Sebastian scares away foes, Flounder moves rocks that otherwise make necessary areas inaccessible, and an original character named The Digger Fish looks for buried treasure.

[5] Generally, critics unfavorably compared Ariel the Little Mermaid to Ecco the Dolphin, arguing that while the graphics were decent, the game was too easy, lacked gameplay variety, and could be completed in a very short amount of time.

[c] Play Time called the enemies' artificial intelligence "half dumb",[21] and Mega's Paul Mellerick wrote that even the hardest part of the game, the bosses, only involved using attacks and taking a few hits.

[21] Reviews from Mean Machines Sega and Aktueller Software Markt noted the jerky scrolling,[4][7] and Consoles + journalist Alex considered the boss battles to be confusing.

[11][24] Baker felt there were still hard moments, such as the bosses, getting chased by sharks, and dealing with a loss of control due to sea currents while enemies still pursue the player.

Consoles + critic Axel found them weaker than other Mega Drive titles; while praising Ariel's animations and the beautiful look of the levels, he felt there could've been more diversity between the stages in terms of visuals.

[12] In terms of renditions of songs from the film, Aktueller Software Markt described them as "beautiful",[7] MegaTech called them "spot-on" and "impressive",[19] while Mean Machines Sega found them too "plinkety-plankety" and non-reminiscent of the source material.