Appropriate for ages 6 years to 10 years.
Customer Reviews:
Definitely Age Appropriate 
Bought this for my 7yr. old son for christmas and he loves it. He had the original leapster but at 7 he has outgrown it. Educational value is great and he loves the star wars game. Graphics are awesome too. I’d buy him a Nintendo Ds but we already have the wii and if he wants something mind-numbing he can play that.
Feels unfinished 
I am a software/electrical engineer, and it is my professional opinion that this product was rushed out to the market to arrive to customers before Christmas.
This product has an outstanding amount of bugs, and it amazes me how even by 12/25 they did not have software upgrades ready for the device.
I bought two of these (one for my 6yo and one of my 5yo). Both have played their Leapsters for years. Here are some of the bugs that we have found:
- You mean I have to connect it to my Mac just to get the free game? That took me about 30mins per game to setup. That should be in the firmware of the game already.
- When we first setup the systems with the Mac, it did not “link” the names automatically. It was confusing how to link them. It does show you that you have to log in as a “parent”. So i clicked on that button, and … It opens up my browser? Why? That seemed wrong. How is logging into a web browser make my application work? That seems like a temporary solution. We solve that issue, and the kids where able to use their “bitz” to buy levels.
- My son’s game lost Music. Sound was still working but it no longer had music, so he did not want to play it any longer.
- My daughter’s new Didj game did not play in her system, only on my son’s.
- The computer UI is extremely slow when creating Didjs.
Long story short, They are both going back. Maybe in 6-12m the bugs will be fixed. This reminds me when TiVo first came out around 1998.
Well worth CostCo’s LOW ‘08 holiday price 
Wasn’t planning on getting this before christmas for my 6-year-old, but CostCo’s low price was too good to resist ($[...] for system + Sonic game + JetPack download game).
My son had demo’d it in-store with the jedi game and seemed to like it a few months ago, but there were few games at the time.
(ISSUE 1) As of Dec.28, there still are only a few games that were listed/available after the Fall’08 launch, and even fewer that don’t use TV/movie themes & marketing. As others have said, the quality/gameplay is typical of early handhelds, and educational sections are only layered in and not integral, but we are just getting started and haven’t set up the parental-oversight features and customization which might make give the games more depth. The only titles we may pick up (or download) in the short term are: Tiki Tropics Racing (6-9 Years), MAYBE/Indiana Jones (7-10 Years), DOUBTS/Nicktoons-Android Invasion (7-10 Years), MAYBE/Star Wars: The Clone Wars (6-9 Years). We’re guessing most of the action games involve shooting, which we don’t really like to reinforce.
(ISSUE 2) Lack of basic accessories like AC power cable, Car/Auto DC power cable, Rechargeable Battery Packs/Charger, Screen Protector Sheets, available by the Christmas launch. They really missed out on a ton of business by not having this stuff ready by christmas, imo.
(ISSUE 3) Battery life was exactly 3-DAYS, using CostCo/Kirkland-brand alkaline batteries, with casual-lite heavy daily use. What does this suggest for using NiMH or lithium rechargeables?
(ISSUE 4) Build quality seems good/strong other than flimsy/exposed tiny game cartridges. The LCD could be sharper, and it does suffer from LAG time/pauses between functions, so it could have weak processing power. Also I would recommend the BLACK-colored Didj as it won’t show dirt/sweaty hands as much (ours is basic white).
(LAST ISSUE 5) Features/future abilities are pretty good, but not up-to-par with competing “non-educational” portable hand-helds out, as usual with Leapster products. No touch screen puts a lot of limits on future possibilities. No WiFi or multiplayer-networking seems like its missing. Ability to use a PC or TV screen to view games while you play also seems to be missing.
That’s all we feel like discussing for now, but maybe we’ll add more as this system gets more mature. Given the CURRENT features/games/accessories, I would NOT have picked up this system for its current street price ($[...]-[...]). Remember we got ours from CostCo for $[...], which is a better value for what you get at this time.
Good toy, but needs work.
My 7 year old son received this for Christmas and he’s been having fun with it. I love the fact that there are some learning components to it, but it is mostly a hand held video game. We’ve noticed that there are some glitches (it’s locked up a couple of times and sometimes the buttons won’t go to an option), but all in all it’s fine. I’ve read that the charger you can buy has been recalled, hopefully that will be fixed soon too.
We’re hoping that they will come out with some more games,as I’m sure he will get tired of the two he has now and I don’t love the few choices there are now (maybe some sports, cooking for both genders, more movies and less TV characters). I’m guessing this will be one of his more favorite toys from Christmas, but I wish they had ironed out the problems before they came out with it.
Huge hit with a seven year old boy!
We got a Didj for my seven year old son for Christmas and he has hardly put it down since he got it. His favorite games are the game that is built into the system (I enjoyed playing that one as well!) and the Star Wars game. Several reviewers commented that the Didj doesn’t provide enough learning opportunities and is more like a traditional handheld game system that is strictly for entertainment. I think that the Didj provides a the perfect mix - it is fun enough to be engaging but still provides plenty of learning opportunities and practice of academic skills along the way.
One complaint…we have had difficulty logging into the Leapfrog website to use the online capabilities, but this feature is not something that was particularly important to us.
