My daughter and her buddy 3 doors down from us have been having a blast with their Chat-Paks!! Made for Nintendo 3DS, Chat-Pak serves as a protective case and provides interactive communication while playing on your Nintendo 3DS. With a range of up to 4 miles (we got it to 3 miles in our hilly area) your neighborhood kids can stay connected.
For my daughter it is not so much about the ability to play games and chat but more so about the ability to chat, period. It kind of brings to mind those old TV shows where the kids talk to each other next door by sending a note back and forth across a line strung between the houses… Well, this is as close as it gets here in our neighborhood and they are loving it!
I have to say that I was a little concerned that the long range capabilities and that it is compatible with walkie-talkies – I was concerned for privacy. There are 836 channel code combinations and a voice scrambler feature, so I have a little less to worry about. It is easy to figure out and when used properly, it is really quite safe.
Another concern that I had was batteries! Oh those batteries! It requires 3 AAA batteries so I would recommend getting rechargeable batteries. I did find that because of the automatic off feature, the batteries lasted longer than I expected.
A great feature is that it acts as a drop case! I don’t know about your kids but my kids drop and bump and fling these things all over the place and every time I see that I just close my eyes, cover my ears and do the lalalalalaaaa waiting for the “Oh, Man! It’s broken!” to come flying out. Because they only get 1! No replacements due to loss or damage, so they have to take care of it.
This is a great little gadget to use that is fun and interactive. Do I recommend it? Yes, keeping safety in mind, I do. They come in white and black and are available at Chat-Pak.com for $39.99 each.
