Customer Reviews

LeapFrog® Didj Custom Learning Gaming System

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

I was happy to discover my 8YO son enjoyed his Didj as much as his gameboy. However, I would like to see more "education" in the educational games. The games are similiar to gameboy, nintendo, etc games, but there is a little bit of educational material stuffed in there. It is in no way comparable to the Leapster (other reviewers - if my son was only 5 - he would still be on the leapster as it is a much better toy). However, since he had mastered all of the games leapster had to offer, we moved on.

Where the leapster is constant education, the didj is 95% games and 5% education (if you call it that). The leapster teaches, the didj just tests your knowledge. The games play for several minutes and then to get to the next level, the child has to "break a code" (or something similiar) by correctly answering 3 multiple choice questions. If the child guesses correctly then he is awarded points. Not much education.

One nice thing about didj is that children earn points that they can redeem online for games or mods for their didj. Yes, there is shooting in some of the games, and some are violent, but I have not seen any blood yet. I think leapfrog could've done better.

If your child is younger than 8 or 9, give them a leapster and hope leapfrog decides to make some educational games for Didj before they outgrow the leapster games. Didj is more like a gameboy than a learning tool.

Syncing: I was unable to sync with my Vista laptop even after downloading their updated software, but syncing with an older XP laptop worked fine. I am hoping to get in touch with Leapfrog tech support but they are only open during the hours I work.

Battery Life: I purchased the recharger with the Didj and I noticed the Didj has to be recharged more often than the Leapster. I would hate to put batteries in this thing.

Hardware: The unit is sturdy, just right for 6-10 YO hands. The graphics are great, superior to many small game systems I've seen and much better than the leapster, but it is not a touch screen. My son seems happy with the given controls.

If this was sold as a toy, I would rate it higher because it is fun. As an "educational toy", this is a big disappointment.

I purchased this as a replacement for the pink Leapster my daughter has been using for the last 3 or so years.

The didj is roughly the size of a closed Nintendo DS (a tad bulkier) and the screen is a considerable improvement over the Leapster. The screen is slightly smaller than the Leapster screen, but with higher resolution and better colors and contrast. I do worry a tad about the screen getting scratched up - the Leapster used a stylus and its screen could take a beating, but this one has a glossy screen that will show fingerprints and scratches easier.

One thing to note for those of us who use Apple computers: The didj supports Macs (and Windows too) right out of the box.

So, after unpacking it and loading the batteries, it's ready to connect to the computer - almost. First you need to create a profile on the handheld. Run the included CDROM and the didj software and one free game (Jetpack Heroes) are downloaded to the computer. My unit also required a firmware update. This took about 10-15 minutes altogether to complete.

One of the big features is being able to track your child's progress and creating your own content by periodically syncing the didj with the computer, but I cannot review this now since this feature will not be available until August.

Gameplay looks a lot like flash-based games and remind one of the Leapster's offerings - although with much, much, better graphics. Your child can also create a Mii-like character to send to the games. Part of the reward system is earning credits (Bitz) - by answering questions correctly - these are used to unlock features and add-ons for the games via the LeapFrogConnect application.

One word of warning: When the didj is hooked up to a computer, it will (on a Mac at least) show up as a removable drive. On that drive are various files stored on the didj. You will mess up the system if you mess with these files. Leapfrog needs to fix this issue in a future update.

In a nutshell - this is no Nintendo DS. It is cutting-edge and a considerable improvement over the Leapster. All this thing needs now is a bigger library of titles.

EDIT:

After letting the kid play with it for a while, here are some more insights:

1. The battery life is quite good, though not quite as long as the Leapster. I still plan on getting the rechargeable battery pack.
2. The screen does scratch. Sometime after getting the didj, my daughter picked up a Nintendo DS stylus to see if it would work on the screen. Now there are a couple of barely-noticeable small hairline scratches on the screen.
3. The didj one day said it needed to connect to the computer to fix something. What it turned out to be was the Foster's game cartridge messed up its savegame data on the didj. Deleting that game's data fixed the problem.
4. We still like the system, though aside from seeing the system for sale in one retail store, we still have yet to see anyplace selling cartridges. Online is the best bet for getting cartridges now.

