LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System Green
LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning Game System Green
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 4 “AA” batteries, not included. Measures 13″W x 10.5″H.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Poor screen and gaming quality
The screen resolution is poor and the display is not crystal clear – Colors look drained. The games for a five year old do not seem to have enough about them (we purchased Wall E with the console). It does not hold their interest for any sustained period. So overall a thumbs down. Maybe should have got the Nintendo DS.
1 Star Worst piece of technology ever produced.
My 2 daughters each received one of these for christmas of 08. I have since attempted to download games for them from the website because this is supposed to have online connectivity.
The online connectivity is a JOKE. There are 2 games to download, which when you go to play them you have turn off the device to play another game. The HOME key brings you back to the beginning of the game, not the home screen of the device.
The SD card is a joke. Leapster recommends you have a 256MB card for this. I don’t know where they pulled this number from, we can all guess. I had a 1GB card and a 2GB card in these at first because I thought it would be plenty of storage for the “online” content that I could download on it. Well the 2 games that I downloaded for them takes up a whopping 7MB ( for those of you that don’t know: MB = Megabyte and GB = Gigabyte. There is approximately 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte, yes technically 1024 MB in a GB depending on who your talking to.) So I was using less than 1% of the card. So I decided I would put a 16MB and 32MB card in so that I could use the other ones for better use. Well the cards are not recognized by the Leapster. I have tried every which way to get the cards recognized. I have reformatted them many times and they still don’t work.
I have not called Customer Service but it seems from what I have read they will blame the problem on it not being a 256MB card.
The kids like to play the leapster, thats about it.
The graphics are subpar even for 1990s standards. You would think with all the technology today in handhelds (my PHONE does 3D!!!) you would think they would have something better. This device was definitely built with the absolute lowest tolerable graphics.
If these weren’t gifts I would never have bought one. I would have spent my money on a Nintendo DS where the graphics are better and there is more of a selection of games. There are a lot of Edutainment games for the Nintendo DS as well.
We also have a LeapFrog TAG which I do like, so I don’t have a complete problem with the manufacturer. Just think they should have tested their product a wee bit more before releasing it.
1 Star Pre-installed Game is Awful
We ordered this Leapster for our four year old who was SO excited since his last one broke. Immediatly after turning it on he was directed to the pre-installed game which seemed entirely inappropriate for kids. It’s a dragon game with a very scary villian saying he ‘hates’ the sun and has a scary laugh. I know this may not seem so bad to many parents but to us it was awful. We try hard to not expose our kids to ugly monsters, dragons, and evil and were dissappointed to see that Leapster would have this as a standard game on their Leapster. We have returned this Leapster and are going to just order the other version so as to aviod this game.
1 Star Returned and got a Didj instead
My 5 year old had a leapster 1 but I wanted to get something with the same connectivity as the Tag reader we also have, and the Leapster 2 does that, as well as lets you also download other games to it. The L2 worked fine with game cartridges, but between my five computers here at home with operating sytsems ranging from windows xp through windows 7 beta, the unit would not be recognized by their software. Every computer saw the unit, even saw the SD card inside of it, but their own software just could not connect to it. And the Tag reader worked fine on every one as well. Was just too much time wasted trying to get it to work, so returned and figured I’d try a Didj. Glad I did. The screen is so much better, resolution, clarity, it’s just a much better platform from a techie standpoint. I’ll miss his having the touch screen, but the Didj just worked when I plugged it into his computer, leap frog’s connect software saw it right away, updated it, and everything went as it should. Complete opposite of the Leapster 2… So we’ll just stick with the Leapster 1 for the existing games, and use the Didj moving forward.
2 Stars Falls short of expectations…….
My sons received one of these a a gift. Being a tech savvy dad, I was immediately intrigued that it had a USB port. When Installing the batteries, I was even more suprised that it has an SD card slot. Something I can hack? Hmmmmm.
I followed their instructions to get online. So far so good. They had 2 available games to be downloaded. Cool. I grabbed a spare 2GB SD card and connected the unit as per instructions. No dice. The Desktop software could not see my card. Fire up Google and do some research. Aha, some people had trouble with high capacity cards. I tried a 512MB, 256MB, 128MB and 32MB cards all from different manufacturers. No luck. I formatted them using the computer (Windows Xp SP2) as well as formatting it using the leapster. No dice. Maybe it would play better with a Mac? No it wont. Vista? Yeah right. Oh and did I mention that it corrupted the desktop software in all those machines so badly that the sofware would then crash after restart?
Terrible computer integration
How much fun is this toy? – I gave this 4 stars because with 2 cartridges, it is able to occupy my 2 boys (6 and 3) for several hours before they started asking for my iPod Touch.
How would you rate this toy’s educational value? – I rated this as 2 stars because although fun, what it teaches is very basic. The cartridges my sons got were 3+ but my three year old already knew 90% of what it was trying to teach.
How durable is this toy? – 4 stars. Well, it’s been dropped, stepped on flung across the room and it still works so I guess it is durable.
How would you rate this toy overall. – 2 stars. It does not deliver on it’s promised features. How long has this been available for purchase and only 2 downloadable games? The SD card reader in my kids’ unit may be broken (I still can’t get it to work) but still, I’ve read a lot of complaints with this feature online so I can only guess that it was really poorly impemented.
I get a lot of e-mail from the company about new toys I can buy (I had to create an account) but no new features to supplement the unit my kids already have.
Buy this as a standalone toy, not as a learning vehicle or an expandable system