Customer Reviews

LeapFrog Leapster Learning Game Finding Nemo

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My kids, who are 5 1/2 and 3, play it every day. They love it!
It follows the movie story line well and uses the voices from the movie. My 3 year old loves to try and find Nemo.
The book features remind me of the Leap Pad books. It reads a story aloud and allows the child to point to a word to see what it says. Even within the book feature, your child can touch the screen to "explore."
There are also 4 games that can be played. My older one likes the games the best.
Well worth the $20.00.

My 4YO son loves this cartridge. The children have a choice of reading the Nemo story or playing one of four games. My son does not really like the story, but it is cute. Admittedly it is difficult for an electronic toy to beat mom's reading!

The games are great. They all have multiple skill levels and are fun and challenging. I often have to force my son to let his Leapster "rest awhile". His favorite game is trying to find the fish in the deep dark ocean. On level 2 words are displayed and you have to find the fish by listening for where the word sound is the loudest. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of fish, but my kid hasn't noticed, he is happy every time he finds one. And, instead of sounding out the A like they do with the other letters, they say "Ay".

The Nemo cartridge also has a hide-n-seek game which teaches comprehension skills. Various Nemo characters and props appear in bubbles and the Leapster asks a question such as "Who helped Nemo escape from the tank?" and the child would need to select the "Gill" bubble. I haven't seen logic games like that on the other cartridge we have.

Overall, the characters are cute, the games are educational and my kid loves it. I'd give this more stars if that were possible!

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

If you've kept up with your kids in this age bracket and read to them a lot like us, we found this game to be very easy for our kid in the rated age bracket, with only a few games providing any challenge on her first try. For instance, asking what characters did what in the movie, that was simple, something she could have done at age 3, she loves the movie and has a good memory. After they do that once, what then? How can it get more complex? It can't. Poorly designed that module.

The story part is ok, but a re-hash of the movie plot just summarized. It defaults to reading to your child from what I could tell by playing it, and a lazy kid will not be pushed to learn. I would rather have it stay silent and then if they need help they could push a button. One thing it does do well is that the words are highlighted as they are read to them. You can go to a mode where you have to read and it won't do it for you, but its not the default. There are not a lot of games on it, for the price compared to PC software, we were a bit underwhelmed at the whole thing, but will try some older rated software for leapster. She does LOVE the leapster she got for Xmas (a few days ago) but she prefers the standard games that come with it to the Nemo ones.

I rate it a 3

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.

My 3-year old received this for her birthday and absolutely loves it. The instructions are verbal and doesn't require any reading skills yet. However, she has learned so much since she had this game. She is a Nemo enthusiast.

This Leapster book is just as good as the movie itself! And of course is a great learning tool. My 4 year old enjoys every bit of it and can't put it down. There is a lot to learn and undestand. The various levels are very challenging, and can interest a child for long time. Hint: Good when travelling long distances instead of switching on the DVD player in the car.

I have a 3 and a 5 year old both girls. I would say their most played games are Pet Pals, Kindergarten, Letters on the Loose, and Get Puzzled. We also have a Diego, a Princess, this Nemo, and an I Spy game that get occassional play. Seems like a good game, but they don't play it very much.

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.

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!!!