''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

based on the film of the same name by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

. The

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

versions were developed by

Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developi ...

, whilst the Game Boy Advance version of the game was developed by

Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, ''Tony Hawk's Pro Sk ...

, and its

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and Mac versions were developed by

KnowWonder Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in Irvine, California. The company was formed in March 2005 through the merger of video game developers Backbone Entertainment and The Collective. History Foundation ...

. All versions were published by THQ.

Gameplay

The goal is to complete different levels under the roles of film protagonists Nemo, Marlin or Dory. It includes cutscenes from the movie, and each clip is based on a level, e.g. hopping through a batch of

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbre ...

. The

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

version of Finding Nemo mostly consists of side-scrolling adventure/puzzle stages, along with several minigames interspaced across its length. Each level and minigame is based on a specific scene from the film. The game does not support

saving Saving is income not spent, or deferred consumption. Methods of saving include putting money aside in, for example, a deposit account, a pension account, an investment fund, or as cash. Saving also involves reducing expenditures, such as recur ...

in its Game Boy Advance version, instead opting for a password system to maintain progress.

Plot

Nemo the

clownfish Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...

is excited for his first day of school, and his protective father Marlin accompanies him. While on a field trip, Nemo spots a speedboat in the distance and decides to swim up to it. He is captured by a diver and taken on board the speedboat, which then departs. Marlin chases after the speedboat, but soon loses it. After noticing a diver's mask fall into the water, Marlin chases it down, but is unsuccessful in retrieving it. Marlin meets

Dory A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. It is easy to build because of its simple lines. For centuries, the dory has been used as a traditional fishin ...

, a blue tang who suffers from

short-term memory loss Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

. She tries to help lead Marlin to the boat, but soon forgets what they are doing. They meet a shark named Bruce, who is fish-friendly. Bruce invites them to a party inside a sunken submarine, although Marlin is sceptical of Bruce. In the submarine, Marlin finds the mask that he tried to catch earlier. Dory gets a nosebleed after an argument with Marlin, and Bruce becomes violent after smelling the blood. He tries to eat Marlin and Dory, forcing them to flee the submarine. Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in a fish tank in a dentist's office, and he quickly befriends the other fish in the tank. In the ocean, Dory reads an address on the mask, which points her and Marlin to the city of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

. Upon arriving there, the two fish meet Nigel, a pelican who agrees to take them to the dentist's office. While they are en route, the dentist puts Nemo in a bag to give to his niece. Marlin, Dory, and Nigel arrive at the office, but must depart as Nigel is forced out by the dentist. Gill, a fish in the tank, helps Nemo escape via the dentist's sink. Nemo travels his way through the sewers and into the ocean, where he manages to find Marlin and Dory. Shortly after, a fishing net catches Dory and several other fish and tries to pull them out of the water. Nemo comes up with an idea to get all the fish to swim down. This successfully breaks the net and frees them. After their adventure, Marlin is not as protective of his son, knowing he can look after himself. Dory also spends a lot of time with the two, and she accompanies Marlin as he takes Nemo to school.

Reception

''Finding Nemo'' received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of 27 out of 40 for the PS2 version; and 26 out of 40 for the GameCube version. Reviewing the Game Boy Advance version of the game,

Gamespy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the Ga ...

called the game "a thing of beauty.", whilst bemoaning it as "pretty basic in the gameplay department", ultimately giving the game 2 stars out of 5.

Sales

In the United States alone, ''Finding Nemo''s

version sold 1.2 million copies and earned $30 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 10th highest-selling game launched for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

in that country. The PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. As of November 2005, the game sold more than 5 million units worldwide.

References

External links

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