Video Games Reviews

My 3 year old son has a speech delay. His speech therapist suggested getting him a game that would help him develop eye-hand coordination, learning his colors, letters, etc...I was afraid that the joystick controls would be too advanced for him, and unfortunately I was right. First of all, I couldn't get him to quit turning it on and off (they need to make the buttons less accessable). Then when we did manage to get him to leave it on, he quickly got frustrated with the all the buttons and joystick. I've read the positive reviews, and I wish that I could be positive as well, but.....if your child has a delay this game will be far too advanced. I returned the system the following day.

I bought this for my son, who was at the time [...]. He wasn't much interested in it at that time. Like many others, though, within a few months of having it, the system won't turn on most of the time, and if it does turn on, it'll turn off with the slightest "wrong" move (not yet sure what that is). I know the system may have been "bumped" (and by that I mean lightly) by him a few times, but that was it. My son is now [...] and has shown more interest in wanting to play it, but we not only have difficulty getting it on, the games will no longer show up on the screen (they're all scrambled). We've taken good care of this system and it almost seems as though it's failure is inevitable. I came on this site to see if anyone else was having the same trouble I was, and not to my surprise, they were. My sister-in-law had also bought one the same time we did, and there's was broken even before ours. In my opinion, this is a system that should be $5! Please don't waste your money on this. While the games are nice, it's not worth buying if it's not going to work for long!

My daughter is 9, and has cerebral palsy. She has NEVER in her life been able to play a game of any sort by herself... until V-Smile! She asked for this for Christmas and I was not going to waste the money on something else she couldn't do, but then someone sent me money to buy her a gift from them. I bought the V-Smile, and she spent 11 straight hours Christmas day playing this game BY HERSELF! She was ecstatic! The next day was the same. Her hands can operate the controls, and I put double-sided Velcro on the bottom to stick it to a special table she uses so it doesn't slip. She has played with this consistently since December and still loves it, especially because she can do it on her own. Recently I bought another one for her classroom and she has gotten a blast out of teaching it to the other kids. Now she is working on earning another cartridge (by certain behaviors) - she has already earned one - it's the best prize for her! I just found out that you can add another joystick so 2 people can play and each have their own, so I'm buying it. Never had any trouble with malfunction, and I have to say.... V-smile makes ME smile!

I bought this because my Daughter loves the wiggles. My husband had problems trying to play the games. It is no way suitable for the age 3-5. It should be more like age 5 - 8. Oh but most children that age don't like the wiggles. Why didn't they just make it number recognition instead of addition. I frankly do not no any 3, 4, or 5 year olds who can add numbers beyond the 1 + 1 = 2. Game is just way to hard for the age recommended.

Game Play: 4 out of 10
Graphics: 7 out of 10
Replay Value: 5 out of 10
Learning: 7 out of 10



This was suppose to be released at least 1/2 a year ago, so the expectations are of course high on the highest paid Australian act today, The Wiggles.

The Vsmile system is a brilliant learning system that works to enhance + teach children in several areas, the one true strength of "The Wiggles: It's Wiggle Time!" is it's excellent teaching of Numbers, Math, Letters, Vocabulary & Colors.

The one true downfall of "The Wiggles: It's Wiggle Time!" is the difficult game play. First, the game is in NO WAY designed for a 3-5 year old! There is math involved here (addition) + the Learning adventure are near impossible for children 3-5 years old. Each of the four courses are long & involve careful thinking, otherwise you have a game over quite quickly.

Also a slap to the fan is the music, as the musical 'sound' is similar, but it is in no way a good substitute to the cheerful & quirky songs as played on The Wiggles TV shows or movies.

Still, this game is important to own as it teaches effectively for children, just not children 3 or 4, perhaps 5 and above.

My 5 yr old daughter loves this game!!
She says it's almost as fun playing the game as she had when
she saw them in concert! She just loves Greg,Jeff,Anthony,
Murray and their friends. She quickly taught herself how
to play and really loves the games and silly songs that she sings along with! We only have a few V-Smile smartridges.....
but because they are very good quality...I see our collection
will have to grow...and soon!

Tim Burton returns to stop motion animation in "The Corpse Bride", a tale about the world of the deathly dull living and the lively dead, set in Vicorian era England.

Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) is arranged to be married to Victoria (Emily Watson), so that his family may gain a title from hers and that Victoria's family may gain some money from Victor's, as they're broke. Being Victorian era England, corsets are tight, colours are drab and life is very strict. Everything for the upcoming wedding must be perfect. The local church pastor (Christopher Lee) has special vows for the couple to recite, and he, as well as their parents, are determined they get them exactly right. After humiliating himself at the marriage rehearsal, Victor wanders out of town into the dark forest to learn his vows properly. Role playing with the trees and twigs, Victor masters these vows, and confidently slides the ring onto what he believes to be a dead branch. But it is not a dead branch he has given his vows and ring to, it is a corpse of a bride named Emily (Helena Bonham-Carter), and she has taken his rehearsal very seriously indeed. As far as she is concerned, they are now married, and she whisks poor Victor away to the land of the dead, a world full of singing, dancing skeletons, spiders, green maggots, and blue faced corpses. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, a mysterious Lord Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant) has arrived on the scene, and wants Victoria to be HIS bride. Will Victor escape the world of the dead, and if he does, which bride will he marry?

For stop motion animation, the film is incredibly slick. Every movement flows, and there are no jerky movements, which is usually a characteristic of stop motion (of the earlier stuff anyway). The look and Danny Elfman's score for the piece are typically Burton. I found Elfman's songs a little easier to digest than his ones for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which was nice.

I was pleasantly surprised by the casting of the film. There's Joanna Lumley (from British sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous") who plays Victoria's mother. There's Michael Gough (Alfred from the Burton "Batman" movies, and the Celestial Toymaker from "Doctor Who") as the skeleton Elder Gutknecht. Deep Roy (from "Big Fish" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") sneaks in too, as the Napoleon-esque skelton. But my favourite of the bunch is British character actor Paul Whitehouse (from "The Fast Show") who plays several roles: Victor's father, Mayhew and the "Head" Waiter. He's also in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" as Sir Cadogan, if you want to keep an eye out. I really hope he does some more films, he's a very funny guy.

Special features include a selection of making of featurettes, which contain not only Tim Burton's words on the film, but some behind the scenes footage and the words of several of the actors and crew, as well as Danny Elfman, who did the music and songs. There's no interview with Paul Whitehouse though, which was a shame, but you do get to see him in the "Voices Behind the Voice Featurette", where you get to watch selected scenes of the film and the actors voicing them in the studio simultaneously on the screen. Its interesting to watch, because sometimes a single line of script is edited from several takes (particularly Johnny Depp's, I noticed), and the footage of the actor in the booth jumps about.

There's also an original theatre trailer, a production gallery (that is, a montage of stop motion tests for the characters, among other things), and a music only track for the film.

Recommended for lovers of Tim Burton and of animation. To "The Corpse Bride" you'll soon say "I do... like this movie".

I love Tim Burton since the First Batman, I loved The Nightmare before Christmas and Charlie and the Chocolate factory....
This is just other great creation, the sound is very good and the view too, it's not only the work to do this, it's the movie storie!!!....
Buy it!, you'll never regret....

This is a darkly funny film. Although not quiet as light hearted and clever as its predecessor Nightmare Before Christmas, but it was quirky and cute all the same.

so i went 2 my friends house on monday. we played dream life and it was sooo much fun! u got to do all this kool stuff! im sooo getting this real soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have some advice .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont listen to the bad reviews cuz there is nothing bad about this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My daughter loves to play this game and so does her friends. It lets them truly have a "dream" life. They get to earn money for chores, go to dances, buy clothes, etc.. She loves it.

I saved my money for 2 months to buy this game, and it is SOOO fun.

Yeah, you don't actually get to SEE the actions, but I'm alright with that.

My friend came over and played it for 4 HOURS STRAIGHT. She absolutely LOVED it!!

It DOES teach you good study habits, though!!

(However, I do agree the chore pay-offs are absolutely too high. $[...] to water a plant???!!! I get paid that much to clean the whole house!!!)

THIS GAME RULES.

Barney and friends is better then some others but not as much fun as Winnie the Pooh.

