Disney's Pixar Selection

For some reason it's acceptable for an adult to like Disney films and settle down in a cinema full of kids to watch Finding Nemo. But game makers never seem to think those same adults will want to play a video game based on these multi-million pound grossing films.

So games based on popular cartoons and animated films with a U rating are almost exclusively stupidly easy, hence about as appealing to adults as visiting their local swimming pool during the school summer holidays. (And no, not that kind of adult. Tsk.)

We'd like to say Disney's Pixar Selection – a 2-4-1 game consisting of the previously released Nemo's Aquarium and Cars: Radiator Springs 500 – breaks this mould, but it doesn't. Both games are perfectly playable and, together, they make a diverse package of cartoon fun. But strictly for youngsters. Anyone expecting Nemo's Aquarium to provide the sort of universal appeal Finding Nemo did in the cinema is going to be as disappointed as they would be to come home to their pet goldfish lying on the living room floor.

Beginning with Nemo's Aquarium, as our original reviewer of the game, John Thomson says: "it's essentially a glorified Tamagotchi". But instead of looking after weird blobs with beaks, you get to babysit Nemo and his various fish friends.

Do a good job of feeding them their favourite foods and checking the temperature of their water among other things, and they'll grow big and strong enough to escape back to the reef – a heart-warming climax to your efforts.

You also have a few mini-games (mostly memory-based affairs) to play through, which aren't the most exciting we've experienced but do add some variety to what would otherwise be a game largely made up of staring at a fish tank.

All in all, this didn't revolutionise the virtual pet genre when released and there's nothing particularly special in the game, but young fans of the film will no doubt enjoy getting to look after Nemo and having a virtual fish tank on your phone to, er, dip into whenever you like holds some appeal.

It lies with Cars then to make this Pixar package one worth picking up. And Cars does at least provide more action (especially compared to a game about fish).

Taking the form of a 3D racer, the game's main mode – the single-player Tournament – lets you race various cars from the film and unlock new ones as you progress.

On the surface this is all translated into a pretty ordinary game, but Cars does have one or two unique tricks up its sleeve, as noted by our original reviewer Jon Mundy:

"Where the game surprised and impressed us was with its willingness to incorporate fresh new features onto what is an admittedly staid formula. Take, for instance, the introduction of oil slicks. When you first encounter them you'll be encouraged to avoid them, as they will rather predictably cause you to lose traction on corners. However when racing as Giovanni they can be utilized to provide a temporary speed increase via a well timed stab of the 'up' key (which by itself accesses a finite supply of speed boosts)."

Both of these features – and the game's rudimentary Build-A-Track mode, too – don't add masses of depth, but they at least offer something on top of the simple races.

They won't make this game any more appealing to the over-tens either because, as with Nemo's Aquarium, this is very much a game for younger players. And for that audience, getting both of these brightly coloured games in one package will probably be like someone giving me a crate a wine after a hard week's game reviewing. As in, very gratefully received. Both titles are on the average side, then, but together they make a decent all-round bundle of gaming for da kidz.