If the Price is Good Pick It Up

User Rating: 5.2 | Disney's Ariel: The Little Mermaid GEN
By NocturnalThoth | Review Date:
The Little Mermaid allows you to play as either Ariel or her father King Triton as you journey through underwater levels trying to rescue captured merpeople. I cannot accurately say whether or not merpeople is even a word, but it is easier than saying mermaid and mermen all the time. Maybe merfolk would be better, or mermans (combining mermaid/man with human.) That though kind of assumes that taxonomist would allow something that combined humans and fish (or swimming mammals) would be in the same family, let alone species as people. None of that matters since there is a game depicting it and according to most politicians what you see in video games you take as reality.

Ariel moves like an 18-wheeler on an icy bridge. The control is terrible and becomes the toughest thing to deal with throughout the game. The poor control magnifies the strange combat system making even the simplest creature tougher than it should be. Adding to this Ariel has eight directions she can go: up, down, left, right and one direction in between each of those. This means that attacking a creature with your musical notes, yes musical notes, can be more of a process of lining up with them and then charging until you get close enough.

Of all the half-fish people Ariel is without a doubt the hottest mermaid (Darryl Hannah has nothing) so there is definitely something to be said for 16-bit eye candy. But after you have checked her out you cannot help but immediately be drawn back into frustration at how bad the controls are. Also because of her looks I never bothered to play the game as King Triton, he's not nearly as hot as his youngest daughter.

This brings up an interesting point, in the movie why did she change her hair color when she traded fins for legs and went on land. I mean seriously she should have kept the red hair and then the prince guy could have been like, "you look like this hot redhead who saved me other day, she was smokin' too." Of course that is neither here nor there.

If you can get the game for a couple bucks like I did then you should pick it up. Any more than five bucks and I would say, go play some Ecco it isn't worth it.

Other Helpful Reviews for Disney's Ariel: The Little Mermaid

  • Rating:6.4

    For the appropriate age group, a fun game to play...

    By suzabbe | Review Date: Apr 17, 2005 | GEN

    Very easy kids game for Sega Genesis. I played this a while ago, however, not when I was a little kid, as is the target audience but it was still enjoyable. The game is a simple scroll-screen game based off of the Disn... Read Full Review

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