This is a good toy in theory. As a homeschooling mom, I was looking forward to an educational game that can track my children's learning. Unfortunately, ever since I purchased it, I have had to deal with bugs from the Leapfrog system. From something as simple as the fact that the program needed, Leapfrog Connect, would not install on my brand new computer. All I kept getting was that my computer did not meet system requirements. Leapfrog was no help. I finally discovered it was because my screen resolution was wrong according to Leapfrog Connect. Really. It runs just fine on my normal resolution but I had to go back and reset it to install. Ridiculous.

Second, the Leapfrog site kept bouncing back my registration and when it finally accepted it, it bounced back my login.

When I finally got on, I linked everything. It was great. Then the next time I logged on, everything was gone. So I created another "footprint". The third time I logged on, it was all back...now I have duplicate footprints and no way to delete them. Today I logged on and the footprints are there, but the links to the games are gone.

Leapfrog answers my queries, normally there's no real solution though. I am just frustrated with all of these bugs for a children's product. I could put together an Ikea bedroom set faster than it has taken to deal with all these issues. Oh, and my son has earned learning points...and Leapfrog has yet to set up the reward system as advertised.

This has a potential to be a great product for keeping tabs on your child's learning while s/he has fun. It's the waiting for them to get the bugs fixed (which should have been done before the system went on the market) that brings this system down from great to ok. I feel like I have the children's version of Windows Vista in my hands.

The Didj is a really fun little gaming system. I intended to give this as a gift and wanted to try it out first to make sure it was suitable. I will now be keeping the one I bought and getting a second one for the gift... and I'm an adult! Though maybe I am nostalgic for the edutainment games I grew up playing on an old Apple IIe.

As another reviewer said, the games look a whole lot like flash-based games for PC. The graphics really are pretty good, colors are bright, and the system is comfortable to hold. The two games I tried, Jetpack Heroes and Super Chicks, were both very fun. The education content did feel a bit tacked on, however. For example, Jetpack heroes plays like a regular side-scrolling game you might find on the Nintendo DS but occasionally the player must solve some math problems to progress. These are just the first games for the system and I can only see them getting better. One reviewer expressed some concern about the shooting aspect of Jetpack Heroes. I will say that the game is extremely cartoony and the player only shoots cartoon aliens with a 'space blaster' on occasion while collecting items, avoiding hazards, and doing math problems. The game really doesn't seem any more violent than Mario throwing fireballs at koopas. I also applaud Leapfrog for providing a game with the system!

One of my favorite aspects of the Didj is the ability to earn points while playing games that can be spent online to add content to the games and the Didj. Sadly, Leapfrog doesn't really have this system working yet. They are offering some free add-ons while we wait, however. I'm excited to see what is going to be offered.

The Didj is also highly customizable. In many games the player can create a customized character and insert it into the game. Parents can also customize some of the educational content.

I do have a couple complaints about the Didj. The system should have just come with a rechargeable battery like the vast majority of portable electronics on the market today including the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. As it is, you have to buy an expensive adapter. I can appreciate the convenience for long car trips, I suppose, but batteries are just wasteful in this day and age. Also, the batteries are /extremely/ difficult to put in and change out. I made a few accidental scratches on the back of my Didj struggling with them and you will need some kind of tool. I'll be purchasing the recharge kit very soon and I recommend just buying it with the system though the battery life really is pretty good.

The Didj PC software doesn't get any praise from me either. It is very slow and likes to freeze. This might be a conflict with Windows Vista, however. When I first connected the Didj it said it was downloading an update. After an hour I disconnected it. There was no progress bar and no indication that the update was complete. The system did update since Jetpack Heroes had been downloaded but the software was just lacking.

Overall, the Didj is a great toy that even adults and parents are going to have fun with. Having fun and polishing your math skills at the same time is never a bad thing. I would have loved it as a kid and am sure the recipient of my gift Didj is going to have a blast. I look forward to trying more games!

