There has been an abundance of discussion regarding sex, coarse language and violence in video games lately and also on their suitability for kids. The sad fact facing many parents is that the majority of games do contain at a minimum some level of violence or themes that they may not be comfortable exposing their children to. With a release on all three major consoles, the video game adaptation of the new Dreamworks animated film A Shark Tale is definitely a game you won't mind your kids playing.

A Shark Tale is the story of a fish called Oscar, the only playable character in the game. Resembling a freaky Mermaid, er...Merman version of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Oscar is voiced by self proclaimed Rap Superstar, Wil Smith...Well he is in the film at least, however all the characters in the game are voiced by fairly convincing voice-a-likes, but not having to listen to the real Big Willy ‘woo!' and ‘arrrgh!' isn't all that bad. Oscar gets himself dangerously involved with the local shark Mafia and eventually becomes mistakenly labelled a shark slayer in the same style as The Gallant Tailor of Grimm's Fairy Tales fame. Befriending a vegetarian Shark called Lenny, Oscar sets out to save his scales and to become the hero of Reef City.

Aimed at the under 11 age bracket and girlfriends or wives who usually don't like playing video games, A Shark Tale tells a parallel story to the film through a combination of four main game types. These game types are distributed amongst the games 25 chapters and consist of Adventure, Race, Fight and Dance variants. Adventure chapters require the player to sneak or explore their way through various underwater environments completing story-related objectives that usually involve some degree of pearl collecting. Pearls (combined with your fame rating) are used to unlock a substantial amount of bonus material such as development sketches and renders from both the game and film. Items are collected by swimming in a circle around them or by simply swimming close by. Depending on how well you complete a chapter you will receive fame points. Your fame points act as your score and result in your total fame rating increasing as the game goes on.

Race chapters as the name suggests, require the player to race against the clock or another character through bustling under water vistas and cityscapes. These chapters are fast and frantic and as is the case in the opening and closing level, can consist of Oscar fleeing from deep-sea predators such as sharks. Tapping the directional controls up, down, left or right on queue (similar to the quick time events of Shenmue II) will cause Oscar to dodge biting attacks from his pursuers.

Fighting chapters are similar to the boxing games of old with the simple controls of left, right or middle attacks with the directional controls used to dodge left or right. Gradually you will be introduced to powerful attacks and combos to add a little more variety to the action. These chapters are really fun and older gamers will reminisce at the classic button masher goodness as it wears their children's fingertips to the bone. Thankfully the fighting levels are not that long and are separated by plenty of the less intense chapters to provide sufficient rest periods.

Finally the dancing chapters require players to press combinations of directional movements in time with on-screen icons as they scroll past the bottom of the screen. This is quite difficult with a standard controller (especially the later levels that require simultaneous use of the D-Pad and Face Buttons) as the icons scroll past at a breakneck speed. However, if you own a third-party dance mat peripheral you can plug that in and dance around like an epileptic crab instead. If you don't have a dance mat, then expect the dancing chapters to be the hardest of the lot as all the flashing bright colours and shapes can induce hallucinations not uncommon to LSD usage and required a degree of finger dexterity usually reserved for master pianists!

The production values for A Shark Tale are simply superb. The cinematic sequences are up there with the film and the choice of music (MC Hammer, Wild Cherry and Outkast) can not be faulted. The sound effects fit perfectly and overall, the graphics are quite impressive.

The only negative point that really stands out with A Shark Tale is the complete lack of multi-player. If you have more than one rug-rat and their ability to share leaves room for improvement, then expect a few arguments over whose turn it is. The game is colourful and fun and would have been great with a multi-player experience similar to Shrek 2.