36. The Little Mermaid (Capcom, Famicom, 1991)

The Little Mermaid, based on the Disney movie, is the only Capcom-developed Famicom game based on a Disney property that I hadn't played yet at the beginning of this year. Capcom also made two games based on Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, two based on DuckTales, as well as TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck titles that were not released in Japan.

Of all of these games, The Little Mermaid is probably my least favorite. Not to say that it's bad, just not as good. It shares colorful graphics and solid enemy design with these other titles, but the controls are where it doesn't quite live up to the other Capcom titles. Because you play as a mermaid, all of the stages are predominantly underwater, and you have free movement in 8 directions. You can shoot bubbles to trap enemies, after which you can throw them in 8 directions, kind of like Bubble Bobble.

The freedom of movement and generally easy-to-deal-with enemies and bosses mean that the game is not overly challenging from a gameplay perspective, so the levels are peppered with small puzzles to help keep things interesting. Mostly the puzzles boil down to finding a way to throw a shell at a chest to unlock it, but there are some mildly clever setups that feel like they are from a game a generation or two after the 8-bit era.

3/5, even my least favorite Capcom Disney game is still pretty good.