LeapFrog Leapster

Keeping the kids amused on long journeys, whether in the car, by plane, train or boat can be hard. Worse still, what about the dreaded airport delays and traffic jams? So the idea of a handheld games console to keep them amused appeals to me. If it could also have some educational benefit, then even better!

Leapster from LeapFrog is an educational toy, sneakily disguised as a handheld games system. It looks like a games console, with its big screen and game control pad. It feels like a toy, chunky enough for small hands to hold with big buttons, a stylus pen and protective screen cover. However crammed inside this package is the ability to play games, watch videos, read stories and draw pictures. The screen is 7cm x 7cm (2 3/4” square) and when you switch on a cartoon plays introducing you to the characters involved in the game, Leap, his brother Tad and sister Lily along with Edison who is there to help you if you get stuck.

My main candidate for the game was my elder son who is nearly 6 years old and who loved ‘My First LeapPad’. The Leapster is aimed at the 4-8 years age range, and although a child at the lower end of this range needs some help getting started, my son was able to get started pretty much by himself. The instructions are explained in clear simple language right from the start, in English voices for the UK.

The unit is supplied with a cartridge called ‘Learning with Leap’ which includes 6 games using all the different capabilities of the toy. ‘ Rabbit River’ is the game that looks most like a conventional computer game – except that instead of just testing the dexterity of your thumb you have to cross the river by only jumping on the right letters or numbers. The longer you play the harder it gets, as you have to start jumping on the numbers in the right order. Higher levels require counting in 2s, 5s or 10s and adding and subtraction. All that and you still have to try to get points for collecting carrots and you must avoid the beehives and not to end up in the water. Phew!

‘Catcher Fields’ is also at first sight a pretty conventional game, just catch the letters in a bucket, but again the higher levels require the player recognise upper and lower case letters and then to spell out words.

For visual types, ‘The Shape Shop’ is a group of games where you have to find what shapes are needed to make a complete picture, which become more complex and require memory as you play at the higher levels. ‘The Colour Corral’ is for your child’s artistic side, where they can colour in a picture, add animation to it or simply draw their own pictures.

The most popular game with my son was ‘The Chicken Coop’ or as Leap enthusiastically introduces it ‘The Super Chicken Challenge!’ This is an electronic version of that old favourite game Pairs, the memory game where you have to turning over cards. In this version, hens are hiding their eggs, and fly away when touched by the stylus provided. The basic level requires matching colours, letters and numbers. In fact, after watching his brother for a while, my three year old was able to play the colour matching game by himself - in quite a reasonable time! The higher levels which require matching rhyming words, opposites and musical instruments to their sounds may take a little longer however.

Throughout each game the player collects seeds depending on their performance, which are used in the final game, ‘Musical Meadow’. Feed the birds the seed that have been collected and they will sing and play to you, helped by ‘Opera Rooster’. You can choose the type of music which the birds play, and the instrument that accompanies them.

For a piece of equipment that has animations and sound, I found that the batteries seem to last very well, however we are certainly considering getting a mains adapter for the console, if only to prevent the disappointment when batteries give up halfway through a game. If like us you use rechargeable batteries, you will need to use high power ones, 1800mA work very well.

Purely for the sake of experimental completeness, I had a go with it myself. Now I’m not an experienced gamer, so I found ‘Catcher Fields’ and ‘Rabbit River’ which use the game Control Pad quite tricky (not the adding up bit I hasten to add). ‘The Shape Shop’ certainly requires a good deal of concentration for the more difficult levels where memory is required. But my favourite was ‘The Chicken Coop’, which is gently addictive rather in the same way Sudoku is.

The LeapFrog Leapster was a huge success with both kids. Despite constant use there are still plenty of activities to try and levels to play to. A definite winner in our house, and wherever we travel!

You can find the Classic Blue & Silver Leapster at Amazon.co.uk, Hamleys, Woolworths and Amazon.com. The Pink Leapster is available at Amazon.co.uk, Hamleys, Early Learning Centre and Amazon.com

My First LeapPad
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