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. pLeapster2 System comes with built-in starter games; additional software sold separately. Requires 4 "AA" batteries, not included. Measures 13"W x 10.5"H.

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. p style type="text/css" .caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: -15px; } table.callout { font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1. 3em; } td.think { height: 125px; background: #9DC4D8 url(http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/callout-bg.png) repeat-x; border-left: 1px solid #999999; border-right: 1px solid #999999; border-bottom: 1px dotted #000000; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; width: 250px; } td.glance { height: 100%; background: #9DC4D8; border-left: 1px solid #999999; border-right: 1px solid #999999; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; width: 250px; } /style table align="left" cellpadding="10" width="200" tbody tr tdimg align="top" border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/B00134TC10-1-sm.jpg" /br /br /span class="caption"Children will love playing the educational games. View larger. /span/td /tr tr tdimg align="top" border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/B00134TC10-2-sm.jpg" /br /br /span class="caption"Insert different game cartridges (sold separately) for endless fun. View larger. /span/td /tr /tbody /table table align="right" cellspacing="10" width="250" tbody tr td table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="callout" width="250" tbody tr tdimg src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/callout-top.png" //td /tr tr td class="think" valign="top"centerspan style="font-size: medium;"strongWhat We Think/strong/span/centerbr / strongFun Factor:/strong img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/4stars.gif" /br /br / strongDurability:/strong img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/3stars.gif" /br / br /span style="font-size: xx-small;"(what this means)/span br /br / strongThe Good:/strong Battery-powered console goes where your child goes, offers versatile, educational fun.br /br / strongThe Bad:/strong An SD card, which must be purchased separately, is required to take advantage of some Leapster 2 features. br /br / strongIn a Nutshell:/strong Handheld game console offers fun, educational games that accommodate your child's learning curve./td /tr tr td class="glance" valign="top"centerspan style="font-size: medium;"strongAt a Glance/strong/span/centerbr / strongAges:/strong 4 to 8br / strongRequires:/strong Four AA batteries br //td /tr tr tdimg src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/callout-bottom.png" //td /tr /tbody /table /td /tr /tbody /table 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./p pWe 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./p pstrongFun and Learning/strongbr / 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./p pUnfortunately, an SD card is required for taking advantage of some of what the Leapster 2 has to offer -- which is a drawback, because it must be purchased separately. For example, without the SD card (which offers more memory) you cannot save artwork. br //p pIn the meantime, without the SD card, you can still purchase game cartridges, as well as download new games, or take advantage of the online "Learning Path". (This online program allows you to register and upload your children's Leapster 2 profiles to show you their learning activities and their progress.)  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./p pstrongWhat's in the Box/strongbr / Leapster 2 Game System, USB cable, CD-ROM br //p pstrongPC Requirements/strong br /br /All Leapster games work with all Leapster systems. br /PC Requirements br /br /Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systembr /Pentium III 500 MHz processorbr /Monitor resolution of at least 1024 X 768br /Available USB portbr /256 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended)br /300 MB free disk spacebr /Internet connectionbr /Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 or higherbr /CD readerbr /strongbr /Mac Requirements/strong br /br /Mac OS X 10.4+br /PPC G4 or any Intel-based Apple computerbr /Monitor resolution of at least 1024 X 768br /Available USB portbr /256 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended)br /300 MB free disk spacebr /Internet connectionbr /Safari applicationbr /CD readerbr clear="all" //p