Chicken Little for Game Boy Advance is an average platformer with a few mini-games thrown in. The game is surprisingly short, though it took me about 3 and a half hours, which is about right (though now that I've played a bunch of other licensed games, maybe this shouldn't be a surprise). The game is not very difficult, apart from bad racing segment and surprisingly difficult final boss. My first impression when I played it some time ago wasn't very good, but having actually beaten it, it's just alright.

The platforming mechanics are pretty simple, you can jump and climb ledges, you can ground pound with your head which is really only useful on bouncy surfaces to bounce higher and to break floor barriers. And you have your trusty yo-yo, which can be used in combat, and used in some platforming later on, acting as a grappling hook. Though to be honest I feel like yo-yo is kind of underutilized and it could've been used in some puzzles or have more utility in platforming, which is kind of what PC/Home Console version does. The enemies you meet along the way aren't a big threat, you'll find platforming obstacles such as disappearing platforms or falling tree branches. Overall, the platforming is rather basic... as a Chicken Little. There are also two theatre levels where you can play as Ace, Chicken Little's super hero alter ego, though technically you can also play as Ace in normal levels by touching a token, but only for a limited time and I'd say theatre levels is where Ace really shines. He can double jump which makes him better to control. The levels are aboard an alien spaceship and feature different gravity surfaces, like you can walk on a wall or ceiling and around spherical objects, which is really cool. The platforming is still nothing to write home about, but due to these gimmicks they're a little more engaging, and the boss battles in these are cool as well because they also feature these different gravity surfaces. You also play as Fish, though it's only for a single level (at least in the main story). It's a bit faster paced, kinda Sonic The Hedgehog-style but not really, you can move fast but watch out for the obstacles, and you have to destroy a set number of thinanigans. Not much to say. As I said, the game isn't very difficult, up until the final boss, which is a surprising difficulty spike. I get it, the final boss should be hard, but the game really wasn't very difficult up 'till this point, maybe the Theatre bosses provided decent challenge but still manageable. The final boss feels like chaos, I died a number of times. Thankfully, dying isn't very punishing, you'll be put at the last transition point and all collected stuff is remembered.

Though Chicken Little is primarily a sidescrolling platformer, there are two mini-games you'll play through main story, and are available in the menu as extras if you want to play more of them. First is Dodgeball. You have you versus opponent in the main field where you can get kicked out and game over, but you also have three companions on the opposite side who can't be kicked out but can assist in throwing a ball at the opponent and dish damage. The damage you deal to your opponent(s) is numerical, RPG style, and thus HP is also numerical, though it's shown as a green bar instead of numbers. I think this is a really cool idea and a unique take on the sport. Not that I played a lot of video games with dodgeball, but I believe not many games did this. I think this is a cool mini-game, I like it quite a bit. The other mini-game is decidedly not however. It's an isometric racing with strict timer. This is a mini-game where I felt like upgrading the vehicle was nearly required, as well as knowing the shortcuts. The driving can be obnoxious, you have aliens that shoot at you and it can be hard to avoid their shots and they can stun your car, wasting time. I didn't enjoy this one.

This game features a shop where you can by upgrades, increase max HP for the three playable, Chicken Little, Ace and Fish. The last one I find odd, because c'mon, he's only in a single level, feels like a waste. Aside from that you can buy new cars for racing mini-game as well as upgrades and color skins. Dodgeball also features new players you can buy and color palettes for the players. All of these can be bought with in-game's currency, being acorns. You can find them in levels, though limited and gain more by winning a mini-game from the main menu. While the main game is really short, there's a lot of extras if you're into that sorta thing. The game also features sound and music test as well as animation viewer for a handful of in-game characters, which as far as I can tell not many games at the time did that, so that's always nice.

The graphics in this game are about average. Some elements can be rough looking, though the characters are well animated for the most part. My favorite animation is Aces' "Death" animation, it's pretty funny. The music is also alright, there are a couple really good tracks but overall it's just alright, it doesn't help that the levels can be pretty long, so the music can become repetetive.

Overall, Chicken Little for GBA is an average licensed game, the main game is awfully short, but there are some good ideas, and it does have lots of extras for 100%, but overall it's just alright. PC/Home Console version is unsurprisingly better than this handheld one, but I'll talk about that version some time in the future.