Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventure

Finding Nemo was one of the best journeys ever brought to the big screen.  It followed the life of an overprotective father and a son who longed for the day when he could stretch his fins and swim off in the deep blue sea.  The film had emotion, comedic depth, and some of the most likable fish the world will ever sea.  Never one to let us down, Pixar had created another masterpiece, outperforming itself and its competitors, becoming the highest grossing film of the year.

Since the story revolved around the finding of Nemo, fans might conclude that a sequel will never happen.  That's likely the case for moviegoers.  Gamers don't have to get out of the sea yet though.  THQ has jumped back into the ocean with a game that's sure to make a splash.

The first Nemo game followed our fishy friends as they tried to navigate water lands from the film.  Their goal was to make it through all dangerous situations, collect items when possible, and have some fun while doing it.

Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures is a bit different.  Scrap the navigation and exploration elements and replace them with a number of Mario Party-inspired mini-games.  Mini-games that will test gamers' skills by making them press buttons as they appear on the screen. 

And force them to endure the (what's the opposite of extreme?) challenge of pressing buttons as they scroll across the screen. 

That's only the majority of it.  The Continuing Adventures also lets you pick up a few crabs before the time limit runs out.   

Hey, I never said the splash this game made was a good one.  You could, for example, accidentally splash hot coffee on the rug, creating a big, ugly stain.  That hardly attaches a positive connotation to the word.

The story presumably takes place during or just after the events of the film, so the primary goal is to free Nemo's friends from the captivity of an Australian dentist.  While he deals with tooth decay and impacted molars, the fish must find a way to escape from the fish tank, exit through the window, and get into the water before they suffocate.  That's no easy task by any means.

Don't worry kids, the game takes care of most of that for you!  Now you don't have to worry about the prospect of facing and completing a challenge.

One task awaits players at the end of the game's brief introduction: roll the fish (who are now trapped inside of a water-filled plastic bag) into the water.  This is the closest Finding Nemo comes to providing actual gameplay.  Use the directional pad to roll around the area, a land that looks like an unkempt garden.  The red mushrooms look kind of cool, though I would say that being a huge Mario fan.  The strange bush formations and oddly placed patches of tall grass are not going to give kids nearly as much satisfaction as the film's visuals.  The characters are really small, especially when they're trapped inside the water bag.

You have to cross a busy city street in order to reach the ocean, and it's at this point that the game becomes a little like Frogger.  Nothing remotely challenging is uncovered, but you will have to time your movements when crossing the street.  Otherwise a car will hit the bag, knocking the fish backward.  If this continues you'll end up back at the beginning and have to start all over again.  Trust me – nobody wants that to happen.  Nobody will want to experience any part of this game more than once.

But no matter what you will.  There are seven fish to save, and each one must cross a similarly designed garden.  Escaping opens up the first mini-game for that particular fish; beating the first mini-game will cause the second one to open and so on.  This continues with an extra dose of repetition for as long as the game lasts, which is about a couple of hours at best.

It could last longer for young, inexperienced gamers, but don't count on it.  The hardcore gamers of today were once kids.  It wasn't the act of becoming an adult that made us hardcore; it was the act of playing and beating every game to death, from age six and beyond.

It doesn't matter how much you love Finding Nemo because you will not love this game.  The console version (released last year) had some great concepts, but was too easy to provide a significant amount of replay value.  However, if I had a five-year-old son who loved the film, there's no reason why he wouldn't have loved that game.

The Continuing Adventures doesn't have any great qualities.  The concept is terrible, and you can't even tell what it is from the name or the pretty picture on the box.  That's never a good sign.  A game should always be clear as to what it's giving gamers without them having to do any kind of research or – gasp – pick up the box and read the back of it (something you can’t do at stores like Target and Wal-Mart that keep the games locked in a glass case).

Based on the subtitle I thought this was going to be a continuing adventure.  But there's nothing "adventurous" about this game.  There's no real interactivity outside of pressing a button at a specific time.  I didn't buy a Game Boy Advance for this and neither did you.

Gameplay: 4
Couldn't have been more disappointing.  It seems as though Finding Nemo will never get the great gameplay treatment that was given to Toy Story and its sequel.  All you'll get from this title is a bunch of sleep-inducing mini-games.  There's nothing fun about it.  Go watch the film again and leave this one on the shelf.

Graphics: 5
Bottom-of-the-barrel visuals.  Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures will not appease the eyes of moviegoers – young or old – who have been mesmerized by the film's beauty.

Sound: 3
No classic music, sound effects or voice-overs from the film.  Just new stuff that can't compare to the sound of the original.

Difficulty: Super Easy
If you can't press a button as it appears on the screen, clearly you're not old enough to use a computer and don't even have the ability to read this review.  That’s how easy this game is.

Concept: 3
Too slow, too repetitive, too boring.  Several Game Boy Advance games (and even Mario Party) have resorted to this sub-par gameplay tactic, and every time I beg the industry to stop doing it.  Check the sales figures guys.  The mini-game game fiesta is over.

Overall: 3.9
Your kids will get bored and want to play something else.  Let me suggest Monsters, Inc. or Toy Story (designed for the original Game Boy.  Should be easy to find online or at GameStop).  Both are excellent titles.  Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures is not.