The game begins in the Apsen Forest in a training level, where Koda teaches Kenai the bear essentials: how to jump, climb, collect honeycomb to discover secret totems, and collect berries, salmon, and acorns to restore health. Interspersed between levels are arcade-style action games, such as racing to the top of the mountain, the Ice Run, and collecting the most salmon at the Salmon Run. These can be replayed to achieve a better score, or just to enjoy the action again.

Although there are no difficulty levels to choose from , the game increases in difficulty with each level. During each level Kenai must fight and escape Denahi. This is made difficult in the fact that once you enter the fights, there are no health power-ups, and if you die, you start right back out with as much or as little health as you had the first time. The saves are also automatic, and the game freezes up for a good 15-20 seconds every time it saves.

The claim that you can transform into an eagle, wolf or crow is deceiving: these are totems that you use in your quest, but you do not actually transform. The Eagle totem allows Kenai and Koda to fly to otherwise off-limits ledges and across barriers to collect bonus items (the Mystical Pinecone, which gives you an extra heart against the hunter) and to continue the game. The Wolf allows you to jump across super-wide chasms (you only use it once or twice), and the Crow allows you to see hidden objects or paths. There are also three totems that will aid you in your final fight against the Hunter: the Bear, the Sabertooth Tiger, and Golden Salmon. As a bonus, if you collect the six hidden totems, there is a hidden ending.

The 3D graphics are gorgeous: lush forest, snow-covered mountains, raging rapids and waterfalls, and volcanic craters. You can chase rabbits and butterflies for fun, fish for salmon in the river, and avoid grumpy chipmunks when collecting berries. The game did freeze up on my machine in a couple of spots (both in the Valley of Fire), but those were the only glitches I encountered. Brother Bear does require a 3D graphics card and a fair amount of memory to run smoothly (I ran it on an HP Pavillion with 256 MB RAM and an Nvidia TNT 64 MB graphics card).

Overall I feel that the game is too difficult for younger gamers (under six perhaps; the keyboard/mouse controls are rather tricky and very sensitive), but enjoyable for older kids.

Now, I have purchased software that will not work and had to watch my girls' faces when their daddy (a network engineer) could not make it work.