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 says there is not. Eric tries to tell Ariel a girl's name. Sebastian tells Eric that Ariel's name is Ariel. Finally, Eric mentions Ariel's name to Ariel. Before Eric and Ariel almost kiss, they get squirted with water by Flotsam and Jetsam. Meanwhile, Ursula fumes and transforms herself into Vanessa and bewitches Eric. After Flounder and Sebastian watch as Ariel begins weeping over Eric's loss, Scuttle and his sea friends crash the wedding, not allowing Vanessa to say 'I do'. Flounder helps Ariel get to the ship. Scuttle pulls the necklace off of Vanessa, and Ariel regains her voice back.