Review: Wall-E for VTech V-Motion
Written on Nov 21, 2008 by Brian and filed under News, Reviews, VTech
In Wall-E for the V-Motion gaming system, kids get to play as Wall-E and Eve as they relive key parts of the movie during the learning adventure. They can also play games in the learning zone that center around sorting, puzzles and patterns.
Like most V-Motion games, Wall-E features Learning Adventure and Learning Zone play modes. The learning adventure games can be played in story mode, with each game coming after another with a bit of the story in between, or they can each be played independently. In the learning zone, kids can decide which of the four Wall-E mini games they want to play. Wall-E is also compatible with the VTech V.Link system. You can learn more about that in our VTech V-Motion Review.
Every game comes in two difficulty levels, can be used with joystick or motion controls and can be played in 2-player mode. In 2-player mode, all of the games are played one after the other, there aren’t any games where the 2-players can play at the same time.
Learning Adventure
In the learning adventure kids get to guide Wall-E and EVE through four missions that are largely consistent with the story in the movie. Kids can either start a new game, continue a game if there was one started previously, or play any of the games they like in quick play mode.
Game 1 – A Day at Work (Colors)
In the first adventure game, Wall-E is tasked with cruising Earth looking for track to collect, compact, and stack in the proper pile. Along the way there are obstacles to dodge and bonus items that add to your score. Our only problem with this game is that Wall-E can only travel in four directions, so control can get a little annoying since you can’t more diagonally. The kids seemed okay with it though.
In easy mode kids work with primary colors, on the difficult level the colors combine to make secondary colors. In this case difficult isn’t much harder since the colors combine on their own and the staking of the garbage block sis the same.
Game 2 – Searching for EVE (Shape Matching)
In this game Wall-E has to evade security cameras and Stewards as he heads for a door at which point the child will have to match a shape. This game is actually somewhat difficult at the Stewards can be a little tricky to get past. On the difficult level, kids get harder shapes to match, but are also saddled with a time limit. The shapes on both levels are pretty easy to handle, but the time limit is something that definitely adds difficulty for kids.
Game 3 – Space Dash (Letter Matching)
In this game kids will fly EVE through space first, then Wall-E, powered by a fire extinguisher. Kids will have to navigate past flying rocks, then answer letter matching questions to proceed. On the easy level kids match upper case letters, the difficult level mixes in lower case letters. This game was greatly enjoyed by our test audience; something about flying the robots really resonated with them.
Game 4 – Race to the Holo-Detector (Number Order)
Kids control EVE this time, helping her select the right elevator based on number sequences. The easy level has simple sequences of numbers up to 12. On difficult, there are ascending and descending sequences up to 16. It’s worthwhile to note that in this game EVE does have to blast Stewards with her laser. It’s certainly not graphic, but parents need to decide if that’s appropriate for their kids.
Learning Zone
Game 1 – M-O Cleans Up (Following Directions)
Kids get to help M-O clean up dirty spots on the floor in this game. Both levels use the colored buttons to navigate instead of the joystick, which confused the test kids at first. The easy level shows them which buttons to press. The difficult level makes them figure it out and adds a time limit.
Game 2 – Wall-E’s Collection (Patterns and Classification)
This game gets kids to find the object that doesn’t belong in Wall-E’s collection. In the easy level kids identify one non-matching object in a row of four to see how many they can get right within the time limit. The difficult level adds three rows but isn’t any more difficult, there’s just more work to do in each rotation.
Game 3 – Puzzle Shapes (Puzzles)
The puzzle game is by far the most difficult of the learning games. Kids will have to place a puzzle piece one at a time to match the shape shown on the screen. The trick is that some of the pieces need to be rotated to fit properly. The easy version has three piece puzzles; the difficult has four and adds a time limit.
Game 4 – Trash Chute Sorting (Sorting)
In trash chute kids control Wall-E, having him catch and sort garbage into the appropriate bins. The easy level gives kids two bins, the difficult has three. Both have a time limit. The pieces actually fall pretty quickly and it took our test kids a few tries to figure out that they didn’t need to drive each piece to the bin, Wall-E can toss the trash.
Bottom Line
Wall-E for VTech V-Motion is rated for kids age 3-5. That’s probably about right, but we had a few kids older than that who enjoyed the game because of the Wall-E connection. We’ve played all of the V-Motion games and think Wall-E is pretty well done, definitely a worthy choice for the V-Motion system. The adventure games match the movie reasonably well and the variety of games is enough to keep kids coming back.
4 out of 5 stars
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