Leap Frog Leapster2 Learning Game System

by LeapFrog

Product Features

• The preschool gaming handheld that connects to the LeapFrogź Learning Path, an online experience that lets you see what your child is learning.
• Play and learn school skills on the go or connect online for extra activities and rewards.
• Library of over 30 exciting learning games featuring characters kids love.
• Included and additional games teach skills in a range of subjects, such as language arts, reading, mathematics and science.
• Parents can connect online to the LeapFrogź Learning Path to see what their child is learning. Kids connect online for extra activities and rewards.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.6 x 10.6 x 13 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00134PM7I
• Item model number: 30707
• Manufacturer recommended age: 4 - 10 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #887 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #69 in Toys & Games > Preschool > Pre-Kindergarten Toys > Electronic > Electronic Learning Toys & Systems
  • #73 in Toys & Games > Learning & Education > Electronics
  • #78 in Toys & Games > Preschool > Pre-Kindergarten Toys > Learning
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (396 customer reviews)

Product Description

Color: Pink

Amazon.com Review

Put innovative creativity and fun at your kids' fingertips -- and watch them learn in the process -- with the The LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System. This battery-operated handheld game system goes where your children go, and brings plenty of learning fun along. It comes with two pre-installed educational games, and many more are available: purchase an optional SD card separately for access to additional online games and to take advantage of other online features; or you can purchase game cartridges to add to your Leapster 2 repository. The included games have skill levels suitable for children ages 4 to 8.

Children will love playing the educational games. View larger.

Leapster 2 games are designed to grow with your child ages 4 through 8, and the console comes pre-loaded with two games

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good: Battery-powered console goes where your child goes, offers versatile, educational fun. The Bad: An SD card, which must be purchased separately, is required to take advantage of many Leapster 2 features. In a Nutshell: Handheld game console offers fun, educational games that accommodate your child's learning curve. At a Glance Ages: 4 to 8 Requires: Four AA batteries

The console has a comfortable, curved shape, although it may be a tad large and heavy for smaller hands. It features a full-color touch screen and sound that's a far cry better than the beeps of old-school handheld consoles. (Parents will appreciate the volume control and a jack for headphones!) Control and manipulate the console with the included stylus and with the videogame-style D pad and other buttons.

We found the initial set-up to be relatively easy: install the four required AA batteries, and navigate through the self-explanatory screens to create user profiles for up to 3 children (which come in handy for accessing online features). After this quick set-up, a menu screen will appear, where you can choose to play the pre-loaded games, go online, or insert a game cartridge.

Fun and Learning
Leapster 2 games are designed to grow with your child ages 4 through 8. The console is pre-loaded with two games: The "Dragons to the Rescue! Learning Game," is a "video game" type activity with four different levels, the first helping kids identify letters and numbers, the most advanced giving them spelling and multiplication practice, all while navigating a dragon past monstrous storm clouds and scrambling to collect magic crystals. The "Creativity Castle Art Studio" is a rather low-tech art program. Players can select a background scene to "color" using the stylus and "decorate" with fun animated stamps. While it does foster creativity, this program is somewhat clumsy -- your Paint program on your PC does a much better job. But "Dragons" was fun enough to keep even an adult tester enjoyably diverted.

Unfortunately, an SD card is required for taking advantage of much of what the Leapster 2 has to offer -- which is a drawback, because it must be purchased separately. Without the SD card, which offers more memory, you cannot save artwork, download new games, or take advantage of the online "Learning Path," which will be available August 2008. (This online program allows you to register and upload your children's Leapster 2 profiles to show you their learning activities and their progress.)

In the meantime, without the SD card, you can still purchase game cartridges. And you still can plug your console -- with the included USB cable -- into your PC for your children to view and print "rewards" for completing different game levels (for Dragons to the Rescue, they're certificates of achievement) or to print pictures to color with actual crayons (to encourage some "old-fashioned" creativity!) You must first install the Leapster 2 software on your computer, which comes on the included CD-ROM.

