Living up to the graphical quality of a Pixar movie is no easy task, but somehow the developers of Finding Nemo have managed to do it. By no means is it anywhere near the detailed perfection that the movie achieved, but it's still pretty good, if not slightly mundane at times. Most of the levels are based on a single theme, and don't stray too much from it, though they are full of brightly colored artifacts that are sure to grab a younger audience's attention.

The music is of equal quality, with the sound effects trailing closely behind. The unexplored ocean depths (or at least what the developers have shown us to be the ocean depths) are full of bubbly, echoic sounds. What redundancy there is will be drowned out by the quality of the audio.

Finding Nemo is a game that looks like it should be for kids, but under the surface you'll find an experience that almost anyone can enjoy, similar to how the movie presented itself to its audience. Everything in here is simple to learn, yet a good challenge to master all the way through.

Finding Nemo's gameplay is level based, and each level is usually broken up into a few different parts. Unfortunately, these parts seem to repeat themselves too often, and things start to become a little redundant. Not all of the game is like this, but it's enough to make you want to throw the controller down after a while.

This is just the type of content that would be suitable for a younger audience. Remember all those cartoons you used to watch when you were younger (or still do)? It was the same episode over and over again with slightly different bad guys each time. Yet it kept us glued to the boob tube week after week.

Most of the game will be spent controlling either the lop-sided lad Nemo or his father, who is trying to rescue him. All of the levels are linear, but there are secret areas you must find in order to unlock all of the bonus levels. Avoiding your antagonists will only get you so far; finding all of the bubble rings, finishing races in first place, or disposing of all those stupid clams will take some extra skill.

Bonus rounds are generally short and consist of puzzles like concentration or those annoying sliding picture puzzles. Most are pretty easy, but some are just a pain in the rear to deal with. Despite their flaws, though, they do keep the game fresh from all of the other monotony.

Since Finding Nemo is geared towards a younger audience, most of the tasks presented aren't too bad to deal with. Getting the hang of things is no problem at all, as most of the game is played with one or two buttons. On the other hand, the hard parts are real hard. They may even be bad enough to turn some kids away from the game entirely.

A simple concept calls for simple controls. Whatever view you have of whichever fish you are currently manipulating, controlling them is usually pretty straightforward. Move and burst are the two most common elements in Finding Nemo, but they are used in enough different situations that repeated mashing of the buttons seems like a new experience each time.

Though the controls are simple, some of the situations you are put in aren't. The game switches from side scrolling to behind-the-fin action. Occasionally you'll even be swimming into the screen, and things here can get quite cumbersome. For some reason the controls just don't feel that intuitive in these situations.

Finding Nemo isn't a blast, but you'll probably get a kick out of playing it, and if nothing else you get to watch some of the beautiful CG from the movie. All in all it's a good game for kids to play, but stay away from it if you're in the mood for something a little bit deeper.