3.5/5 ★ – Mason_D's review of Chicken Run.

(This review is for the PlayStation version) When I was a kid it felt like every major new movie got a video game adaption. In 2021 it feels like almost no movie gets a video game adaption, aside from the odd terrible freemium mobile game or Fortnite promo and it’s just as well because a vast majority of movie licensed games were truly terrible. Much to my surprise, however, the year 2000 gave us the Chicken Run video game, based on the film of the same name and it’s actually pretty damn good. The game is essentially a four hour long stealth fetch quest where the player takes control of various Chicken Run characters sneaking around the film’s farm setting gathering supplies to launch various escape plans. The plot loosely follows the movie and the stealth, radar and game map requiring back and forth transit is highly reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid. Truth be told, MGS is an ingenious point of influence for a Chicken Run game and the stealth gameplay compliments the subject matter excellently. Presentation wise I think Chicken Run does well. The graphics are decent, the music is lifted from the film and is used smartly and there’s some solid voice acting (even if the film’s entire cast doesn’t reprise their roles). The graphics evoke specific art direction from the film while significantly gamifying the farm’s layout and makes for an environment that’s familiar to fans of the film while still being interesting to explore. It’s a fairly simple game, when all things are considered. There’s the odd mini game or puzzle platforming section but the vast majority of Chicken Run is played out in its sneaking sections. The sneaking can be fairly forgiving and there are plenty of tricks to make things even easier, but it’s engaging and exciting as all hell. The rush of just barely making it to where you need to go, maybe nearly getting caught while running from the dogs or farmers, it gets the blood pumping and is the kind of thing that puts me right into the action. Still, the core gameplay loop of running, hiding, grabbing an item and running back would get pretty tedious if the game ran longer than the four hours that it does, which on its own feels pretty short. The mini games and end-of-act stages are also kind of dull in my opinion and don’t add too much to the game. Also, while not outwardly hard, some imprecise controls, camera issues and inconveniently designed missions can make Chicken Run a little bit frustrating at times. Still, though deeply flawed, I think Chicken Run does offer some pretty stripped down and enjoyable stealth gameplay in a surprisingly functional and well assembled movie tie-in video game. I enjoyed the time I had with this game and while there’s not a lot of meat on this game’s bones, what is there stands out and is a better kids game than a lot of the crap that’s usually on the market. If you can get your hands on this one, it’s worth a look.