Customer Reviews

V Tech - V.Smile Smartridge Bob the Builder

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My son just turned 3 but I got him the V-smile for Christmas. He can't quite guide Bob so we do that together. He LOVES this game. He doesn't need this so much for the education because he knows his alphabet (sounds and letters), colors, shapes and numbers but he has no hand-eye coordination so I think this will help him.

On the LEARNING ZONE part of the game it's got a COLORS game like the one on Alphabet Park, you have to drive Rollie on the right color path to the finish. I like this game because even if you get done first the game says NOW LET'S LET LOFTY FINISH then when he does it says YOU BOTH GOT THE JOB DONE! instead of concentrating on the winner of the game. On the SHAPE MATCHING part you have to find the right shape that matches the shape at the top of the screen ex. there might be a birthday party hat at the top of the screen so you have to scroll down to find the triangle, wich would be the same shape. The COUNTING game is like a race, at the top of the screen it'll have the number 4 and a carton of 4 onions so on the path you've gotta find all of the cartons with 4 onions. Then it'll change to 2 tomatoes, etc. (This game also doesn't concentrate on the winner). His favorite is the ALPHABET SOCCER game wich I like as well. I ask him what letter comes next and he'll tells/shows me the correct letter and we guide the stick to the correct letter.


On the LEARNING ADVENTURE part the MATCH THE COLORS game has pipes of 4 different colors that are leaking, your job is to grab the right paint drops to plug up the leaks. On the LETTERS game you have to go around town to find the correct letter at the top of the screen and you can pick up nuts (or bolts, wichever they are) along the way collecting extra points and hearts. When you're done you go into a building and you collect the tools you need. My son's not ready for the PATTERNS game yet. It'll show spud popping out of 2 color pipes and you have to push those 2 color buttons on the joystick in the right order.
Another game that's on there is a MATCH THE SHAPE game where you have to match different shapes to the holes in the walls (the shapes are made of bricks like the wall but they're on the floor). They're are not circles, squares and rectangles just different shapes though you may see a triangle or hexagon.

We also own The Lion King, Winnie the Pooh and the Alphabet Park (wich came with the system). So far my son's favorite is between this one and Winnie the Pooh. The Lion King is alittle advanced for him (as far as coordination) so I'm gonna save that for later. I highly recommend this game, It's our favorite yet!

Our four year old really enjoys playing this game. The game has all of the familiar Bob the Builder Characters. There are various games where you have to help Bob find letters or numbers, find shapes, colors, etc. You can also select between an easy or hard setting. Our son son has been using the easy setting so it is nice to know that he can grow into this game. The game that our son likes the most, so far, requires you to help Bob as he walks through town looking for letters of the alphabet. The voices sound different than those from the videos and the graphics and sounds are similar to games from the 1980s, but our son still loves playing the game. If your child enjoys Bob the Builder, then I don't think that you will go wrong with this game.

I thought this would be my son's fave since he loves bob. He rarely picks this one to play. He prefers Spiderman and Friends and the one the one that came with the system. Bob just isn't that much fun. As all the games the age ranges are off by a mile. They are asking 4 yr olds to do skills that a kids wouldn't learn till 1st grade. Of course he can guess and finally get them right and move on the moving part that he prefers. Even if your kid is a fan of Bob I'd suggest a different game.

My daughter loves this game, along with the few others she has, like the Care Bears, Winnie the Pooh, Alphabet Game, Lion King and the older cartridge: Little Mermaid. She got it for her birthday and has figured out how to play them very quickly! I'm impressed! I think for a learning tool this has been a great help for her. She has speach impairment and it has made learning fun for her. I find it better than the PS2 games that my husband plays that she has taken a liking in. It's more her age and not just mindless games. It makes them think and they can learn all at the same time. It gives us something both to sit down and do. As a learning tool I find it well worth the money, well with the time put into it to play it!

