Great idea, terrible product
A couple years ago I purchased the TV version of this, along with about 15 games. The system did not work, so I took it back for a new one. That still did not work right, so I purchased the hand held version. That one had a short in it, so I took it back for a second one. That one worked for maybe 3 or 4 minutes at a time (after you spent 10 minutes trying to get it to work), so I sent it in for a new one. My 3rd one (and 5th V Smile system) still does not work right - it still acts like it has a short in it, like the others I had. I have spent literally hours trying to get these to work - with no luck. My kids are dying to play all these great games, but we can't get any system to work. I would NEVER purchase this product - I have spent a bunch of time andmoney on this and my children have gotten zero play time out of it.

Works Great So Far
We purchased this item for our 4 year old for X-mas & had some misgivings about it, given the negative ratings about it going K-PUT after a few uses. However, so far we have had no problems with ours and it has held up well. It does use up batteries pretty quickly, but we bought the wall charger and car charger, which solve the problem. In fact, I wouldn't even bother with the battery charger, just use the outlet chargers. You only need batteries if your not near an outlet anyway! Our 4 year old really enjoys the games and we have many. In fact, we also purchased the TV model originally and it never gets used, given that this model serves both purposes - TV and handheld play.

My kid loves it!
We purchased the home system for my 4 year old for Christmas. The graphics kind of stink but heck we're talking about a little kids game. Some of the games are pretty good, some of them kind of stink, that's a process of elimination. My problem was that my daughter didn't take well to the joysticks. She didn't really like playing it. We also received a v smile pocket for Christmas from a relative. That was much better, It costs about $20 or $30 more, but it seems to be easier to play, my daughter took right to it and it also has the video jacks that plug it into the tv, so my daughter plugs it in and plays it on the tv all the time. There really was no purpose in keeping 2 machines that played the same cartridges and that both played on the tv so we sold the home system to a friend for $30, we'd never even really used it much. I'd suggest getting this pocket version. It's easier to play than the home one, even for a young child and we liked that it has the button in the back to flip the buttons around for right handed or left handed kids, that was cool. And of course it goes in the car too, which is a plus. A lot of people complained about them not working but I didn't have the home version long enough to know, I haven't had any trouble with the pocket version in the six months I've had it and she plays it quite a bit but then I really make her take good care of her things and some kids can be really rough...

Sturdy, Keeps them Entertained!
Got this for my Daughter when she was 4 and its been about 1 1/2 since she had it. She has dropped it, done did it all to the poor thing and it has survived it all. She actually learned a lot of the games/activities on her own which I found amazing, considering when I tried playing some of them, I was like wow and this is for little kids. Her friends come over and when she doesn't want to deal with them anymore, she breaks it out and they are entertained for as long as she lets them play it. That she figured out on her own! All in all, she has to many games for it and loves it as her friends. Some of the parents of got it for their kids and unlike some have reported, none of our kids have had any problems with them breaking or not working. Oh yea, good investment would be the optional A/C adapter. Yea I did recharge batteries for a while, but they are only good for on the move, not at home. Best part of it, is you can hook the thing up to the TV! So even cheaper than a Wii/PS3/360! lol All in all you can't go wrong getting this for ya kid! Her cousin has the Leapster and when he comes over, he drops his to play with hers if she lets him...

Terrible. . .
I purchased this as a Xmas gift for my 3 y.o. It is already broken. She didn't do anything unusual, it just stopped. I also bought the charging dock, and that could be part of the problem. All I know is that it is sitting in a closet not working and it wasn't cheap. I would not recommend this at all.