Little Nemo joins the likes of Rayman and Ecco the Dolphin of "cute game for kids that's actually painfully difficult." The first level lures you into a false sense of security with its charming music and cute candy-throwing mechanic. Then the second level smacks you with a dead end that can only be bypassed by climbing off screen. There's no indication that you can do this, and the game only continues to obfuscate from there. Level 3 is a horribly punishing auto-scroller, Level 5 is a laborious, checkpoint-free shuffle back and forth across the entire level to swap animal abilities, and all the while Nemo has no means to defend himself from the infinitely respawing enemies. When the last 2 levels finally give you a direct attack, 1. it's never explained that you can charge up a projectile attack that is mandatory for beating the bosses, and 2. you spend most of the time still using animal abilities so you can't make use of it anyway. The final level is an absolute marathon of precision platforming and 3 boss fights, which is a ridiculous amount of ground to cover should you game over because a crocodile jumped out of the water and knocked you one pixel up into a falling spike ceiling.

Little Nemo has terrific music and great art, but that's about where the fun ends. It's an incredibly frustrating game with a difficulty spike as ridiculous as the spikes that randomly come crashing down on you as you dodge flying squirrels on a speeding train. It's a very odd and uneven experience from Capcom, and maybe it should've stayed in Slumberland.