Sea Life Safari sure won’t appeal to the Ikaruga set, but it’s not meant to. This $10 entry branches Live Arcade in a pleasant new direction: family gaming that’s fun for parents to play with their kids.

In this nicely crafted Pokémon Snap–alike, you go on dives in five well-varied environments. You’re on rails, so your only job is to aim and zoom a camera to snap photos of everything from killer whales and dolphins to flounder and mermaids. Afterward, a professor scores the photos (he’s a surprisingly tough critic!), and once you’ve done well enough, you unlock the next dive.

It’s as basic as it sounds, and the only real problem is that aiming and zooming the camera requires too much finesse with the thumbstick and triggers for young hands to manage without help. Still, my 4-year-old said the worst part of the game was “having to turn it off,” which probably tells you all you need to know!

On Xbox Live Arcade

+ Good, clean family gaming.

+ Colorful, cute sea creatures in impressive numbers.

- Short and simple, but the controls aren't.

? When's someone gonna make a <i>real</i> diving game? Like Everblue 3? ...Hello?

7.0