Continuing their fine tradition of releasing top-notch computer animated films, Pixar Studios' latest movie Finding Nemo made a huge splash at the box office this year, reeling in over $450 million dollars worldwide. In its wake was the obligatory drift net of tie-ins and merchandising designed to catch any loose change that may have been floating around, and this of course included a cross-platform video game romp for Nemo and his chums.

The game sticks faithfully to the storyline of the movie, and uses many snippets of the film as cutscenes in-between levels. It's hard to place Finding Nemo in a particular category, but it feels like a platformer even though there's no actual platforms. The game uses a variety of different modes to advance the storyline, although most of your time will be spent in a side-scrolling mode. Some of the other styles including a chase/evasion mode which sees you racing towards or away from something, and an odd kind of hopping mode, where you bounce on shells or heads or jellyfish to reach your objective. It's great that the action varies from time to time, but Finding Nemo still gets repetitive quickly.

The music tends to grate on the nerves too. Which is a shame, as the movie had some great pieces used to excellent effect. Many of the same tracks can be heard in the game, but they loop frequently and thus feel old and worn after only a few hours. The voice work is excellent though, and if it isn't the actual actors from the movie, then the similarity is excellent! The rest of the audio is passable, with some generic water effects and thumps that fit the bill, but don't do anything to impress.

Thankfully it's a very nice looking game. The models and water effects have been greatly enhanced for the Xbox version of Finding Nemo, and it definitely shows. Shadows ripple along the ocean floor as sea-weed and sponges gently undulate and bob in the current. Depending on the area you are in, the entire screen will replicate this effect, making it feel like you're actually playing underwater which may induce sea-sickness in some people I'm sure!

The levels are also of a high standard, and are visually appealing whilst remaining fairly accurate to the film. Occasionally you may be met with an invisible wall or two, but for the most part the areas are as open ended as could be expected from a linear title.

In fact, Finding Nemo rewards exploration of the levels, and it is often necessary to investigate every nook and cranny just to beat the level. For those who love a challenge though, there are plenty of bonuses to be collected when replaying the levels, including defeating all enemies of a certain type, passing through all the bubble-rings, and locating pearls of specific colours. Completing these tasks will open up a bonus mini-game, and there's one for pretty much every level. Beating these unlocks a variety of goodies, including a plethora of behind-the-scenes material that fans will lap up. Some of the mini games can be quite a challenge too, and definitely add replayability to the game for players who love to get a perfect 100% completion rate.

The puzzles in-game can be quite tricky too, which leads to some very frustrating moments, as these puzzles tend to be situated at the very end of a level, and failing to complete them means having to restart that area from scratch next time you play. Be warned now: if you don't like slide-puzzles (you know, the type where you have to rearrange 5 blocks in a 3x3 square to form a picture that you always cheated on as a kid!) then you should avoid Finding Nemo. As the game progresses, you will encounter these puzzles in 3x3, 4x4 and larger areas, and it can be hair-tearingly frustrating to solve the puzzles.

Even more annoying is the fact these puzzles are disproportionately hard compared to the rest of the game, which is really quite simple and short. It often feels like you spend more time on the slide puzzles than on the rest of the game combined, which doesn't make for a fun experience at all. Aside from some frustrating moments though, Finding Nemo is clearly geared towards a casual gamer, which the difficulty and simplistic controls reflect.

Parental Perspective: Don't be deceived by the colourful graphics and G rating; Finding Nemo is a much harder title than you might expect. There is an abundance of tricky puzzles, as well as tough chase sequences with a high frustration factor. Once you get past that however, Finding Nemo is all good, and is sure to please younger fans. There's plenty of clips from the movie, as well as unlockable artwork which shows how Nemo and his friends went from sketches on paper to the great looking characters we see on the screen. If your kids have the inclination to stick with it, they'll thoroughly enjoy Finding Nemo.