Ariel the Little Mermaid who the player selects, both characters play the same, and feature two attacks for defeating enemies, a "normal" and a "special". Side characters from the film, like Flounder and Sebastian make appearances, and can aid the player in their quest. There are a total of 5 stages, 4 regular, each featuring a boss fight at the end, with the fifth one being exclusively a final boss fight against antagonist Ursula. The Genesis version of Ariel the Little Mermaid has received mixed to negative reviews. "AllGame" gave the game a somewhat positive review, stating a young child may enjoy it, but
Ariel's Story Studio included in "The Animated Storybook Collection", along with four other games in the series. According to Teacher Librarian, the game was produced by Disney Educational Productions, and was a part of their Disney Edu-Station website. While Sebastian the crab and King Triton, Ariel's father, witness that Ariel, the mermaid princess, is not in the music concert that her six older sisters Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina are in, Ariel enters the shipwreck with Flounder and finds a fork and a pipe that were lost in the sunken ship. A shark arrives, but Ariel helps Flounder outsmart a shark