We just got my son a VSmile for Christmas. He just turned three and to be honest I thought it would be more of a toy he would "grow into". Along with the game the unit comes with he received the Wiggles, Barney, and Bob the Builder. I had actually read reveiws and had told people to get Dora and Winnie the Pooh but they were unable to find them so they he got these games instead. The Wiggles and Bob the Builder games both lived up to their horrible reviews. Too hard for a three year old and they won't be interesting for an older child. However, the Barney game was a different story. My three year old loves this game. Yes the fundamental learning skill are very basic- counting, colors, letter recognition, etc- but the activities are really geared toward three year olds. There are actually some parts of the game that my son can play all by himself. We are very happy that he has this game to learn on without getting frustrated.

Like most every game for this system (thus far), the age printed on the box for the would be buyer is not always honest, until now. "Barney: The Land Of Make Believe" (3-5 years) is the lone exception. Also like most the other vsmile games, Barney has excellent character similarities as to the TV show. The Graphics are fine. The music is also similar to the TV show. For easy & immediate play, choose the Learning Zone, all of which are the easiest to play + win, unlike past games & the game play is quite excellent, no boring & pasty short games, the replay value on the Learning Zone is a 10 out of 10, it's done perfectly. The Learning Adventure on the other hand has some unnecessary + boring selections like the 1st (numbers) & last (directions). Yes the game is not perfect, but it has more then enough of fun activates that will not get boring, until your child turns 6. ENJOY!

My [...] has had a leapster(older version and lmax) for 2 years - We travel a lot with my older children and we use the leapster often. It is an incredible machine. My son at a very young age learned to recognize his alphabet - upper and lower letters, numbers, sounds, color combinations, blends and so much more. He loves to play and doesn't even realize he is learning so much. By the time he went to pre-school this past year he was a leap ahead of most kids his age. Now entering Kindergarten - he uses the games that put words together and had a sight vocab of over 30 words - maybe more. I am not boasting about my son but what Leapster has taught him. Of course school was a big infuence as well. Imagine spending hours doing something you love and it's not a video game.

Now, my [...] has the older version and is on his way.

Thanks leap frog for designing something small enough to take along easily and designed to look like my kids big kid games.
I am a big fan.
Sincerely, Michelle McGuigan

4 yr old loves it. Not as bad on batteries as previous reviews led me to believe. Have had it for 3 weeks now and we are still on original batteries.

As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to let my daughter have fun, but also be learning.
This does it! We have the older Leapster. It works with L-Max games. It is durable,teavels well, and the games actually teach something in a fun way.
They need to come up with more games though!!!
This is my first review, but love this so much, that I had to write about it! :)
By the way, it didnt work when I first opened it. Called the customer service, and THEY ANSWERED! LOL The lady brainstromed with me and we finally realized it was alittle piece of tape stuck to the prongs. But the key point is that they answered...real people. And they spent as much time as needed to work through the problem. Kudos, Leapster!!

After buying my daughter (will be 3 in one month) the Care Bears game and found that it was EXTREMELY difficult even for my 5 year old son (before he attended kindergarten), I decided to look for something with a character that is generally aimed at the 3ish age group. This game is excellent in that the 4 colored buttons are generally used instead of the joystick. The numbers sections are excellent and my daughter does really well with them. The only problem with the shapes section of the learning zone is that it really is about patterns, and not about shapes at all. The biggest problem I found is that for the letters section, Elmo assumes that your child already knows his or her letters. How many 3 year olds can actually differentiate between or identify a "b" and a "p" or a "c" and "g", etc. At this age, it's not going to help a kid to sit them down and walk away, an adult or older child needs to sit with them to help them out with the game until they have really mastered it. Overall, I definitely like this Elmo game compared to some of the other games we have. I have also heard the Barney game is similar in that the 4 colored buttons are the main controllers.

My daughter got this game when she was 2 1/2. She loves it! She can actually play it all on her own. We found that the Dora game was a little too hard for her because of all of the joystick use. A lot of the Elmo game can be played by simply using the jump button to move and the colored buttons for the small games. There are also harder levels that would be appropriate for her to grow into or for an older child. I think this game is much better suited for a child aged 2-3 than the game that comes with the Vsmile. She gets too frustrated with that one. I would have given it 5 stars, but the only flaw I see is that Elmo is very hard to understand. A lot of the times she can figure out what he is saying but no always. That's just Elmo though. He's always been a little hard to understand.

