Players begin as Manny, who carries Roshan on his back. Manny can use his tusks, jump and do a belly flop to shake the ground and flip over enemies, which can then be used as trampolines. Roshan can jump from Manny's back and reach things that are high. Sid can do a Tasmanian Devil whirling thing which will smash open objects. Acorns (lives) are scattered all over in obvious places, which is good, as they'll be needed every time Manny/Sid dies while inadvertently standing too close to an enemy. Hazards include lots and lots of pointy things on the ground and in the air, which will cause Manny/Sid to lose an acorn every time they're touched. Enemies are rhinos, dodos, porcupines, eagles, turtles and other animals.

When first beginning play, this game looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Then frustration sets in for the less patient of us. Even though the game isn't very difficult and there are plenty of acorns to keep on trucking with, the number of times Manny/Sid die gets pretty old after awhile. The hazards are entirely too sensitive, as just getting near some things will cause damage. The end result is that players will have to die from most hazards first, in order to learn how to get around them successfully later. And, don't even get me started on the levels with Sid, which feature a forced side scrolling action that will kill off Sid if he touches the left screen. These levels have to be traversed several times in order to learn where all the bad stuff is, then ran through as fast as possible to get to the end without dying.

There are ten levels, all of which are fairly short. Manny/Sid will suffer many hits, especially your first time through any level, but the plethora of automatic save checkpoints and lives will guarantee that only the worst players will not be able to finish quickly. My husband finished this game in a couple of hours, and my daughter was on level three after about 30 minutes (she's no arcade wizard). I played several times, but when I came to the first level that featured Sid, I gave up because I got tired of dying after hitting the left side of the screen.

The characters and backgrounds are all drawn fairly well and are colorful, although not as bright as games such as Rayman. They appear to be fairly close to their counterparts in the movie and are charming. The music is nice to listen to, in a soothing, classical music style.