OT - opinions about Leapster 2 please!

[BigEeyore]

We are thinking about getting this for DD for her upcoming 4th birthday. I would love to hear what some of you think about it - good, bad, and the ugly! Also, do you think it is fairly educational?
Thanks!

 

[cmusschoot]

Grandma just bought one for my son, for his 4th B-day. He loves it and spent several hours the first week playing it. I am not a fan of tv or video games, so I was nervous that he would never put it down. Now he plays it every once in a while.

Advice: get the rechargeable battery pack as batteries go rather quickly.

As far as being educational...I guess it may be...my Son has a few "boy" games, Cars, Wall-E, and Thomas...they offer educational options as some of their games, he likes to do the math on Wall-E.

I really think it is a great game system, I would purchase it for him again, also helps with the gift buying for future holidays....

Hope this is helpful.

 

[BigEeyore]

thanks for the advice about the rechargeable batteries!
Anyone else have thoughts about the Leapster?

 

[starann]

WE have one for each of our boys (ages 4 and 5) and they LOVE them. We usually bring them on long car rides, dr appts (for the waiting room), and out to eat to entertain them while we wait for our food.

They have several games....Dora, WallE, Nemo, Cars, Diego, Backyardigans (although it is currently MIA), Sponge Bob, Pet Pals and a letter game (some of them I got for $5 at 5 Below).


They do have educational parts to them....counting, letters, colors, shapes.

I got ours (orginal Leapster) on sale at TRU and ended up paying $34 for them (this was about a year ago).

 

[RMulieri]

My 5 yr old got hers for Christmas...She LOVES it. She has most of them games.Some are more educational then others, but most have educational elements to them. I will tell you they are rugged little things..Ours has been dropped multiple times, gotten wet and it still works. We also recommend the recharger for it.

 

[mpbest]

We got my DS one for his fourth birthday, which was a month ago. He loves it. I can't wait to take it on the long car ride. I feel like it is educational, main reason we bought it. We definitely give it two thumbs up!

 

[Binnie]

DD has both the Leapster and the Leapster 2. She LOVES them, although she oddly prefers the original Leapster.

The games are pricey, and none of them hold DD's attention for terribly long, but they're entertaining and have some educational value (letters, counting, colors, etc.), so it's all worth it to me. There are 2 disney princess games, Dora, Diego, and others.

Side note: DD has a tendency to select a level of the game above her abilities, so she gets frustrated sometimes. You kind of have to keep a close eye on them when they play, at least when they first start out.

We don't have a lot of problems with the batteries lasting, though I could see where it could be an issue. But they don't make the rechargeable in pink, so it wouldn't match! (We have an awful time with the TAG batteries, though.)

 

[sweetmama]

My daughter loves hers. She would rather play with that than the Nintendo.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We love the leapster! All three of my kids have had one. Occasionally my 10 year old will still play it because my 4 year old loves to watch him play the Star Wars game. I don't let my kids have a DS until they are 8, and the leapster makes games until about that age so it worked well.

My youngest got Leapster 2 for his fourth birthday. I am not sure the difference, but I think we can track his progress on the computer.

Many of the games have an educational component so that is a bonus! They also hold up great. They have been dropped and banged and still work. We have the battery charger.

 

[dismama]

DS got one last Christmas and he loves it. We got a combo deal with the system, case, battery pack and game from the leapster site it was a great deal. Plus it seems to be a system that leap frog is going to keep supporting since I am seeing lots of new games. I like that we can download to see how he is doing and what he is improving on and that there are a few games you can download.

 

[RMulieri]

DD has both the Leapster and the Leapster 2. She LOVES them, although she oddly prefers the original Leapster.

The games are pricey, and none of them hold DD's attention for terribly long, but they're entertaining and have some educational value (letters, counting, colors, etc.), so it's all worth it to me. There are 2 disney princess games, Dora, Diego, and others.

Side note: DD has a tendency to select a level of the game above her abilities, so she gets frustrated sometimes. You kind of have to keep a close eye on them when they play, at least when they first start out.

We don't have a lot of problems with the batteries lasting, though I could see where it could be an issue. But they don't make the rechargeable in pink, so it wouldn't match! (We have an awful time with the TAG batteries, though.)

My DD has the pink Leapster and we just bought the green chrger( it fits just doesn't match) ..it sure beats buying Batteries every week

 

[BigEeyore]

WOW - thank you all for your input! Dis parents are the best! I had read some not so good reviews online - mostly about it breaking soon after purchase. But I figure the few people who have a problem with it are more likely to post a complaint than the many who love it!
I think we'll be getting it for her birthday...

