Babble Review: V. Smile Motion Gaming System

Buying a gaming system for your tot is a big decision, and we can’t say expense doesn’t come high on the list. So when we heard V Tech was offering an alternative in the $60 range,  Babble decided to  let our testers give it a go.

The V. Smile Motion is tagged as an “active learning system,” and its games come as “smartridges” (think the cartridges from your old Super NES). Connected to a television, the box looks like your standard gaming system – we found hooking the wires to the TV was pretty simple and we were happy to find a wireless controller in the box.

In terms of graphics, we kept in mind that prices around the web top out at $60. They’re not bad – but they’re also not the sophisticated $199 Playstation 3 slim or even most of your Wii games. That said – our tester didn’t notice a difference, and she was the one having a ball in front of the TV.

So how about all that learning they tout? For the 3 to 7 age group (the target audience of the box), there’s a pretty fair representation of math and reading skills. It depends on what game you buy (we stuck to the starter game that comes with the system) – there are dozens out on the market priced from $12 on up featuring favorites like Kung Fu Panda and NASCAR. The starter set comes with an offer for $5 off your first game purchase, plus free shipping. One major bonus – this is a video game system that makes them get up off the couch and move around.

Conclusion: Judge this one on what it does for the kids, not what it does for you, and you’ll love it.

Get the V. Smile system from Amazon for $49.99 now (in blue) and you’ll qualify for free shipping.