What's in the Box
Leapster 2 Game System, USB cable, CD-ROM

Product Description

With this smart handheld system, children learn valuable school skills through a variety of animated games and activities. Kids use the interactive touch screen and stylus throughout 30 educational games featuring characters they love. The Leapster2 System also offers several options for creative play. Little learners can easily connect online for extra activities and rewards. And best of all, parents can use the Leapster2 to connect to the LeapFrog Learning Path, an online, interactive tool in which parents can get updates and see firsthand what their children are learning.

Leapster2 System comes with built-in starter games; additional software sold separately. Requires 2 "AA" batteries, not included. Measures 13"W x 10.5"H.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

795 of 819 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice product, poor deployment!, August 22, 2008

By 

Michael D. Adams (Jeffersonville, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System - Green (Toy)

** Note: When reading this review, please understand that we were an "early adopter" of the Leapster2 Game System, and certain issues impacted our opinion. By now (06/10) Leapster has likely dealt with some of the intitial issues and difficulties we experienced, and those may no-longer be a concern for new buyers. The price has dropped considerably, which does increase the attractiveness of the system.

Without a doubt, the Leapster2 is a nice, stylish game system that is age-appropriate for young children. It is easy to handle and, for the most part, easy to use. The games available include many popular titles (Cars, Backyardigans, Disney Princesses, Dora, Thomas, etc.).

But that's where the fun stops. The difference between the Leapster2 and the original Leapster is that the Leapster2 was designed to work with the "LeapFrog Learning Path" program, which allows you to see the progress your child has made in learning various subjects and concepts. That was promised in early August, then delayed and announced it would be ready by August 21st. On August 22nd, LeapFrog announced that Learning Path has now been delayed and will launch in "mid-September".

Until the Learning Path becomes active, the online "downloadable" games that are touted will not function and are not available. The ability to see the progress your child makes is not available. There are issues with the Leapster2 "freezing up" which was supposed to be fixed with a software update. If you plug in an SD card so your child can save pictures he/she has colored, they can not save them because that feature "will become active when the downloadable games are available".

We purchased TWO Leapster2 game systems (one pink, one green) from Amazon at $70/each. We also purchased TWO game cases at $15/each, and 3-4 game titles. While the kids are still able to enjoy them to some extent, I can't help but to feel I was sold something that was high on promise but VERY VERY short on delivery. I am very disappointed in LeapFrog in how they have handled this product launch, as I have come to expect better from them.

Update 01/12/09:
After 6 months of use, our Leapster2 is FINALLY functioning the way we had hoped and expected. While the pink Leapster2 functioned well, we had issues with the "Leapster Connect" software recognizing the two Leapster2's that we had purchased. After working with a Leapster support rep (Bill), who was VERY helpful and patient, it was determined that the issue was related to the SD card in our green Leapster2, even though the card functioned for all other uses. Leapster sent us a pre-formatted 128Mb card with the two downloadable games (those were not available until sometime in September/October). Upon installing the new card, everything functioned better.

As for the "LeapFrog Learning Path" website... now that it is finally online and functional, it's really helpful for seeing how much time your child is spending playing the games. It also gives you a decent idea of how they are doing with certain skills, though it would be nice if it identify your child's weaknesses and recommend things to work on. One caveat is that the time-spent is cumulative, based upon when you last uploaded the data. So although it does accumulate play data for a while, you should plug it in weekly if you want to know how much time s/he is playing on a weekly basis (otherwise, you'll get something like 12 hours for one week).

After 6 months and several updates and headaches, I would change my review to 4 stars if I could. However, I am still disappointed that Leapster released a product that was so clearly not ready for market. It appears they have corrected some issues, but still have other issues outstanding. The game systems HAS proven durable, though I would recommend screen protectors to keep the screen from getting scratched, and highly recommend the LeapFrogź Leapsterź2 Learning Game Case if your child plans to travel with his/her Leapster2, and the LeapFrogź Leapsterź2 Recharging Station if your child uses it often (batteries are expensive!!).

