The Little Mermaid

"A little big game."

Capcom (again!?) comes with a wonderful game based on a wonderful and classic movie, this time is The Little Mermaid, the tale of a young siren named Ariel that wanted to see what was the world like out of the sea (good for her that it was just a movie, or her final destination could have easily been the local zoo).

Graphics:
Slightly below the average Capcom Disney based game because sometimes there aren’t that many colours, but very good anyway, everything is extremely well designed with the sole exception of Ariel, which is probably the worst looking character (though she looks nice anyway), because the rest of them are excellent. There are cute cut scenes at the intro, ending, and each time we successfully finish a stage, and they look very good.

Music:
All the musical tracks are very happy and they all have the same feel as the main Little Mermaid theme (that one Sebastian sings in the movie and the one played at the title screen in this game), some kind of nice tropical feel. As good as expected.

Gameplay:
The Little Mermaid is much like any other Capcom Disney based game for the Nes, and the only thing that makes it more interesting is the fact that the game is set entirely under the sea. Now, that “only” difference makes the gaming experience completely new because as we are under the sea we are able to move freely almost around everywhere (like a submarine side scrolling shooter). To defend ourselves from all the evil dangers that await us under the sea we are able to throw “deadly” bubbles with our tail, and like if we were playing Bubble Bobble, the enemies will get stuck inside them, then we can pick them and throw them against other enemies or just in any direction we want to get rid of them. What is good is that our “deadly” weapons will get better if we successfully open the various chests (containing pearls) that are scattered around the scenarios, I say successfully because they have to opened with a shell, and sometimes that shell is not there waiting to be picked up, sometimes we will have to look for it (just a little, this game is extremely easy as I will try to explain later). We will obtain more powerful “projectiles” with the red pearls, the green ones are use to enhance our attack range, the better our bubbles are the less shots we will need to make them become bubbles, because normally we need more than just once shot to imprison them.

This game is very easy, one of the easiest I can remember, I beat it when I was ten years a lot of times, I even remember beating it without being harmed, not even once, so if a ridiculous ten years old child is able to beat it without being harmed that means this SURE is an easy game.

Overall:
Even being easy as hell, The Little Mermaid is a very nice and enjoyable game, all I can say is that is as good as any other Disney-Capcom game only that easier, and that can only mean that the game is very good, easier than the rest, but very good.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04