This is a good game for a 4 year old. not too easy, but not too challenging. but boy is elmo hard to understand!!! I love the music in this game, but the elmo narration could be better. i know my son doesn't understand half of what elmo is saying and he just figures out what he's supposed to do by trial and error. I love the animation - elmo runs into something and he bounces back and giggles. my son loves it and runs elmo into things on purpose just to see that. really cute. It did not get 5 stars just because the narration could and should be more clear for the little ones to understand. we love having to find the animals and then the letters.

im 12, and this thing is awsome! i swear it has a mind of its own! it is sooo accurate, that if you were thinking of a mini ipod, it would guess it in only 20 Qs! (ive tried it :) )
this is soo fun, and it has a backlight, perfect for those looong boring trips at night, then you just pop it in your pocket! i love this item!

My father-in-law is an eccentric man who is very difficult to buy for. He has been disabled for sometime and was absolutely fascinated by the games on his cell phone. I was looking for something in that vein and thought this may do the trick. HE LOVES IT!!!! He very rarely stumps it and sometimes it makes him belly laugh. Even better is the side effect my mother-in-law gets--- occasional peace and quiet!! Greatest buy ever!!

Wonderful toy.
I played the game when it was on the Internet back 3 to 5 years ago. (and it's back - [...])
I would think of an object then go through the 20 questions several times using the same object to see what questions it would ask. Many times the start questions determine if my object will be quessed in 20 questions (+/-5).
Great fun using your imagination thinking of out of the ordinary animals or objects then going through the questions.

Seriously, no Kaboom! How does this even make sense? It was the preeminent paddle game for the 2600.

I found the games on this particular TV Games plug-n-play console a mixed bag: about half the games were rather fun to play, and the other half were either kinda dull or downright frustrating.


The Good:

PONG- this unit has two versions of Pong, the arcade version, and the Atari console "Video Olympics" version. Both are fairly simple to play, although I'm more familiar with (and better at) the Video Olympics version, which was included in the original Atari joystick-edition TV Games unit (check it out at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000645DD/qid=1104131655/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-0299549-1691908?v=glance&s=toys&n=507846). I must admit, I found using a dial to move my "paddle" up and down was a bit more challenging than the using the stick control I'm so familiar with...

WARLORDS- Both the Atari console and arcade renditions are included here. While I enjoy playing both, I've got a weird dichotomy goin' with `em. Ya see, I almost always win in the console version, and I almost always lose in the arcade version. This is likely due to the fact that the computer adds fireballs to the arcade version after a few moments of play, as opposed to the single fireball that gets tossed about in the console version. Oh yes, and the arcade Warlords opponents are a fair sight more responsive than their console counterparts. In any case, this has become my fave game in the Atari Paddle TV Games system.

CIRCUS ATARI- Another carryover game from the Atari joystick TV games unit, I actually found it easier to play with the paddle controls than I did with the stick. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty lousy at Circus Atari... yet I keep comin' back for more abuse.


SUPER BREAKOUT- Thanks to the fairly wide array of game selections it offers, I found this "super" update much more fun than its predecessor, which is also included here.

DEMONS TO DIAMONDS: A weird combo of Centipede and Space Invaders. Even after all the time I've put into playing this, I'm still not very good at it...


The Bad:

BREAKOUT- After my exposure to Super Breakout, I've had little interest in playing the original version. Besides, I kinda burned out on it when I played it ad nauseam on the twice-aforementioned Atari joystick TV Games unit.

NIGHT DRIVER- Ya gotta stay within the sets of lights and not crash into the oncoming cars. I managed to skate through the easy & medium-skill levels without too much trouble. Ultimately, I found little excitement in playing this, although I do go back to it once in a blue moon, just to see if I missed somethin'...

CASINO- I've always been lousy at card games, and this mini-casino is no exception. Besides, this game doesn't hold a candle to most of the specialized casino plug-n-play units that've come out lately...