Update 10/28/09 (final update):
After a litte over a year of use, the Leapster 2's that we purchased are holding up. Though we still get some quirky freeze-ups every now and then, we've not had any additional major issues. My son has actually kicked his around quite a bit, and for the most part it has (physically) held up well. I continue to think that we should have purchased some screen protectors, because it slides around on the floorboard of the van as often as it spends in its case. All things considered, even after the introduction of the online "Learning Path", we have not been diligent about uploading the data. Yes, it gives you SOME basic overview on how your child is progressing with certain skills, but it's not something most people wouldn't identify on their own. We have not been inspired to purchase a ton of games for this, but the LeapFrogź Leapsterź2 Recharging Station turned out to be a wise purchase. It has probably paid for itself in batteries, and my 5yr-old son can charge it on his own. My daughter, who is now in first grade, actually gets the least amount of use from her Leapster. Of course, the $45 that Amazon is now listing it for is nearly half what we paid for ours! So at that price, it would still be worth it. But she is quickly "growing out" of her Leapster, and is eyeballing the Nintendo DS. She still plays with it on road trips, but it's not a regular play thing for her. My son absolutely LOVES his LeapFrogź Leapsterź Learning Game: Cars and LeapFrogź Leapsterź Learning Game: Wall-E games. In fact, these games have kept him so entertained that we have not felt the need to buy additional games. Perhaps if there were some title that were geared toward older kids (High School Musical?), my daughter would remain as engaged.

222 of 241 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than ever!, July 7, 2008

By 

Nicole Leishman "N Leishman" (IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System - Green (Toy)

We owned a Leapter L-Max that quit working due to an "accident." Because our 3 year old has loved and used that machine several times a day we had to replace it. He had learned so much from the previous Leapster and the reviews of the V-Smile were poor, so we decided to go with another Leapster. While we did go back and forth about whether we wanted another L-Max for the TV play capability or whether we wanted the online funcitonality of this new Leapster 2. We had to put some thought into which feature, the TV or online, we would use most. We decided that we would really like the ability to track learning progress on line and that for $10 less, we would rather have that function. We also decided to look for a Leapster TV system, which we found on clearance, to replace the TV play capability of the old L-Max, so he could still use all the games on the TV and yet have 2 seperate toys and develop the motor skills of the 2 systems instead of one. This new Leapster is SO cute. The colors are great, the shape is better than the old ones, in my opinion. The stylus pen is secured by a thin fabric like cord rather than a heavy electronics cord, so it is easier to maneuver and it doesn't seem like it will break as easily. The sound is better and the screen is just as nice, if not better. We are very happy with this purchase, and our son likes it too. We have not tried the other games yet, but his old ones work just fine, as they are supposed to. I would defintitely recommend this model. I will also update the review when I have used the online functions.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definite improvements over original Leapster, September 11, 2008

By 

JB (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System - Green (Toy)

We just got this new version of the Leapster to replace the old Leapster which had started malfunctioning due to grime. The durability of the old Leapster was mediocre, since grime caused it to significantly malfunction after 8 months of daily use. Be sure to get a protective case for when the Leapster is not in use -- that's the lesson we learned the hard way. However, I suggest buying a cheaper case than the one sold for the Leapster (for example: I bought one for half the price that I found in the camera and computer accessories section at Walmart, that was marketed for small portable hard drives, and had the same dimensions as the Leapster).

Leapster 2 is a good new edition. One can download additional free games from the Internet for it for example (a couple of games are now finally available for download, so the initial deployment issue has been resolved). You need to buy an SD card for this to work. Even though the manufacturer recommends 256 MB SD card or less, we bought one with 1 GB and it works well (256 MB cards are harder to get nowadays).

We like that the built-in games stay available in Leapster 2, even when a game cartridge is inserted (an improvement over the original Leapster). The design of the hardware is sleeker looking, as well.

Overall, a very good product, and one of our son's favorite toys by far (he plays it daily in the car, and during wait-times, such as when waiting for the food to arrive at a restaurant). Our son is 2 years and 8 months by the way, and he had the original Leapster since he was 2 years old. He is a smart boy, but I assume not a genius, so the manufacturer's minimum recommended age is quite a bit off.

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