Game Review: Finding Nemo: Learning with Nemo
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What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that this game features familiar Disney
characters Nemo and Dory. It is educational -- kids learn
colors, shapes, and counting, as well as mouse skills -- but it
only offers four learning games and not enough of the big blue
ocean to explore.
Families who play this game might want to listen for the science facts, which can be a springboard for further discussion.
Common Sense Media Review
Nemo and Dory are back! The stars of the award-winning film
Finding
Nemo
swim onto the computer screen in FINDING NEMO: LEARNING
WITH NEMO. This software for preschoolers teaches them about
colors, shapes, recognizing patterns, identifying letters,
counting and more.
It's Nemo's first day of school, and his class is going on a scavenger hunt. Dory joins the kids as an adult chaperone. The scavenger hunt takes players to a coral reef, an ocean drop off, the open ocean and the harbor of Sydney, Australia. In each of these locations, kids can click on objects to play four educational games, learn science facts, and discover amusing animations and mini-activities.
The games can be played on three levels of difficulty, including one called "Easy Play" for the player who is as young as 2 or 3. In one game, players count colored eels to match numbers on a grid drawn in the sand. In another, they help Nemo play a bowling game by clicking on shells with the requested alphabet letter. The other two games teach kids about patterns and matching.
After the scavenger hunt is finished, kids are taken to a special undersea sticker area where they can create on-screen pictures using sea-animal stickers earned during the scavenger hunt.
This edutainment software is a visual delight to explore. The interactive underwater environments encourage kids to practice moving the mouse and clicking. The software smoothly incorporates learning into the scavenger hunt theme.
The Easy Play level for the youngest player is particularly well done. When in this mode, the game is less analytical, and it encourages kids to simply explore. For example, in the matching eel game, instead of counting, youngsters just click on any colored square in the grid to make the eels disappear.
The scavenger hunt can be repeated three times to find new undersea animals; and the games and sticker area can be accessed directly from the Main Menu screen. Overall, the developers did a great job with this title; but they just didn't provide kids with enough of the big blue ocean to explore.
Kids looking for more of their favorite clown fish may enjoy the original Finding Nemo video game.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
