Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue

Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue is a video game released by Altron exclusively for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS platforms. The game is based on the Finding Nemo series by Disney and Pixar. Like in Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures, the game takes place during the part where the end of the first film left off.
The game was re-released on September 11, 2012 on Nintendo DS and 3DS as a Special Edition to promote the 3D re-release of Finding Nemo. Unlike in the original version which uses silent cutscenes, it uses clips from the movies during Story Mode (using archived voices of characters) when playing each mini-game from each member of the Tank Gang.
==Synopsis==
Like in Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures, the game takes place where the Tank Gang escapes from the dentist's office to find new homes in the ocean.
==Gameplay==
The game almost utilizes the same gameplay like in Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures, usually when the players start with each member of the Tank Gang by helping them escape Philip Sherman's office. To help each member escape, the player must navigate their way across the street to reach towards the ocean. The player must avoid certain types of obstacles such as cars, crabs, and seagulls while navigating each Tank Gang member to the ocean.
The player can earn also tokens (shells in the Special Edition version) for currencies in Interactive Reef mode (a feature not in The Continuing Adventures) where he gets to customize their ocean or aquarium to make it into a beautiful marine environment by adding decorations, characters, backgrounds, etc.
Just like what happened in the previous game, the player will unlock a number of mini-games whenever they complete each Tank Gang member's escape plan. To unlock a new mini-game, they must complete the one in Story Mode first.
===Bubbles===
*Bubbles Pop!: The player must protect Bubbles from sea urchins by dragging the stylus. To earn points, the player must drag bubbles to make bigger bubbles and then pop them before they reach the top screen. To pop them, the player must blow into the microphone or tapping the red bubble icon. Points depend on how big the bubbles are when the player combines them.
*Riding the EAC: The player must guide Nemo and Bubbles while swimming in the East Australian Current with Crush within the time limit. The player can also swim through bubble rings for speed boost. The player must also avoid colliding with other fish inside the current as they can slow down the player.
*Hide and Seek: The player must find the students shown on the top screen before Mr. Ray finds them. To look for students, the player must swim across the reef by uncovering objects to find the students shown in the top screen (such as Pearl, Tad, and Sheldon) to earn shells. The player loses a life if Mr. Ray finds the student shown in the top screen and the game ends when the player runs out of lives.
===Bloat===
*Danger! Sea Urchins!: The player must control Bloat by using the stylus to protect Dory from the sea urchins. If Dory touches a sea urchin, the player loses a life. The player can also collect bubbles along the way to help expand Bloat to help make a safer path for Dory and push multiple urchins at once. Whenever Dory sees a scuba mask, she will swim towards it and the player must use Bloat to push it away since scuba masks can slow down Dory.
*Angler Chase: The player must win a race against the Anglerfish by tapping Bloat repeatedly with the stylus. Along the way, bubble rings help increase Bloat's speed in order to help beat the Anglerfish during a race.
*Octo-Bash: The player must hit the octopus tentacles by using the stylus to score points in a style similar to Whack-a-Mole. Hitting a tentacle holding a sea urchin or a tentacle formed by sea urchins causes the player to lose a life. The player can also earn lives by hitting the tentacles carrying lives or treasure chests. Along the way, one of the tentacles carries Dory and to rescue Dory, the player must hit the tentacle holding Dory three times to rescue her.
===Peach===
*Seagull Attack: The player guides Nigel across the sky while avoiding obstacles, such as sea urchins, seagulls, and sails. If the player approaches a sail, they must press the L or R button to glide through the sails. This can also be used to help avoid the seagulls.
*Fishy Memory: The player must help Dory remember each Tank Gang member in order by looking at the top screen. The player loses a life if they make a mistake by pressing a Tank Gang member not shown in order. To complete the game, the player must finish the sequence.
*Peach Freefall: The player must guide Peach throughout the trench to the bottom of the ocean by tapping the bottom screen to use bubbles to help Peach. The player must also keep her away from sea urchins or they will lose a life. To win this game, the player must help Peach reach the bottom of the ocean.
===Jacques===
*The Dentist: The player controls Jacques to help clean Bruce's dirty teeth within the time limit. To win, the player must clean all of Bruce's teeth.
*Emergency Rescue: The player must use seaweed to capture Moonfish to help complete the outline of a picture shown on the top screen. The player must avoid catching green fish because they do not count towards the objective. Also, the player must keep the seaweed away from the crabs since they can dispatch any fish on the seaweed as well as noticing that any fish caught on seaweed does not last long and they can swim away.
*Minefield: The player guides Jacques across the minefield. To make a safe path, the player must get rid of the mines by loosening the colored chains. The player will also notice that rocks are falling throughout the game, so they must tap the rocks using the stylus to protect Jacques. The player can also call Nemo to help get rid of many obstacles along the way, but this can only be done three times.
===Deb===
*Find Flo!: The player must guide Deb's "sister" Flo (who is in a pearl) by rotating the environment while avoiding spikes and collecting power-ups along the way within the environment to reunite Flo with Deb.
*Sea Trench Shortcut: The player must guide Dory to help escape the trench. Along the way, the player can also collect yellow shells that make Dory invincible for a while. The player must also clear away certain obstacles to make a safer path such as jellyfish and anemones.
*Jelly Fish Bounce: The player must beat Dory while bouncing across the jellyfish forest. There are three types of jellyfish in the game: the pink one which can be bounced on normally, the yellow one which can slow down players with their electric shock, and the green one which can help the player boost across the jellyfish forest.
