Customer Reviews

Vtech V.Smile V-Motion Active Learning System

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I bought this for my 6 year old son, really excited that now he could have his own "wii" and might actually learn something while playing it. However, the motion controller is really hard to use - it's not very intuitive, and even I can't seem to get it to direct the characters on screen. On most of the games you can choose whether to play with motion or the joystick, and after a few times of trying to use the motion, he now only plays with the joystick because it was so frustrating. Needless to say, this product is not going to get your kids off the couch and moving while they're playing games.

Additionally, I'm not really sure where the educational content is in this product - there's a little bit scattered here and there (i.e. letters, words) but to be honest, he's not really learning much. Most of the games are more like traditional video games - it's almost like they just threw in some letters so they could call it "educational". Our next door neighbors have the Leapster and their mom has told me how much her boys have learned in terms of math and spelling, so I really thought this system would help my son in the same way (definitely not).

I tried to use the v link thing too - they say it's supposed to let me see his progress online. It's pretty weak - it's pretty hard to figure out the relative value of what they're telling me, and it's not really anything more than what I can pick up just by watching him play.

My sister just bought the new Leapster 2 for her daughter and she's already raving about it - plus it has this learning path thing online that tells her actual details about what her daughter is playing - even down to what questions she got wrong. Now that is cool.

My recommendation - buy a Leapster 2 if you want education or a Wii if you want motion - but don't waste your money on this.

I purchased this system for my 3 year old. With that in mind, I did not expect Playstation 3 graphics, so am satisfied with the quality in graphics. The quality did not suffer any more on my 42" LCD than a smaller tv as some have complained about. Bottom line: if you are looking for high quality graphics comparable to PS3, look elsewhere.

The functionality is fantastic. It works for both righties and lefties. You have the option of joystick or motion capabilities with each vmotion game. My child does not have any delays with motion detection as some have complained about. It's functionality is much like any wireless remote.

As far as educational value is concerned, I am very pleased. This does not replace a teacher and only supplements your child's education. With that in mind, there is a plethora of learning content which varies from shapes, letter, number and color identification, math, logic, etc depending on each game. The games are broken up into 3 categories: 3-5, 4-6 and 6-8 years old. There is overlapping, by that I mean my son can play and enjoy the 4-6 age category despite being only 3 years old. It all depends on their educational level and with enough supervision and proper guidance your child will not be limited to a particular category. I advise that the first time your child plays a game you walk him through it. The best part of all is that all the smartridges are compatible with the vmotion. All vsmile games and accessories work on this system, expanding your library of gaming options. Most games also have a difficulty option giving you the ability to choose easy or difficult, so as they progress, it can become more challenging. This is also great for households with younger and older children. I also find that using the motion controller helps develop my young child's hand and eye coordination.

Durability is like any gaming system. If you take care of it, you can avoid issues. If you throw it and treat it carelessly, I am sure it will break.

The joy this system provides my child coupled with the educational content, I have chosen to give this a 4+ star rating. My reason for not giving this toy a 5 star rating, is that in my perfect world, it would be indestructible, it would have PS3 quality graphics and the console and accessories would not be so expensive. I have so far purchased 11 games, the adapter, additional controller and the gym class accessory mat; you do the math =).

Please keep in mind if your child is playing other advanced gaming systems like Wii or playstation, I am sure he will prefer them to this gaming system as this gaming system is not meant to compete with them. As any child will prefer a piece a candy over a vegetable even though the latter is better for him. This is for parents looking for age appropriate educational toys for their children.

I was dumb enough to buy this twice for my son because he loved it. Both times in about a month, the console would not power up anymore. I have since searched the internet & found that 1000's of people are having the same problem. Vtech should listen to there customers & fix this flaw in the console system.

My son received this for his fourth birthday, along with several games for it. It worked fine at first, but he couldn't get the hang of using the controller so it wasn't much fun for him. My six and eight year old played it some, but the games are kind of boring, and this doesn't compare to the wii that we also own.

The graphics on this look like they're from a system that was made 20 years ago.

The games aren't that educational. Don't buy it expecting to enlighten your child's mind.

And all of this is assuming the system even works. After a few months, ours stopped powering on. I found one trick on the v-smile website that says to remove the batteries, hold down the power button for 45 seconds, then replace the batteries, then it will work. A day later we couldn't get it to turn off, so yet another set of batteries was wasted.

Which brings up another fault with this system. I understand that the remote control has to use batteries, but why would you design it so that the system itself uses batteries? That's just dumb.

Overall, this is a poorly designed product. The games aren't that great. The endless supply of batteries required adds to the cost. The are quality control issues with the manufacture.

I'm never buying another V-tech product again.

I BOUGHT THIS FOR MY 5 & 7 YR OLD. THEY BOTH LOVE IT. MY 5YR OLD HAS BARELY GOTTEN INTO VIDEO GAMES HE HAS ADHD, AND HE LOVES PLAYING WITH THE GAMES.
VERY SIMPLE TO USE. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I HAVE TO SAY I CAN'T GET THE V.LINK TO WORK IT SEEMS IT IS STILL NOT OPERATIONAL INT THEIR WEBSITE.