This is a great concept but poorly executed by Leapfrog. It appears to have not been fully tested and rushed to market.

First, the gaming unit worked great. The sync process went smoothly and we read all the directions. I thought we were in the clear and then the issues started creeping up. The first issue was the constant shut down of the Sponge-bob game at random times. Still don't know what that was all about. Before we could figure that out the unit would no longer sync to the computer. A huge disappointment to me and my son. So started my quest to fix the problem. I typed in the problem via Leapfrog's support system and started a nearly 5 week journey to find and fix the problem. After nearly daily emails and testing we were told to return the unit for a refund. ARGH. I plan to do so soon and will be getting a DS. I am just too scared to go through this much trouble again.

Other issues:

The recharger was already recalled due to an overheat burn hazard (Sweet, will get my money back but yet another hassle)

The case is very flimsy, doesn't stay closed well and will not fit the unit with the jelly skin. Huge oversight on Leapfrog's part. We bought the case for general protection when not in use and for travel, and the jelly for protection when in use. Oh and you cannot play the game unit while in the hard case.

Finally, the skins or customizable static decals that come with the jelly did not stay on long at all and were useless in a few days.

I wish this had worked out better. I was so please at first that I bought one for my daughter which has been sent back.

Hopefully all these issues will get worked out.

Leapfrog really missed the boat with this and has certainly lost my business.

If you buy the unit. Keep your receipt. There is a 90 day guarantee!

The first one I had to take back because the cartridges where unrecoginzed by the unit. I thoutht it was a fluke and took it back to get another one. After a few days of play, the second one did the same thing.

The games are very poorly executed. The educational content is just placed into B or C grade gaming. The unit is very slow to start up and if you want to change games, you must restart the unit (slow).

The "leap frog connect" application is very poorly thought out. It is in no way intuitive nor fun or interesting. It is slow as well.

When this one breaks (probably soon), I'll not buy another one even though I have [...] worth of B grade game cartridges for my kids.

People, if your kids like games, get them a Nintendo DS. What I'd hoped for the didj turned out to be a waste of money. Totally disappointed....

I preordered the Didj back in June and was very excited to recieve it in late July. Unfortunately we had problems from the start. First I noticed that it was shutting off frequently in the middle of the games. That was very frustrating for my 6 year old twins, having to restart the games again and again. I wrote Leapfrog. They had no idea what was wrong with it. They replaced it immediately. Within 2 weeks, I was one of the 12 customers who had the recharging base get so hot that it melted the unit. Wrote Leapfrog...They said it was because it was placed upside down on the recharger...I beg to differ. Anyway, we got another one shortly thereafter... Same problems with the game shutting down again. By this time, the unit had been on the market for 4 1/2 weeks. Wrote Leapfrog again...now they know that the profiles are corrupt...have to delete profile and bits and then reprogram. I had the same issues as another customer with the website. I'd program the footprints in and it wouldn't be there the next time so I would create another footprint and then there were duplicates the next time I logged on. It took forever for the website to get up and running with the spelling word lists. Since my original didj was burned up, the website recoginzes individual units, so I have multiple, duplicate footprints online...wrote leapfrog...they can't do anything about it.

Overall, when the games play without shutting down, the twins love it however we still continue to have problems with losing bits everytime we have a corrupt profile and have to reprogram it. Not to mention that it goes through batteries like melting icecream in a sauna. They try to play with it plugged in, but that's inconvenient when we are out and in the car. You have about 1 1/2 - 2 hours of play time on one set of new batteries. The screen graphics are great, hence the frequent battery changes. I see that they dropped the price to 40% off...I guess they may be phasing this bug-prone toy out. Here it is, April, 10 months after I bought it and I'm still having problems. This is so rare with Leapfrog. I have sent them no less than 20 emails over the last 10 months. They always get back to me...within 7-10 days...I really love the idea of the Didj. If they come out with another variation that will accept the 6 game cartridges that I already have, I will probably buy one...after it's been out for 6 months and I read the reviews. I won't EVER buy something without having reviews on it first. This was such a waste of a lot of money, it makes me a little nausious just thinking about it. I would say that I have about $300 invested in it including games. Now it just sits there. The kids keep going back to their Leapsters for road trips.