My 4 year old like the game except he gets very frustrated when he dies which is all the time because the tools fall from the ceiling (which makes no sense) and you lose your life. There is no way to turn on a no-die option for this game. ALso, unlike the other vmsile games when you do the alphabet..it really puts it on order for you when you use the easy levels. In this game you have to go hunting around..yes there are arrows but you can go in multiple directions as that's how the roads are built and it gets VERY frustrating. The other games like the pooh and alphabet park are much better than this gae. Inall, I would say buy a different vsmile game.

My son just received this for his birthday and loves it. He plays it and is learning about colors, patterns, and lots of other good things that preschoolers need to know and review. A definite must for a Bob fan or a boy who is into tools.

most of the vsmile games are relatively similar but the kids like them, because it also makes it easier this way, for them to transition into learning quickly the new games when they come out. this game has a few different variations in some of the games which is nice. my son really took to this game. i would put this as one of the better games released so far. at present i have six of the games released.

This is the third out of four cartridges that my son has. Aside from the freebie that comes with the system, we also have Winnie the Pooh and Finding Nemo. My son reallys seems to enjoy Bob the Builder, although he get easily confused by it sometimes. It usually has to do with the letters parts. I don't normally supervise him while playing (how much trouble can he get into with a video game?) but he invariably ends up calling me to ask for help with the letters sequences, usually on things he should know himself. This is his favorite, but also the hardest one. Finding Nemo is newer, so he hasn't tried all of it yet.

This is my first review and my first v smile cartridge. I just bought the v smile pocket system, case, and Bob The Builder smartridge for my 5 year old sons birthday. I did a great deal of research between the v smile and leapster and feel I made a good decision. He is 5, and I know many of you have children who know their letters and numbers, etc. My son has shown little interest in his preschool class in the letters and the leap pads were not for him. This cartridge is a very good starting point for him as he can do most of the games easily leaving his mind free to learn the info in the game. He is learning rather quickly. My 2 1/2 year old is picking up some things also so I know when my 5 year old is past this smatridge the other child will still get my money out of it. Over all, I think this is a very good game with many different features that hold my sons interest and does not frustrate him with many things he does not understand. My next purchase will be Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo as Bob will be able to progress him to these 2. Thanks to all who wrote their review to help me make a good decision.

Well, I'll start by saying I have my Master of Elementary Education and I am myself a gamer so I am more picky about things than others might be. One thing I don't like about the entire system and all the games is that they are designed so that the screen 'bounces' the whole time your child plays. This is trying on the eyes. That aside, some games are better than others. The graphics are too small on this game and blend in with the background.

Also, there is no game play instruction for the child in any of these games, so you have to figure out which objects are 'good' or 'bad'. For example, in this game, falling books are 'bad', and so is running into the blue cat, which causes you to loose life points. My son wanted to have his character play with the blue cat that is normally part of the stories.

I really expect better overall design and thought about how a child plays a game, and more instruction to the child is needed. Since this was my son's first system, I'd hoped they would provide pointers to him on what to do. In the VSmile ELMO game, one of the internal games gives some direction on what to do (such as: "hit the colored buttons to ...."), but I haven't seen that on this one yet.

Honestly, he was almost as ready to play on the grown-ups Wii bowling game and needed about the same level of assistance from us. When I was a girl, I played Mario Brothers. Perhaps my memory is off, but I thought the graphics back then were a bit better (or at least the same) in terms of contrast between objects internal to the game and it wasn't as hard for me to figure out how to play the game (how to move and what the goals were).

At one point in this game, Bob climbs up on a roof to find missing cutouts while trying to aviod roof pieces of the same tan/yellow color and pattern from falling on his head. Given that the cause of the roof holes is someone kicking brown boulders into the roof, it would have been better to have those as the hazard. They would have been easier to see. As it is, the little squares that fall and look just like the roof Bob is trying to fix blend in too much with the roof so my son doesn't see them coming.

I'll add one other comment: We bought the second joystick hoping that my son's younger sister would one day play with him. The games do not easily guide you or your child through how to select options such as "two player". In addition to that, I would love to see the games have a two player version that allows one player to play on the easy level and one player to play on the harder level. Smart programing would allow for this since many families are like ours and have several kids of different ages that could play the same game, just with minor differences. Failing that, it would be nice just to be able to toggle between the easy and hard settings more easily.