Accessories

Great game for the Leapster
My daughter received this game and the Leapster for her thrid birthday. I think it is great and she does too. There are short stories that are read aloud. The stories are interactive to some degree in that the characters can be touched (tapped with stylus) and they will add something to the story. As the main story is narrated, the words appear on the screen and are highlighted as they are read. There are several mini-games that are entertaining and educational. For example, one where the player is asked to guide the character through a jellyfish field by bouncing on the large blue jelly fish, or the jelly fish with the number 5, etc. I found it a well put together, colorful, and entertaining game.

Worth the money!!!
My four year old got this for Christmas yesterday and she is hooked! I love it because she doesn't even realize she is learning. She started out finding the "small pink jellyfish" (for example), which she easily knows. Then she is to find the "number 5 jellyfish," which is much more challeging for her. She is so into the game she doesn't even realize she is learning from it!!!

Yea - really??
Out of all of the Leapster Pre-K games, the Finding Nemo game is my 3.5 year old son's, as well as my, LEAST favorite. It's just boring. There are, from what I remember, only four games to choose from.

There is a "Find Nemo" bubble bursting game, where the player bursts bubbles with movie character pictures on them by answering movie-related questions. One of the bubbles will have Nemo hiding behind it. Yep.

Another game is sort of a touch-screen sonar search for something in the dark. The player touches the screen with the pen moving towards where the sonar sound gets louder - sort of like Marco-Pollo - until they reveal about half of a picture of a movie character. The player then guesses what movie character that is from multiple choices at the top of the screen. Yep.

Then there is the jellyfish bouncing game, where the player guides Dori following simple instructions through the jellyfish. I believe there are two levels to this game. The first level has the player touch the correct jellyfish just by following size/color instructions. From a screen of about 7 jellyfish of large and small sizes of about four different colors, the narrator will ask the player to touch the "small, purple" jellyfish. Dori then bounces onto the correct jellyfish that the player touched. The second part of the first level adds capital letters into the mix. The narrator will ask the player to touch the "large, green, L" jellyfish, for example. The second level beefs up the challenge just by throwing lower-case letters into the mix. When my son got this game on his 3rd birthday, he started with the second level which he mastered immediately.

The fourth game is probably the most challenging with two levels. It's an under the sea school crossing. The fish "crossing guard" will ask the player to count a certain number of fish. After the player touches the correct amount of fish, the player then touches the "crossing guard" fish to have the counted school of fish cross the underwater traffic safely. My son mastered this level right away - I think it only counts up to ten.
The second level to the "crossing guard" game is the only game left on the cartridge that my son plays. It throws in addition up to 10 to have the player add the correct amount of fish. Let's say the player needs to choose two numbers that add up to the number "7". The game gives the player an illustration of three schools of fish. One school is made up of 4 fish, the second is made up of 5 fish, and the third is made up of 3 fish. The player has to touch the schools of 4 fish and 3 fish (4+3=7) and then touch the crossing guard. We found that the player cannot fix his mistake if he accidentally touched the incorrect school of fish. The player just has to touch the crossing gaurd and be told he's wrong in order to move on.

The rest of the cartridge is just a read-along with the original movie story. That's it. My son has never had interest in this since he can watch the DVD if he wants to see the story or read-along with mom and a book if he wants to do that.

One more thing - and maybe someone can answer this one for me - While playing the games and reading along, the player earns "sand dollars". We can't figure out where these "sand dollars" are supposed to be used. What sort of reward is the player supposed to receive? Maybe once he reaches a certain amount of "sand dollars" he will get something like a secret code to be used on LeapsterWorld.com?? At this point, for both my son and I, this is just yet another useless feature of this cartridge.

Some Leapster Pre-K suggestions to buy instead of Nemo:
1. Pet Pals (NEW! for '07)
2. Cars
3. Mr. Pencil's Learn to Draw & Write
4. Dora the Explorer Wildlife Rescue

Mom'sreview
I was disappointed in the lack of games on this cartridge as well as the story. There are only 4 games on this cartridge which are not very interesting or exciting. My daughter also has the Disney Princess and Dora Cartridges which are far superior in overall content and games. She really enjoyes the karoke game with the Disney Princess cartridge where she can sing along with Aerial and the Fairy Godmother. The games on the Princess and Dora are also more educational.

Fun while learning
Leapster is a wonderful, durable and entertaining product for young children. The finding Nemo cartridge has kept my 5 year old grand daughter captivated, entertained for hours. While many of the cardridges are very learning skills focused, this catridge emophasizes fun, humor and helping others. Battery life is excellent even when played for hours at a time. The unit survives the beating of a two year old sister without a hitch. The game and cartridge are well suited for a five year old.