LeapFrog® Didj Custom Learning Gaming System Buy Now

While many of the reviews here describe the loads of software and hardware bugs the Didj had on its release, those were mostly suffered by early adopters, and possibly at the peril of this toy.

The issues with the freezes, shutdowns and the like all have fixes from Leapfrog now, and when the game is working right (which is most of the time for us), it is fun and educational. There still are bugs that creep up from time to time, but connecting to the Leapfrog Connect site issues updates and has solutions for the problems that have come up (three different ones for us since getting it for Christmas '09).

Others have compared the Didj to the Leapster 2 and said that the L2 is much more educational. Having never owned a L2, I can't compare, but I will say that my 5-year-old likes the games and does well with the math and spelling questions integrated into the games. I feel that if he's going to be playing video games, at least he can be learning something. You can customize the spelling words and math problems to match what you child is studying in school, so that's a plus, and the grade levels can be increased for greater learning challenges.

I'm actually impressed with the graphics and game play considering the price of this system. It's comparable to a PSP or Nintendo DS. I do fear, however, that Leapfrog may have already given up on this platform, as there are only about a dozen games for it, and none have been released in quite some time.

As for the battery complaints from other users, I was surprised. Using rechargeable AAs, my son is able to play the game for at least five hours, and it seems like even longer. As with any high-demand electronic device (digital camera), they work best with rechargeable batteries. We keep an extra set ready to go. As other users have pointed out, the battery covers are difficult to remove.

Since this product is getting so cheap, if you're interested in it, go for it. The bugs are easy to fix now, and once you have the updates, the system works well. If Amazon's selling it for $39, you haven't got much to lose.Get more detail about LeapFrog® Didj Custom Learning Gaming System.