Review on Essential Fun Speaking Spell Electronic Device by Lacueva Tranquillity

Brings back so many memories! It's just like Speak & Spell which I used for hours. Ah, nostalgia! My kids were instantly addicted to it, and like me as a kid, they liked the Mystery Word game (aka Hangman) the most. In that sense it's a hit. I'm sure there's a $0.99 app that does the same thing, but it would be cool to leave them in the car or pull them out if I don't want them to get lost in the vortex of screen time. That being said, I think it needs some updates for today's generation.1. The keyboard must be QWERTY. In the 70's and 80's children wrote the alphabet. Now they're typing in kindergarten and having ABC keys REALLY messes up my kids. Although not the same as the real thing, this toy would be much better if the keys were arranged like on a typing keyboard.2. Voice. Bow. I can still remember how annoyed I was by this voice as a child. You write what you think has been said and it is wrong. So repeat-repeat-repeat and try other things he can say. nope Finally he says the word to you and you say "REALLY?". So nostalgia is cool to me, but kids just find it annoying. I think there should be a toggle switch for the original synthesized voice and then a more "Siri" like voice that kids can really understand. Children can choose a level: A, B, C or D. But there really is no way to get to a higher level. It would be great if there was a new game mode where kids could earn points and progress through levels more like the games they are used to and play games against each other. I think there should be more words. The original Speak & Spell was limited by the technology of the time. There's no reason why K-12 spell check lists can't be loaded into it. Heck, it should talk to my laptop and let me type in the spelling words of the week to add to the preloaded list. It seems unnecessarily limited. So bottom line, it's the same as it was when I was a kid, and it's very cool for me. I would like to see some updates to make it more functional and fun for kids today. Edited after playing with it: My rating went up because my kids are making fast progress on writing difficult words and haven't lost interest. Educational with perseverance!