I LOVE Leapfrog...I own Stock in Leapfrog...they just jumped the gun on this one to get it out to the public too soon. Since the price is coming down on it and the games, I'm guessing they may be coming out with a new version soon. I would wait for the newer version...

We purchased two DIDJs, one each for our 5- and 6-year old sons. The first one installed great, second one froze. My husband ran out and bought a thrid one (since it was a Christmas gift and how could one boy be without), and third DIDJ also froze -- stopping at the Health Warning Screen that another review mentioned.

We have contacted Leap Frog's customer service via e-mail (weblink got no reply) and were told to uninstall and reinstall the software. No luck. My husband was literally ready to throw said handhelds through a window on Christmas Eve. A week later, my husband has now logged countless hours trying different scenarios to get the other one up and running.

Our solution so far is to have the boys share, but we will probably end up returning all three of them. Not to mention the fact that we are actually fearful of re-linking back to the computer to use the collected bitz for fear of losing functionality on the remaining working player.

This is unfortuate as our confidence in Leap Frog has dramatically decreased after this episode. If only they had taken the time to properly test and perhaps waited a few months before release. Now retailers are swimming in non-working game players, as evidenced by the falling prices.

We weren't really considering DS or PSP because we love the "learning factor" in so many other Leap Frog products. Now I think that one of those will be our next option.

So long to Leap Frog for now. :-(

Coincidentally, our 3-year old LOVES his new Leapster.

We have this product about 2 weeks! I love what the demo says it will do. But so far the website has failed to be complete on having everything up and running like they said. I think they should of got that complete before they started marketing the product.

I like that it has nice graphics, batterylife is decent, but we own one extra game so far the Didji racing for spelling words. (this is the whole reason I bought this system, was to help with my childs weekly spelling test) after purchasing you can only use words the Leapfrog has available...so your childs words are not on the master list, you can't enter them.

Also after uploading some of the speeling words for 2 weeks, I've noticed that the words they are quizzed on are not the words I've chosen...so that made me irratated, after spending about 3 minutes searching for matching spelling words.

Also right now they don't have the extra features like earning more points to change backgrounds and sounds working yet.

My overall review is I like it...but I feel like the demo made it sound like it was to good to be true and feel like it is.

If you're looking/considering this system, you may wan tto know that it has just become obsolete. Look instead at the LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game System (Green) or LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System - Green.

Leapfrog has just discontinued the Didj, and just came out with a brand new system, the Leapster Explorer. The Didj was not a success for Leapfrog. From customers reviews (both on Amazon, but also on the Leapfrog site itself) it appears it was flawed by bugs, and needed constant patches to fix the problems. Some customers also did not find the Didj games very educational. In comparison, Leapster 2 games get much higher rating for being fun and educational.

In contrast to the Didj, the Leapster2 was and still is a success for Leapfrog. It gets overall good ratings from customers. And kids and parents like the games for being fun and educational. The Leapster2 is NOT discontinued, and Leapfrog informs it will continue to support it and to develop games for it. I'm thinking, perhaps Leapfrog will discontinue the Leapster2 in the future too, that is if the Explorer becomes a huge success. But for now Leapfrog will continue with the Leapster2. So it's still a good and proven system to get. You can read my review on the Leapster2.

The Leapster Explorer is the brand new system (released on 1-july 2010). According to Leapfrog the Explorer is not a successor to the Didj nor the Leapster2, but an entirely new system with much better specs and functionality. It's too early to tell, but I expect the Explorer to become a success too, because I take it Leapfrog has learned from experience to make a much better system now. You can read my review on the Explorer.

We have the L-Max, Leapster2, and now also the Explorer. We don't have the Didj, but I have read a lot about the Didj when researching the other systems. I felt compelled to write a review when I saw pretty recent reviews on the Didj posted on Amazon.

I hope this information is helpful to someone. Thanks for reading.

Amazon review by Aquarius.