Continuing a long history of creating cool kids' gadgetry, VTech's latest tyke-minded toy is the V.Smile TV Learning System.

V.Smile is a self-contained, bright and bulbous cartridge-based machine with a tethered controller featuring a jumbo joystick, four big, colorful, flashing buttons and a fifth gargantuan "enter" button, all of them bash-friendly.

There are currently a couple dozen cartridges available for V.Smile, most of which are not so much "games" as intelligently designed, multi-curricular "Learning Adventures" that have players mastering the alphabet or math or other cognitive functions rather than some giant, fire-spewing robot. These "Smartridges" all have an instant familiarity, too, with things like the Care Bears, Barney and Winnie the Pooh for ages 3 to 5; Scooby Doo, Dora and Sesame Street for ages 4 to 6; and Batman, Spider-Man and SpongeBob games for age 6 to 8.

Be forewarned: There's a bit of a deception in V.Smile's tantalizingly low price. It runs off three C batteries (like you'll ever find them sold in threes), which are not included. As you might surmise, batteries don't last too long. And though it also will plug into the household electrical outlet, the actual AC adapter to do that is also sold separately, which is frankly bizarre and verging on "total rip off."

Too, since most V.Smile games offer a modicum of 2-player support (usually of the take-turns, one-at-a-time variety), a second controller is going to set you back a few more dinero. And though there's a teaser game cartridge included, you'll need to spend some extra coin on another game or two. To wit, this is not the sub-$100 system it pretends to be, though it's still a decent kiddie system. Just don't be suckered by the base list price.

Meanwhile, the V.Smile Pocket scales down the bulbousness of the TV-based system and makes it portable. Ironically, it's too big for a pocket, but the inference is fair.

V.Smile Pocket employs the same game "Smartridges" as the TV-based system, but features its own 4-inch color LCD screen in the center surrounded by accessible thumb-sized buttons and a thumbstick. Moreover, the V.Smile Pocket will also jack into a TV set at home for big, comfy, couch-based edutainment, effectively making it two systems in one (and you pay a bit more for said double-duty).

Mind you, it too goes through batteries like prunes through a toddler (rechargeable Ni-MHs highly recommended), though you can (must) get an home and/or car AC adapter for it (again with the "sold separately" bait & switch motif), so the potential to do go-anywhere gaming while learning a thing or three in the process of going anywhere is still there.

Oddly, the older the target age range, the less educational V-Smile games seem to be; they become more like cheap knock-offs of cheap side-scrolling, berry-picking, platform-hopping games with some ad-hoc, count-the-berries bells and whistles chiming in as a feigned ode to education.

Fair enough, as an 8-year-old is more likely to pine for a GameCube or Game Boy, which is probably more appropriately sophisticated anyway, while the younger set can truly enjoy the learning process with the low-pressure, nobody-dies, infinite do-over sensibilities of Dora and the like.