When game playing is learning

By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News

The reviewers: Callum and Toby Ward

VTech's V.Smile console is well-known to many parents who want to combine learning and playing when it comes to video games.

The cut-down console is designed for children aged three to seven and its titles typically revolve around familiar franchises, such as Cars, Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob The Builder.

The games in the titles are geared towards education and help younger children become more familiar with colours, letters and numbers or tasks associated with them such as adding, spelling and sorting.

V.Tech has made a new version of the console called the V.Motion which does away with joysticks in favour of controlling the on-screen action with a Wii-like wireless controller that reacts to movement.

To test out whether the motion controller was an improvement over the original, BBC News employed two veteran gamers - Callum and Toby Ward.

The console has a Wii-ish motion controller.

In their long game-playing career the five-year old twins have tried titles on three consoles - Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and V.Smile.

They have accounts at Club Penguin, are big fans of Spore, the homepage of the family PC is set to the Cbeebies game page and they regularly give their dad hints when they watch him play World of Warcraft - or "Men With Swords" as they call it.

Ugly scenes

They were eager to fire up and try the new console but the changed controller foxed Toby - by far the keenest gamer of the two.

His familiarity with a traditional joystick and joypad made it difficult for him to adapt - at least initially.

Toby's squawks of outrage grew louder when his brother instantly did better at controlling the on-screen characters - George and Jenny.

Callum picked up the idea quickly and soon George was zipping about onscreen thanks to some deft wrist-work by the youngster.

When asked why the motion controller was better than a joystick, he said, succinctly: "It just is."

By contrast, Toby knew exactly what was better about the new console: "The big TV".

Toby mastered the controller too but the residue of his experiences with a joystick tripped him up when rushing to beat his brother's time around the assault course used to familiarise people with the controller.

The V.Motion comes with just one wireless controller and in families where children are competitive (all of them) that lack of a second controller may lead to ugly scenes of violence as it did in the Ward household as they wrestled to see who could use it.

Toby's experience with a joystick was hard to overcome - at least initially

Buying a second motion controller should cost about £16.99.

The graphics on the games for the V.Motion are better than those on the original version. They are a long way from those common on more mainstream consoles but the blocky look, primary colours and tinkly music are perfect for the post-toddler generation.

It should be noted that none of the games made for the old V.Smile work with the motion controller. Playing those older games on the new console means falling back to joysticks.

Trying out the cartridge that came with the console, the reviewers revealed another shortcoming - as far as they were concerned.

In most of the games on the cartridge players can play together but not take each other on. For instance, the racing game on the cartridge lets players drive down the track one behind the other but they are only ever taking on the computer - never each other.

Again for such competitive boys who like to beat each other, often with a stick, at every opportunity this was a problem.

Despite this, Callum declared that he liked the new V.Motion console better than the old one and racing game best of all.

Toby too declared that the new one was easier to play but it had not displaced his affection for one game. "I don't like it more than Lego Batman," he said.