Nemos Underwater World of Fun
© 2003 THQ, Inc.
This activity pack is one of two Nemo titles designed for Mac/Windows computers. There are a handful of games, each with a corresponding video from the movie and character voices that nicely capture the spirit of the film. Two are acrade-like: Turtle Surfin', where you steer Nemo through streams of turtles, collecting golden shells to earn points; and Feeding Frenzy, a pinball-like game, where you pass balls of kelp to a hungry shark. There are a couple of memory games -- Rock Roll is a game of concentration and the Shell Game asks kids to try to find a hidden fish under one of three scrambled shells. There's a moonfish game, where the school of fish makes a series of shapes, and in simon-says fashion, children try to replicate the pattern. Tribal Music is an open-ended musical creativity game where you can direct an orchestra of sea critters and songs can be recorded. Features include a closed-captioning option (great for pre-readers), and the ability to bookmark games for as many as six different players. We liked the record keeping screen where prizes are collected -- this makes it easy for children to see what they've done. Weaknesses include a sign-in procedure that is confusing to younger children -- our preschool testers confused the fish you're supposed to sign in with as critters to play with. The bottom line? For $20 (about $15 at retail), this is a nice collection of games with a few minor weaknesses. The product nicely captures the spirit of the movie, and succeeds in providing fun logical problem solving opportunities. Created for THQ, Inc. and Disney by KnowWonder.
$19.99, Windows, Mac
Teaches: Memory, logic, music