[Tanukitsune]

V-Tech, makers of all those eudcational toys you may or may not have played in your youth, has created a gaming system for kids, that only plays educational games called V.Smile... :eek:

They play "Smartridges" which all seem to be 2D games and most of them plataformers where have to do such things as pick letters to spell word and find items with a certain shape or color (keep in mind this is intended for kids 8 years and younger)...

Is it good news? Yes, because now parents can buy their children a gaming systems where they are sure their kids can't play Rockstar or other violent games, unless they make "GTA: Learn the Ghetto Lingo", that is...
The TV ad consists of a mother constantly saying stuff like "You won't have desert if you don't play your games", "You can stay up late if you play your videogames"...

Is it funny? Yes... A Care Bears game?

It is horrifying? Yes... A Care Bears game? Oh, the humanity! The horror, the funky horror!

[The Seed]

Edutainment is by far my least favourite genre.

I've never learned anything from video games in my life, and i hope to keep it that way.

[custard]

ooooh, when i was little i had a pc maths game that was totally the best! i'm sure little kids will love it if they get some big brand names on it

[TigerShard]

When I was younger, I had really cool math games! I loved Math Blaster. I also had this math game where you are a guy in a school taking pictures of robots and trying to solve a mystery, I played that for hours. Then I had a submarine game called Operation: Neptune which was really fun, except when math problems came up. I enjoyed the game so much I worked through the math problems. As long as the underlying game is fun, I have no problem with edutainment.

[rio]

I remember Math Blaster, that was great. My favorite were the Carmen Sandiego games, those were fun. I don't know about an entire console for edutainment though, theres already a wealth of titles for PC.

Lego Island, though not very educational, was a great kid adventure game.

[Draco2.5]

I wish they would make fun adult edutainment games.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by SamNMax

Lego Island, though not very educational, was a great kid adventure game.

Oh yeah. Got a copy of that for my niece and nephew (second-hand) Thought I'd better make sure the disc wasn't damaged before I sent it to them. 3 or 4 hours later......... well, I'm pretty sure the disc was OK.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Tanuksilcious

Funny, horrifying or good news?

Funny, horrifying, AND good news!

Still, I dunno if I would get this for my kids (if I had kids). Electronic toys are damn expensive and very delicate, and kids today are so freaking spoiled. Already I constantly threaten my nephew with the guillotine if he doesn't put his Xbox games and equipment away right after he's done with them. The other week I yelled at him because he forgot to put away that Xbox steering wheel (it practically sprawled out on the family room floor just waiting to be stepped on and broken). You know what the bastard said? "What are you tawking about, it's only twenty bucks!" I almost strangled the imp! Instead I recomposed myself and replied: "Listen, lard brain, your dad worked his arse off to get you that steering wheel and I am personally telling him what you told me. Now put that freaking thing away or you'll be eating it for dinner!" (His parents thanked me later)

Kids are morons that way, you know. They need their little asses kicked into respecting their crap, we're talking about hundreds of dollars worth of crap here.

[JHousequake]

I remember having a ball playing titles like Word Rescue and Mario Is Missing. Edutainment is very much encouraged but I don't think making a console solely for edutainment is very effiecient. It would be easier just to buy those educational titles for the PC.

Hmm, I think I might dig up my copy Word Rescue right now...

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by The Seed

Edutainment is by far my least favourite genre.

I've never learned anything from video games in my life, and i hope to keep it that way.

Wrong. I bet you know much more about John Muir now

[The Seed]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Wrong. I bet you know much more about John Muir now

Ah, you got me with that one.

OK, so I guess in some extreme cases edutainment can be kinda fun, but that still doesn't justify the existence of that abomination pictured at the start of this thread.

[ConcreteRancor]

Originally Posted by JHousequake

I remember having a ball playing titles like Word Rescue and Mario Is Missing.

Mario is Missing ROCKED. I had so much fun playing that game, but I never beat it. I'd gotten to somewhere like the second to last hallway of doors, and then the family computer was fried by a power surge. We got another computer of course, but I owned Mario is Missing on 5 1/2" floppies, (it was THAT long ago?!?) and our new computer had no such drive. I lost so many good games that way.... Like all my Super Solvers games.

Speaking of which, anyone ever play those? I'm talking about games like Midnight Rescue, Outnumbered, Treasure Mountain, Challenge of the Ancient Empires, Gizmos and Gadgets, etc. Those games were great edutainment. I learned a lot from Challenge of the Ancient Empires in particular.

I also had a great game called Operation Rescue, where you controlled a small submarine. That was a sweet game too. The point was to teach kids about marine biology, although it thankfully skimped on that in favor of the game part, where you got to shoot ink pellets at all manner of hideous sea creature.

And on the more recent gaming front, I've learned quite a bit about history and government from Age of Empires 2 and the Civilization series.

[lakerz]

Technically, I don't think this can be pegged the first edutainment console. I'm pretty sure there have been other systems which utilized the TV as the display mechanism and had swapable titles so to speak. I can name Pico off the top of my head, I think that matches the criteria.

Yeah yeah, I know I'm just being my usual pain in the ass. For what it's worth, I hope this one finds success.