 

[mmcphee]

We bought the second generation 2 years ago for X-mas and it broke in less than 6 months. We bought an older original one on eBay and that has lasted 2 years, although, honestly, my kids hardly ever played with either. The limited time I let them play video games they prefer online games, which I think are more educational.

Yesterday is the first time the Leapster has been turned on in 6 months (kids are 7, 6 and 4). Before that, it was our last trip to Disney last August. Other than car trip longer than an hour or so it never really got used. My older two would rather read and my younger one wants to watch movies.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

My son, in particular, loves his Leapster. Our new puppy chewed up the original Leapster's pen, so DS got Leapster 2 for Christmas. The pen on that no longer works. I have read on other sites about the pen needed to be reconfigured on the computer or something like that. I obviously haven't tried to fix it yet. The games are very educational. My son's math abilities have grown by leaps & bounds since he got his first Leapster for his 5th birthday.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have just bought him a new original Leapster. He never synched Leapster 2 up to the computer, anyway.

 

[RMulieri]

My son, in particular, loves his Leapster. Our new puppy chewed up the original Leapster's pen, so DS got Leapster 2 for Christmas. The pen on that no longer works. I have read on other sites about the pen needed to be reconfigured on the computer or something like that. I obviously haven't tried to fix it yet. The games are very educational. My son's math abilities have grown by leaps & bounds since he got his first Leapster for his 5th birthday.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have just bought him a new original Leapster. He never synched Leapster 2 up to the computer, anyway.

I had the same issue. Go to the website and follow the re-configure directions..it WILL fix it. I think if they press certain buttons at the same time it doesn't recognize the pen. The pen is just plastic, it is not electric or computerized in anyway

 

[CyndiLooWho]

Our 2 boys, 8 and 10, actually have 4 leapsters between them. I got extras when we moved overseas b/c ours were older and I wanted to have at least 2 that were fully operational for the 8+ hr fllights.

They still really enjoy them in spurts, usually when they get a new game or we are doing a lot of traveling. The games all still work, and at least 3 of them are still in good working order (ds8 complained about 1 of them recently, so I'm not sure what's going on with it). All 4 of ours are the oldest style and range from 3-6 yrs old.

The biggest drawback is that they don't grow with a kid. It's hard to find games that go past 2nd-3rd grade level, which is an issue with us at this point. I would prefer not to have to go to a DS or PSP for the boys, b/c they have no real educational games, but I think they will be getting one or the other for Christmas, b/c we have a need for them to be entertained in a quiet, self-contained manner sometimes.

I bought all our games new, and paid between $15 and $30 ea. I figure they will sell for around $5 ea when we move the boys to newer systems, and I would gladly pay that for used games at church sales.

 

[HerdOHuds]

We got 4 of the original Leapsters for ours when they turned 4. I didn't really want to hassle with the internet options that, as far as I could tell, was the only difference between the original and the 2. They carry them around by their pen all the time, despite repeated warnings, and are in fabulous shape. I personally like the Diego game best. And when one plays that the others all sit around to watch!

They were a terrific investment.

 

[*pixie*dust*]

DS (4) has the Leapster. He played with it quite a bit in the first few weeks he had it. He now plays with it in spurts. He has 3 games for it and that seems to be enough. The games are educational but dont seem to hold his attention for very long. I think it really depends on your child. My son isnt that intersted in video games yet so he can take it or leave it. If he had older siblings with video systems he would probably be more interested.

 

[smithmom]

Great question. I was thinking of getting two of them for my boys for the plane ride down. If it's new, I know they'll be really interested in it, and I just might be able to read a book on the plane to Disney.

We also have the Leap Tag system. It's the pen that helps you read along with books and offers games on many of the book pages. You can plug headphones into the pen. The I Spy book is Great, because a lot of the pictures make really funny noises when touched with the pen - my 3 year old loves it!

 

[ChristusG]

We got our DD one for her 4th birthday (she just turned five now, so she's had it for a year). She loves it. She doesn't play it all the time or anything, but when she pulls it out she does play it for a while. We have several games like Dora, Diego, Puppy Pals, a drawing game, some kind of monster game, and she just got the new Up game the other day. She really likes it.

She wishes that she could play the Nintendo DS, but I've found that most games require a lot of reading. The Leapster does not, so she's very happy about that.