Children get around this activity-based program through Melody’s pendant that acts as a gateway to the 5 activity offerings. In Melody’s Daring Dive, Sebastian is (characteristically) worried about the mischievous Melody who should be back at the castle, but who still wants to collect some gems to make jewelry. Kids direct her undersea where she collects jewels while riding dolphins, dodging octopus ink, and collecting air bubbles. Fast arcade action is in store for players in a 20-level activity entitled Too Cool!. Children must melt ice to free a trident from Morgana’s icy fortress using strategic thinking and quick reflexes.

In Aquabatics, players choreograph a delightful underwater dance. In the rehearsal stage, children select dancers, moves, dance patterns, and beautiful music to place in up to 6 different acts of the show. Come performance time, kids sit back and watch their show, complete with a seaweed curtain and a virtual audience. It’s a joy for kids to watch the fish and mermaids perform the carefully selected special acrobatic moves (such as somersaults and barrel rolls) to the beautiful soundtracks.

A creativity area invites children to create a picture storybook. They select from exciting backgrounds, props, characters, colors, patterns, and even sound effects and animated stickers. Virtual stickers can be resized and flipped and placed "just so" with results that are quite impressive.

Finally, what mermaid program would be complete without singing? Melody’s Melodies not only allows children to listen to songs from the movie – here they get to sing along (with the help of a microphone)! The record and playback feature is an adorable touch, as are the on-screen lyrics and highlighted notes on a musical staff.

We think it a little silly that the program is marketed towards girls only because there’s a lot here that little boys can enjoy too. However, we were quite impressed with this title. As can be expected with Disney Interactive behind the scenes, the graphics are gorgeous. This program does suffer from the same problems found in the other titles in the Disney’s Princesses line including a few less than intuitive icons and chatter that cannot be "clicked through" (though it can be bypassed with a press of the keyboard space bar), however it is less bothersome this time around. Kid testers had a great time with this program right from the lively music during install and through each of the playful activities.

Until the end of the year, this title comes bundled with the excellent Ariel's Story Studio (see our review).

Technically Speaking
Minimum requirements are Windows 95/98, Pentium 166 (Pentium 233 recommended), 32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended), and 8X CD-ROM. Though the recommended install requires 80 MB of hard drive space, a "space saver" option that requires a mere 1 MB of hard drive is available for those whose computers are almost topped out. A microphone is recommended.

Skills Covered
creativity, music, strategic thinking, arcade skills.

Educational Value
This title can easily be classified as an "activity center" with a variety of activity styles. Children will experiment with creativity, music, arcade skills, and some strategic thinking. This title is certainly more fun than it is educational.

Entertainment Value
Kid testers were enthralled with this title’s gorgeous graphics and playful activities.

Design
Be sure to show a less patient child the ability to cut through instructions and chatter with the keyboard space bar, as a click of the mouse won’t suffice. Navigation is relatively easy once the icons are understood. We appreciated the program’s automatic saves, especially when our test computer froze up and this feature "saved" the day for our little testers.

Replayability
Most children ages 4-7 will return to this program often. Though there are not a whole lot of activities, the ones included here are quite appealing and have strong replay value.

Dollar Value
This CD-ROM sells for $30 Cdn/$20 US. This lower price represents good value, especially with the bonus Ariel's Story Studio CD-ROM included in the package (until the end of the year).