I don’t know about V-tech, but all Leapster systems are compatible with all Leapster games, without exception. If you’ve got the very first Leapster that ever rolled off the assembly line, it will work just fine with the entire 2008 Leapster cartridge library.
Not supporting Miller myself, but my son, now 5, has had the Leapster L-Max for a couple of years now and it plays all of the original Leapster games as well as L-Max games which are the same, but can also be hooked up to the tv.
The thing is durable, and has a stylus and directional pad, just like my DS. The fact that the games are all educational is a great boon too. Santa already has two new games lined up for him for XMas.
He doesn’t play it all the time (which is good), but when he plays it, especially when travelling, he thoroughly enjoys it. He will graduate to a DS in a couple of years, but for now, the Leapster is fantastic.
Oh, and a correction to an earlier post: the Nintendo DS (and Lite) do NOT play Gameboy games. They DO play Gameboy Advance games however, which gives them a huge library, but the original Gameboy games will not work with the DS.
Out of curiousity, which titles does he like the best?
If you can keep secret from them that it is an old system, at that age I loved my SNES. Lots of bright colorful bouncy games that are child friendly.
Funny, you mis-spelled “Sega Genesis”. Sonic the Hedgehog, all the way!
I don’t recall either of those systems being particularly portable.
(However, you can get Sonic games for the Leapster. Just sayin’.)
I am not 100% on title names, but there is a ‘non character’ Math Invaders game and a NASCAR math game. He’s still a bit too young, but he will be getting a Spiderman game (he loves superheroes) and one involving animals for Christmas this year that will help encourage his reading.
Did I mention that he loves this system?
Been sorta keeping an eye on this thread, and now I’m rethinking getting something like this for my son. Maybe a numbers and reading game with the Leapster…
Well, for the Genesis, there was the Nomad. I don’t know if you could still find one of those anywhere. I’d sell you my old one, but the on-off switch has broken off, and goes through batteries like nobody’s business.
There’s a Batman math game that’s really good, too, although he might still be too young for it. And kids seem to really love the Madagascar game. Which seems weird to me, because I don’t remember the movie doing all that well, but in a recent study we did on kid’s playing habits with the Leapster, it polled something like three times as much play time as any other title.
Go Leapster. I am on V.Smile and loving it, but if I could go back in time, I would buy the Leapster. Leapfrog has quite a track record with this type of products, and all the previous Leapfrog toys we have had have been total hits with our kids.
Thanks everyone. We’re getting a DS lite for the older one, and the Leapster for the little guy, so Miller will stay employed at least through this holiday season. I’ll be the only person in the house without a handheld of my own. I’ll have to steal my husband’s.
One nice thing about the Leapster is that it comes in both TV and handheld versions. My son has both and can play the same games on either of them. They’re great for keeping him occupied on plane and road trips. That said, he’s had the systems for about a year and I would say he’s spent maybe 12 hours total playing them. He really isn’t all that interested. He also went through a computer game phase when he was younger but since pre-K started, he’s lost interest. (He turned 5 in October.)
Also, no disrespect to your employer, Miller, but I’ve had a couple of LeapPads that seem to break if you look at them wrong. Both the pads and the cartridges seem very fickle about being set in just right, and any sort of abuse that, say, a 2- or 3-year-old might give them can break them pretty easily. We went through two of the padded LeapPads and two of the school-bus-shaped ones. And a couple of the games for the Leapster will only play intermittently now.
I’ve never worked with LeapPads, so I can’t speak to their reliability.
For the Leapster cartridges, have you tried blowing out the bottom with compressed air, or lightly swabing them with rubbing alcohol? If the connections get dirty, it can affect the game’s performance.
The thread convinced me, so the leapster is going to be his other big toy this year.
I hope he’ll like it. 
If something goes wrong, I can count on you flying to NJ to take a look at it right? Miller? Miller?
Thanks for the advice.
A note to all considering either of these consoles or similar. They are not a guarantee that you can leave the kid alone for any length of time. About 80% of the time ours in on, one of us has to be sitting right next to the kid making sure all is well and that he is getting something out of it.
We sometimes leave the kid alone and he just drives Pooh around collecting letters and balloons and whatever it is, but it takes a parent sitting with him for this to be a learning experience.
Sometimes, if we leave him alone, he just circles Pooh around and doesn’t even advance on the level (or kills him on the nearest cliff). If he were a teenager on a bigger console, you would think he is hunting for easter eggs, in his case, that is just him saying he wants company.
Oh, I wasn’t planning on leaving him alone with it. Something else for the two of us to play with and try to teach him things (like when we play with his letter puzzles, or read books).
My 3-year-old has a LeapPad, It’s right there in the corner. While he plays with my DS Lite.
Grrr.
There are some DS games for the really little ones: The Interactive Storybook series has him enthralled right now. And I learned some new fairy tales, which is pretty cool.
Did they re-release the NES with a new name or something?