 My 3 year old LOVES it! |
| Review Date: July 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ben n Kim, Honolulu, HI |
We got this toy for my son's third birthday and it quickly became his favorite toy! At first I thought about returning it due to some issues that I will explain later, but decided to keep the toy after seeing how much fun my son has with it.
What it does well: This toy plugs easily into the t.v. (my son can do it) and it is ready to go. There are no cartridges, DVDs, etc. to keep track of...just the mat. The toy has plenty of games on it to keep kids busy...in fact, I don't think I have even seen them all yet! All of the games are active by having the kids run or walk in place, jump, stomp the correct shape, tiptoe, etc. Also, it is very inexpensive when compared to all the other video game options available. Finally, my son enjoys being able to have his own active video games since our own Wii Fit, DDR, etc. are still too old for him.
Why I almost returned it: The graphics on this toy are horrible on our 40 inch high-def television. It gives me a headache to stare at it too long, but doesn't seem to mind my son. Also, because the pad is flat, my son accidentally steps on the shape buttons when playing. This often sends him back to the main menu...it is quite frustrating. We have had to practice staying on the sidewalk portion of the mat. My last complaint is that you can't specify a skill level for the activities (to my knowledge anyway). There are math and spelling questions mixed in with everything. (for example: how to spell log or add numbers together) I don't know many 3-6 year old children who would be able to do these, but my son just jumps over and over again until he eventually gets the problem correct and the toy moves on to the next activity. Again, this doesn't bother my son, but it might be frustrating for a different child.
The Conclusion: My son can't wait to wake up and play this game every morning, and for the price, I'm happy to say it was a good buy. It is a lot of fun once you get past the issues, and helps to burn some of my son's abundant amount of energy! And goodness, my 19 month old loves it too! She needs help if playing on the mat, but most of the time she will stand next to my son and copy him jumping/running/whatever. We will definitely get good use out of this toy! |
Pretty fun toy for my 3 year old!
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| Review Date: July 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Tammi D., Johnstown, CO USA |
As did the other reviewer, I bought this toy for my 3 year old & he loves it. I totally agree though, that on a large, high-def tv, the graphics are atrocious! The mat tends to slip some when my son is running on it as well, I wish it had a better gripping material on the backside. I also agree that sometimes my son hits a button & starts things over, and he finds that frustrating, but he still goes ahead & keeps playing.
It would be nice to be able to set a skill level because I also agree that some of the games are not appropriate for a 3 year old level.
This is a toy that my son enjoys, and it wasn't a horrible price, so overall I'm happy with it. I say buy this & NOT the 3-in-1 Smart Sports from Fisher Price, I bought that as well & have had a lot of disappointment with that one. |
Quality entertainment!
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| Review Date: November 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: B. Mate, WA, USA |
| With long snowy winters, we need indoor active games like this. The educational value is a great bonus! It was a gift for my 3 year old, but my 5 year old works up a sweat on this game too! It's easy to take turns because they get tired and are glad to take breaks. The graphics are not that amazing, but for the price, I am amazed at the value of this product. I didn't have to help explain the game at all. They easily figured it out one their own. I have to help my 3 year old with spelling and math, but she's being exposed to math and spelling and learning a bit which is more than I can say for most of their toys. I am buying this for my neices for Christmas right now. |
fun for kids while mom is busy
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| Review Date: November 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: C. Bleistine, pa usa |
| my daughters got this as a joint present for the 3rd and 2nd birthdays....since they have gotten it we have had it out every day. (ofcourse there is the sharing issue but that is with everything) they both enjoy it. my 2 year old doesnt grasp it quit yet but enjoys doing what big sis is doing. my 3 year old jumps and counts with them and runs and is already stepping on the shapes with out looking down!! great buy ... my only draw back is the graphics and a larger tv arent good .. they are pretty awful but when we hook it up to the smaller tv in our 2nd living room it looks fine ! |
Fun for 4 y/o, with one caveat...
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| Review Date: January 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Gordon Gekko, Midwest, USA |
The Fisher Price Smart Fit provides hours of enjoyment for our four-year-old daughter. I do wish to inform of one caveat, which I'll cover more below. I feel that this caveat is enough to deduct two stars from the rating.
The mat is very easy to connect to your TV. With the graphics/sound, you do not need any cables other than those provided. It is a simple yellow (video) and white (audio) RCA cable that will connect to any TV that has RCA jacks. The Smart Fit is easy to turn on, too. My daughter has no problems flipping the switch and start playing.
The graphics leaves some left to be desired. It looks like the old 8-bit original NES "engine". Although given the price and design of the Smart Fit (i.e. the computer squeezed into a little box on the corner of the mat), it does NOT give off the feeling of the purchaser being ripped off, as some of the newer toys so eloquently do. The sound is very archaic as well. Make sure you do not turn the sound on your TV up too much as you may damage the speakers. The music and voices crackle and are muffled at every level and turning your TV up too loud exasperates this. Again, given the price and intended design, none of these factor effect my star rating.
Now for the caveat...I'm not sure if this can be corrected in future models or if it is just something that must be dealt with given our situation. We have carpet in our TV room. Whenever our daughter runs, jumps, and even walks on this mat, because it is not stuck down with anything (i.e. Velcro, double-backed tape, etc.) the mat moves all over the place. She isn't running any harder than I would expect a child to on this mat, the back of the mat is not made of material that would keep the mat in place on carpet. I'm sure this can be avoided if the floor is hard (i.e. laminate, wood, tiles, etc.) but we do not have a TV in a room without carpet. Therefore, every 3-5 minutes of normal use, my wife or I have to readjust the mat to center in front of the TV.
We decided not to return this item because we felt the costs to return did not outweigh the fun our daughter has and the desperate exercise she gets while using this toy. Given she received this as a gift for Christmas, it has really come in handy given the cold weather and inability to play/run around outside.
If you plan on getting this toy anyway, just be aware of this issue with carpeted floors. If this will be a frustrating and annoying problem, I would not recommend getting this. I do not have any alternate suggestions for this toy, except for maybe the Smart Bike; although I have not seen this toy in use. However, it seems that it would work better on carpeted floors than the Smart Fit. |
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