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 that meanwhile gets stuck in an anchor. Ariel and Flounder Scuttle the seagull her human treasures, but Ariel heads for home with Flounder following after. After Triton orders her not to go into the human world, Ariel collects human treasures in her grotto, while Sebastian watches her under orders from King Triton who wants him to keep her out of trouble, behind the back of Ursula the sea witch and her pet eels, Flotsam and Jetsam. Ursula hates Triton, and she says that he has Sebastian watching over Ariel. With Sebastian and Flounder following her, Ariel watches Eric's ship. Scuttle