CANYON BOMBER- I've tried and I've tried, but I've yet to even come close to staying caught up with the score the computer opponent racks up.

STEEPLECHASE- Like Canyon Bombers, I've yet to come even close to winning this one.

STREET RACER- If this race game was a demolition derby, I'd be the undisputed champion. Unfortunately, the object of the game is to NOT crash into other cars, which I am not very good at...


The Other Stuff:

The controls were pretty responsive. Well, except for "dead zones" at the ends where the knob couldn't turn any further clockwise or counter-clockwise. Most of the games include a "Left/Right Difficulty" setting where you can adjust the knob's responsiveness for an extra challenge.

Overall, I found the Atari Paddle unit a decent entry in Jakks Pacific's TV Games plug-n-play games line. The only real drawbacks I encountered were a few games that I found nigh-unplayable. Fortunately, it contains a nice batch of good games that keep me comin' back...

`Late

I thought this paddle edition of the Jakks retro Atari games was an improvement over their joystick edition. It's easier to control the game options thanks to a lot of interactivity on-screen that lets you know difficulty settings and such. And this one includes arcade versions of Pong and Warlords to boot! I found the control pretty easy to use, though not as great as I remember Atari paddles working (but I was so much younger then, and possibly better eye-hand coordination). This is a great collection of Atari games including Night Driver, Street Racer, Video Olympics (Pong), Warlords (Atari and arcade versions!), Steeple Chase, Circus Atari (also found on the joystick one), Demons to Diamonds, Breakout, Super Breakout, Casino, and Canyon Bomber. Nice mix of driving, tennis, arcade shooters, and breakout style games (pretty much what you want from a paddle!).

There is a two-player edition available that makes Pong a better game. But the computer is not unbeatable, and there are several settings to all of the games that make them what they always were - simple to play classics. I've enjoyed every edition of the TV GAMES so far (Atari, Activision and Namco -- no, I don't have Spongebob or Blue's Clues). The nice thing is they are portable and load quickly. I like not having to unpack and fire up my video game console every time I want a quick diversion. Overall this is a great addition to my growing collection of retro games.

My 4 yr old daughter just received this for her birthday. It is wonderful!! My son also has one and loves his too. Just make sure you purchase the recharging kit--will save you a lot of money in batteries!

Hello,
my son accidently "juiced" the leapster and I thought now I have to buy a new one but after one day on the heater the leapster works like it never happened, a great product.

I have two of these, one Leapster and one L-max that I got for my twins for their 4th Birthday a few days ago.

I let them play with their games for the entire day on their birthday, without restriction...all with a plan in mind...

The PROS:
Once the kids found out how much fun the games are and how easy it is to learn while playing, they won't put them down...you may not feel like this is a 'pro' except that now, I make them earn time on the games. They get 10 minutes for putting their toys away; 10 minutes for making their beds; 10 minutes for helping with laundry, etc...up to 1 hour of play a day...I HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH HELP AROUND THE HOUSE! As Dr. Phil says, "Find their currancy". Well, I have found it. They are doing what I ask, when I ask...if they don't, time gets taken away. I wish I had thought of this while they were potty training! This is working much better than the 'marbles' for allowance system...they have no concept of money yet. Great toy with lots of variations and levels of play. Good Job LEAPFROG!

THE CONS:
I went through 4 sets of batteries (for the entire day) before I sped out the door for a rechargable battery system. I'm going back again today for another recharging system. I've called Leapfrog and they said that the battery packs, themselves, cost as much as the entire recharging kit, so they do not offer additional battery packs for purchase. You can play with just the AC Adapter that comes with the recharging system, but that has been a pain so far, since one Leapster has a battery pack and the other has to be played off the AC Adapter, and then plugged back in to the recharging unit at night to recharge the L-max. I have forgotten to plug it back in a few times and had problems explaining that Mommy's memory is fading and that they will have to wait to play again until the batteries are recharged.

Overall, I love the product. I haven't had any problems so far, but the units are only a week old. We will have to see. I just love how orderly my house is now that I have found a way to tempt them into picking up their toys. And the tantrums are down as well. If they start screaming over anything, they lose time...my house has NEVER been so quiet since the day they were born! YEE HA!