===Gurgle===
*Seagull Symphony: The player must listen to the rhythm of the song by tapping the seagulls when they enter a colored circle. Points depend on the timing when the player taps the seagulls. In Score Attack, the player can choose any song of their choice.
*Swept Away: The player guides Gurgle and Marlin across the current by moving them on a rock while avoiding obstacles along the way. The player automatically loses if they do not navigate them quickly across the ocean, so they must move them onto a rock quickly.
*Tunnel Passage: The player must create a passage for Marlin and Gurgle by dragging blue sections of the tunnel to make a path for them. While some sections have seaweed on them, the player must move them to make a path. The player should also note that purple sections of the tunnel cannot be moved, so they must create a correct path for Marlin and Gurgle.
===Gill===
*Pier Pressure: The player must guide Gill across the pier of Sydney Harbour to launch Gill across the pier by using the stylus in a circular motion. Upon doing so, the player must launch Gill across the water and tap him repeatedly to earn more points. The player has only three attempts to score a number of points, so the player must be careful in launching him off the pier.
*Sub Escape: The player guides Gill to escape the shipwreck while avoiding sharks. Whenever the player encounters Nemo, he can press the B button to help hide to avoid getting caught by the sharks. The player can also find mines along the way to stall the sharks.
*Pearl Volleyball: The player must press the correct button shown on the pearls to score points by pushing the pearls through the opponent's goal. The player can also blow on the microphone to push multiple pearls at once. The player must score more points than their opponent's to win.
===Nemo===
*Block Pile Up: The player must match three blocks of the same color to fill the outline of a character. When the meter fills, the player can tap to get rid of all the blocks of the same color.
*Picture Shuffle: The player must match the correct picture on the top screen by rotating the pieces within the time limit.
*NemoNemo Tower: The player must collect a number of items shown on the top screen by controlling Nemo holding a clam shell used to stack items in the form of a tower. The player loses points whenever he collects a sea urchin, which also causes the player to lose some items stacked into a tower.
===Marlin===
*Pearl Catch: The player controls Marlin by using a stylus to throw pearls inside a clam within the time limit. If the player throws a pearl at Gurgle, he will do a Clam Dunk by putting the pearl inside the clam to earn more points. While progressing throughout the game, Peach occasionally appears and then moves around the screen to serve as an obstruction, making gameplay a bit more challenging. The player loses a life when they miss a pearl and the game ends when the player loses all lives.
*Landmark Search: The player uses a stylus to trace the path of tiles shown on the top screen to earn points. If the player does not trace the correct path quickly, the tiles begin falling off, so the player must trace quickly. The game gets harder adding more tiles whenever the player traces many correct paths.
*Sea Urchin Bombers: The player uses a slingshot to launch pearls at incoming sea urchins. When a sea urchin passes through Marlin and Dory, the player loses a life. The player can also launch pearls at bombs to take out a number of sea urchins as well as collecting golden pearls that can take out multiple sea urchins at once. When the player advances throughout the game, Peach sometimes appears and blocks the player's pearls to make it more challenging.
===Dory===
*Pearl Blast!: The player controls Dory by using their stylus to launch pearls into her opponent's goal. Whenever the player scores against Marlin, shells will be awarded for the player to collect. The player can also collect gold shells to spawn extra pearls to help score more points. In addition to having a gold shell, the player can also collect a pink shell to close Dory's goal and a pearl that lands on the closed clam causes it to open again. To win, the player must score 20 points before Marlin does.
*Drawing Nemo: The player uses a stylus to draw pictures based on the outline of a character. Whenever the player finishes tracing over the outline, they must tap the check button to score points. Points depend on how well the player traced over the outline correctly. Later when the player advances, crabs appear and can erase the outline of the picture to make the game a bit more difficult, so the player must push them back by touching them with the stylus or by blowing into the microphone.
*Get The Bubbles: The player uses a stylus to pop the bubbles to earn points. The player must pop at least three bubbles to earn points. Pressing the left button shuffles the bubbles while pressing the right button adds extra bubbles, but this can cause the bubbles to reach to the top of the screen. When the player presses a bubble with a Dory icon, Dory will swim by the grid to clear a row of bubbles. The player can also tap the shells matching the bubbles' color to clear the bubbles sharing the same color. When the player advances, sea urchins also appear and cannot be cleared away at all. The game ends when all the bubbles reach the top of the grid.
==Characters==
*Bubbles
*Nemo
*Crush
*Mr. Ray
*Pearl
*Tad
*Sheldon
*Bloat
*Dory
*Anglerfish
*Peach
*Nigel
*Jacques
*Bruce
*Deb
*Flo
*Jellyfish
*Gurgle
*Marlin
*Gill
==Gallery==
Finding Nemo Escape to the Big Blue Boxart (Special Edition).jpg|Special Edition release.
==Trivia==
*Like in Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures, the game's plot featuring the Tank Gang escaping their ways to the ocean was later contradicted upon the release of Finding Dory in 2016, ten years after the game's original release where the Tank Gang finds themselves in the Marine Life Institute still trapped in algae-covered plastic bags.
*This is the second licensed Disney game to be developed by Altron, first being it's predecessor The Continuing Adventures.
Category:2006 video games
Category:Nintendo DS games
Category:Nintendo 3DS games
Category:Pixar video games
Category:Finding Nemo