Following the story presented in the movie, players guide Nemo / Marlin / Dori through levels and sub games built around the movie's plot. To start off with, for example, you have to guide Nemo to his first day of school. There's not much actual guiding to do (the game generally pushes you along), but you can earn bonuses and so on by simply swimming through bubbles or collecting seashells. It's pretty straight forward, but considering the audience, that's a good thing - you don't want to confuse the younger players with complicated tasks or confusing controls.

As you progress throughout the levels, the game camera frequently changes, to present the same core gameplay (go from here to here, collect that thing, race those guys etc) but from differing angles; side to side, into the camera, away from the camera, up and down - etc. While it doesn't actually change the gameplay much (if at all), it is visually varied and definitely adds to the experience. Speaking of visuals...

The graphics, for the most part, are pants. This finding might well be exaggerated slightly by the fact that this is a game which is based on a computer generated set of characters, but that would just be "blamestorming". For no apparent reason (the mind immediately assumes "low budget cash-in on the license"...), the graphics (from the quality, color and actual animation of characters and backgrounds) varies from okish to pretty gosh darn appalling. The actual average is "average", and will go unnoticed by some people, but it just smacks of a cheap cash in and is truly disappointing when played within even a few weeks of seeing the amazing film (or the included cut scenes!). That said, it skips along at a nice framerate and the game cameras focus tightly on the action, which is good and the lighting is effective (which adds remarkably to the whole "I'm underwater!" feel).

The actual gameplay itself is actually too complex, on occasion, for its own good. Remember, this game is aimed at kids - young ones at that. As such, simply swimming through bubbles or racing other fish would not only be sufficient, it would be ideal. Unfortunately, Nemo wavers from this ideal from time to time and presents the player with a task that is either confusing or more frequently not even explained. As a result, if you are buying this for a little one, make sure you aren't too far away as you will often have to give little pointers as to what they need to do next. Considering the target market this bizarre reliance on (comparatively) complicated gameplay mechanics is inexcusable.

The sound and rest of the package (including the menus, general presentation) is fine - nothing outstanding, but nothing wrong with it. The menu is reasonably funky (the school of fish from the film are put to good use in graphically describing each level) and your time through each level is displayed once you complete it, so you can later try and improve on that time.