{"id":577,"date":"2008-04-18T07:19:17","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T13:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2008-04-18T07:19:17","modified_gmt":"2008-04-18T13:19:17","slug":"console-guide-leapster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/18\/console-guide-leapster\/","title":{"rendered":"Console Guide: Leapster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"leapster.jpg\"By far the most frequent question I get here at GamerDad is:
\n“What console should I buy for my kids?”
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Should I Buy a Leapster?<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Sadly, there’s no easy answer and that’s why one-by-one I’m going to be laying out the pros\/cons, value, future, advantages and drawbacks for each of the 10 platforms we cover. Yes, 10. There are 10 gaming platforms. Omitted (because we cover 10 platforms) are platforms like the Leap Pad, V-Smile, Cel Phone games, and other similar platforms not covered by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Over the course of the next couple weeks we’ll cover the: Game Boy Advance,\u00a0Nintendo Dual Screen, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation Portable, and the Computer (whew!).<\/p>\n

Let’s talk about the Leapster.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parental Controls:<\/strong> No<\/p>\n

Overview & Features:<\/strong>
\nLeap has made a simple and surprisingly rugged handheld just perfect for little hands. The controls are big and responsive, the light pen is well tethered, and the games are big enough to be easy to find.<\/p>\n

Drawbacks:<\/strong>
\nThe stylus can break off and even though it’s rugged, the age group it’s aimed at is potentially rougher than it can take. Games break when stepped on and the game selection isn’t very large and isn’t growing at a particularly fast rate.
\nKid Factor:<\/strong>
\nThere is no better videogame system in the world for kids under 6.\u00a0 Older than six, the kids will lose interest but this is catnip to those kids just out of the toddler stage and the games are fun and truly educational.<\/p>\n

Value & Verdict:<\/strong>
\nThe Leapster packs a lot of gameplay and fun into a relatively small package. The price is right, the games are great and it should\u00a0be supported for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By far the most frequent question I get here at GamerDad is: “What console should I buy for my kids?” Should I Buy a Leapster?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}