action
• Style: Action Adventure
• Similar Games: Tigger's Honey Hunt (PlayStation), Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue (PlayStation), Animorphs: Shattered Reality (PlayStation)

Game Description

Ginger has seen what will become of her chicken brethren at the Tweedy Farm, and things are looking bleak. She soon realizes a better kind of life is waiting somewhere in the world and vows to assist her friends in escaping the farm. After enlisting the help of a rooster named Rocky and two rats by the names of Nick and Foster, she starts planning to flee the coop.

In Chicken Run, players must use Ginger and the other chickens' plans to escape hazardous situations. In the Single Player mode, you'll have to move Ginger and Rocky around the farm while collecting useful items to aid in their escape.

Each mission involves retrieving important items scattered around the farm and chicken coup. Before you can get to the items, however, you'll have to evade watchdogs, the farmer, and his wife. Once all the items have been collected, an interactive movie sequence will play. The first movie involves the chickens dressing like the farmer's wife, and to escape, you'll have to guide them on stilts as they flee from the dogs.

Missions in Chicken Run are timed, and the best times are saved to memory card so you can try to improve on them after the game is finished. Also, pictures from the film are hidden throughout the farm. When one of these pictures is found, it can be saved and viewed in the Gallery.

Movie sequences within the game can also be seen again with the View Movies option, and players can win medals by playing various sub-games, which act as bonus efforts to free chickens. With voices and locations taken from the movie, multiple 3D views, and four playable characters, Chicken Run on the PlayStation will have you saving chickens from a terrifying fate: becoming pies.

Review: Overall

In this videogame version of Chicken Run, you'll have a chance to interact in a 3D world following the same events as the movie. What makes the game fun is that you cannot simply blaze your way through the levels using an assortment of firepower. In this adventure, you'll have to use your head and plan out your escape route.

As your journey begins in the chicken coup, you'll have to avoid some dogs by hiding behind buildings and watching your radar. The goal for the majority of the game is to find and collect certain objects across the farm to build methods of escape. Each time a plan is hatched, you'll have to find the pieces to make it work. It's not as easy as you would think, because you'll not only have to avoid dogs, but also the two humans.

The good news is that you cannot die; if you get caught, you'll just go back to the place where you started. Unfortunately, it can be frustrating starting from the same point and having to make your way slowly past all the dogs and the owners, but there are certain ways of avoiding capture if you've been spotted.

One method that helps is quickly hiding behind a building and putting your back up against it. More often than not, the dogs will sniff right in your area and then walk away. Even if you do get caught, you can save your game so that you don't have to start at the very beginning.

One of the great things about this game is how closely it follows the events from the movie. Once you collect the dress and other items for the first escape attempt, you'll watch a movie scene where the chickens dress up like the farmer's wife. When the dogs notice who you really are, you then take control of the chickens. You simply have to keep them balanced as they're running, and once you win this scenario, you go back to the coup.

After you safely get the chickens away from the dogs, you'll have three different escape scenario options. Each scenario requires that you find separate items, and it's best to do them one at a time. Plus, each attempt has a completely different "contact." You'll have to go to another coup to talk to a different chicken that has the skills to build the device you're finding the parts for. It's possible to just gather items randomly and eventually collect enough for an attempt, but it's best to focus on one to avoid confusion.

Chicken Run's style of gameplay is not for everyone. There are no weapons of any sort and you won't be resorting to violence when confronted by the dogs (though you can throw things to stall them). It can also get a bit tedious, because you're always doing the same thing: looking for items. However, fans of the movie should enjoy re-enacting their favorite scenes, and the game has all of the escape attempts that made the film funny. You can also view clips from the movie with each scenario, so it's like you're participating in the film itself.

If you're tired of traditional 3D platform games and first-person shooters, then Chicken Run should be a welcome surprise. It's a comical game that children will be able to enjoy as well as older audiences looking for something they can just pick up and start playing. Chicken Run is not a challenging game with endless replay value, but it will keep you interested from start to finish.

Review: Enjoyment

Once you get the hang of avoiding the dogs and not getting caught, you'll have a fun time putting together the contraptions to escape. You also gain the ability to go to other areas of the coup and farm with each level.

Review: Graphics

The movie scenes look exactly like that of the movie and the game animation is pretty close to it, albeit less detail. It's sometimes difficult to see that far ahead of you because of the camera angles, but other than that, they are well done.

Review: Sound

Most of the game is fairly quiet, but the voices are similar to those found in the movie and you'll hear grumbling noises coming from the farmer and growling from the dogs.

Review: Replay Value

{*Chicken Run} feels more like a movie that you get to participate in rather than a traditional game, although it is fun while it lasts.

Review: Documentation

All of the help buttons, controls and explanations for gameplay can be found in the game manual. It even shows the details of each act (level).

Production Credits

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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