Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that while this gaming system is touted as providing a way to encourage kids to exercise, only two of the seven activities requires the child to pedal. However, all the games are played while sitting on the bike and they are fun and age-appropriate. Kids can pedal even when the game is turned off. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggest that parents monitor the amount of screen time children experience and keep that amount between one and two hours a day. Because this game is played while watching the television screen, parents may want to keep track of how long their kids are playing.
Families can talk about how important it is to exercise. Do you like biking outside better than biking on a stationary bike? Which activity did you like best? The racing one? Or one of the other activities?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen
With childhood obesity rates on the rise, video games that get kids moving are a smart choice. SMART CYCLE aims to get kids moving by having them pedal a stationary bike as part of a video gaming experience. Here's how it works.
The Smart Cycle is a stationary bike that plugs into the A/V jacks of a television. The pint-sized bike, with an adjustable seat, is just the right size for most children ages 3-6. The gaming system is inside the bike and runs on 4 D batteries.
The software for the system is housed in a key-shaped game cartridge that plugs into the side of the bike. Kids navigate to the software games by pedaling the bike. The image on the screen looks like what you would see if you were riding a bike down a road, and it moves forward and backward corresponding to your pedaling. To find a game, you take an off-ramp on the side of the road.
While pedaling to your first game, the software asks you to collect letters, numbers, or shapes by steering toward with the handlebars and then running them over.
The off-ramp games include finding letters in a barn, helping a frog to flick out his tongue to collect letter bugs, matching shapes underwater by popping bubbles, counting by finding numbers hidden in clouds, and moving a tractor over numbers in the correct order. There's also a race activity that requires you to pedal as fast as you can to cross the finish line.
Of the seven activities, only two require you to pedal. The rest are played by using the joystick, which is positioned on the frame of the bike. While all these activities are fun and age-appropriate, kids would benefit from more pedaling as they play.
Parents need to know that it takes between 30-45 minutes to assemble the bike, and that because it uses batteries, kids will use them up fairly quickly. Also, while the educational games offer levels, the games don't save your work so kids must start at level one every time they play.
Parents can breathe new life into this system by investing $20 in an additional game cartridge. For ages 3-5, the choices are Discover the Dinosaurs, Dora the Explorer Friendship Adventure, and Diego's Animal Rescue. And for ages 4-6, the selection includes SpongeBob SquarePants Ocean Adventure, Barbie Fairytopia, and Hot Wheels.
For another gaming system that helps get little ones moving, check out ION Educational Gaming System.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual Content |
 |
|
|
|
Violence |
|
|
|
|
Language |
|
|
|
|
Message |
|
 |
|
|
Social Behavior |
 |
|
 |
|
Commercialism |
|
 |
|
|
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|
|
|
Educational ValueOther than the racing game, all of the activities are educational. |
|
|
|
|