I bought this for my Grandson and am ready to throw it out the window!
The games are so hard to get into the player and I have to ask for help to remove the game from the player. The wireless controller is worthless. It does not make the players move or control their actions.
The on/reset button works when it feels like it. I wish I had not purchased this for him. He's so disappointed and upset and does not understand why he cannot play. I wish I had not made the investment in this product!

Just another piece of junk that needs batteries. Not only does the controller take batteries (understandable) but the console does too! I guess I would be spending a fortune on batteries if my 4 year old actually enjoyed playing it. The conroller is very frustrating and difficult to control, not only that, it's big and clumsy. She typically ends up getting mad and giving up...and so do I.

The games are so uneducational that it's offensive. Kids are smart...these games should be too.

Don't think about putting this system on the big screen in your family room. The picture quality is so poor and distorted, it's hard to make out the characters. I'm sure it would be fine on a small TV...maybe 19" at most.

I would never recommend this product or the games for it to anyone...EVER!

Just got V-Motion for my kids. They are so excited to be playing like the Wii. The numbers and the letter games are great. They are making so much progress with their alphabet and it is truly by playing these games. They are having a blast and the bonus is that it is super easy to set up. This is the best money I"ve spent on a toy yet.

This is the second v-tec game system we have bought. The first was the v smile it lasted less than a year. Had trouble with the game comming on and staying on. When the v Motion came out we thought since the old games would work with this new system we would get it for Christmas. The system takes four double A batteries our you could buy the Ac adapter which we did. The machine has a mind of its own. it only works when it wants to some of the games work when they want to. The joy stick is difficult for my 2 year old and my 4 and 6 year old are bored with it. The graffics are so basic that my kids would rather play on the computer or the wii.I dont recomend this product to anyone. Spend the money and buy a wii. If you want educational programs there are many free sites available online that are basic and fun. We will never buy another V-tec product.

Christmas 2008 I got the Wii for my 13 yr old daughter, and at the time my son was 3. I was afraid he would break the Wii console or scratch a game disk, throw the controller, anything a normal toddler would do, or, get upset if his sister was playing the Wii with friends.

We kept seeing the commercials for this on TV, and my son showed interest in it, so right after Christmas I got this as a beginner game system just for him. I bought the extra controller so we could play it together. I also bought the adapter so we wouldn't have to mess with batteries, and of course, I bought some games. I recently bought the Handy Manny game.

He seemed happy enough at first, and he'd play it, and was very protective of it, it just did not hold his interest as I was hoping it would. Over the last year, he'll get it out once in a while, play it for a few minutes, and move on to playing with his toys. He's a normal very active little boy, not one to sit in front of a TV and watch for hours on end. (Thankfully) I just hope he picks up on this before he totally outgrows it and it's been a complete waste of my money. Everytime he sees the Vmotion in the store, he says happily, I HAVE THAT!! Then he saw the Handy Manny game and said, I want that for my Vmotion! I thought he would start playing with it more if I bought the game since he's so into Handy Manny. He plays with it a little more lately, so maybe he will get more into it.

My son prefers to use the joystick/button option over the motion. He gets frustrated with the motion option, although he uses the Wii controller just fine. We are still on the original batteries I installed a year ago with the controllers.

I can say that this system is very nice, it's somewhat educational, I like how the games can store away right with the console.

Our overall experience with this system, we have not had the problems with powering on/off, it's worked just fine. It is extremely easy to hook up, but the games are very hard to insert and take out. I have to brace against the console and pull very hard. Maybe Vtech should have made an eject button!

His favorite games are the Disney Cars, Barney, Thomas the Train and Handy Manny. The Wall-E game is the dumbest game I've ever seen and wish I hadn't wasted my money on that one. We also have the Backyardigans, Blues Clues, Super Pets, and the game that came with it. They all seem to have the exact same games, but different themes.

Yes, the graphics are basic, like vintage Nintendo. Nowadays, with all the 3d technology, I guess people are a little spoiled expecting the best, but this is an inexpensive Preschool or very young CHILDS game system..it's met my expectations for the price. The wireless and motion are wonderful too. It's nice not being wired to the system. Having a jack for the option to add a wired controller was well thought out too. If it had better graphics, we'd be paying the price of the Wii, defeating the point of a childs game, and my son does not care if it is 32 bit or 3d quality. I wish it did come with 2 controllers, and I wish it did come with the adapter, that added on an extra $30 to the overall price to the system bringing it to $80 being spent before games. That being said, with people comparing this to the old Nintendos, when the PS and N64 came out way back when, they only came with one controller too and those systems were way more expensive, and the extra controllers were as much as the Vmotion system. Not to mention the expensive games, haha.

The Vmotion games are different prices all over, and I found Walmart to be the most reasonable. I got Handy Manny for $19.96 there where the same game was $25 everywhere else. Also Toys R Us has sales at different times for buy one get one free, which is how I got most of the games.

I think it's really a pretty cool system, and wish I had one when I was his age (I had Atari when I was 9)

I can hope with encouragement and by playing along with my son, he will start to like this more. It is good for hand/eye coordination. The number and letter recognition, memory games, colors and mazes are all very good and needed to start kindergarten. He is in his second year of preschool, and they are working on those things, but we as parents also need to work with our kids at home, and this makes a fun way of learning with the kids not even knowing it.

My son has the Leapster2 that he got for Christmas 2008. It is just as educational, and we've never had any problems with that system as well.