Capcom’s The Little Mermaid arrived on the NES and Game Boy in 1991, two years after the Disney film that made Ariel a household name. The game opens underwater. That is the whole idea, and it mostly works.
Ariel’s Bubbles and the Six Stages
Ariel’s main weapon is a bubble. She shoots bubbles to trap her foes, then throws them. It is a strange, gentle combat system — closer to tidying up than fighting — and it gives the game a character that most NES action titles of the era did not have.
She can also dig through sand to find treasure and pick up sea shells to break open treasure chests. The chests hold power-ups that increase her bubbles’ power and range. Icons scattered through the levels restore health, grant extra lives, or boost the bubbles further.
The structure runs six stages. In order:
- The Coral Sea
- Sunken Ship
- Sea of Ice
- Undersea Volcano
- Ursula’s Castle, first battle
- Ursula’s Castle, second battle
The two-stage finish at Ursula’s Castle gives the back half a real shape. You climb toward her, and then you climb again.
The Coral Sea, and What Comes After
The Coral Sea is the gentlest of the six, and it teaches the bubble mechanic without punishing you for learning it. The Sunken Ship and the Sea of Ice push harder. The Undersea Volcano is the sharpest test before the castle, and it is where the game’s pacing finally tightens.
Six stages is short. A player who knows the levels can finish this in an afternoon, and the difficulty curve is uneven — the early water is soft, the volcano is not.
Where the Game Falls Short
The bubble-and-throw loop is clever, but it is also thin. Once you understand that trapping and throwing beats every enemy the same way, the encounters stop asking new questions. The treasure chests and icons add a reason to explore, though not a strong one. Digging through sand for a power-up is busywork more often than it is a discovery.
Schedule: Six Stages to Ursula
| Order | Stage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Coral Sea | Opening water |
| 2 | Sunken Ship | Wreck interior |
| 3 | Sea of Ice | Cold stretch |
| 4 | Undersea Volcano | Hardest run-up |
| 5 | Ursula’s Castle | First battle |
| 6 | Ursula’s Castle | Final battle |
The Verdict on Capcom’s Ariel
This is a licensed game that chose an odd mechanic and committed to it. The bubble system is the reason to play, and the six-stage run is the reason it ends too soon. The Coral Sea and the Undersea Volcano are the two stages that matter most, because they show the range the rest of the game never quite reaches.
A 6.6 of 10 is fair. The Little Mermaid is a short, strange, competent action game that never becomes more than its best idea.
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