I was sent a LeapFrog Didj to evaluate, for my six year old daughter. She was already a Leapster user, and enjoyed it, but she’s clearly getting a bit too old for the content there. She aces all the games, and that’s no fun- not being challenged. So, getting into the Didj was a cool next step.

Right off the bat, there’s something I didn’t like. I didn’t like that I had to download a special Didj application to my computer that acted as a go-between handling the attached Didj and going back and forth to the web. I was grumbling about this until I realized that the Apple iTunes application does this exact same thing with iPhones and iPods. Okay, you’ve got me there.

The Connect feature is pretty interesting. It allows parents to customize your child’s learning, and it allows kids to customize their avatars a bit more. It also let us download a game called Jetpack Heroes, that Violette loved, and even my 2.5 year old, Harold, dug it.

We were sent Hannah Montana, but Violette definitely wasn’t as big a fan of that. She doesn’t like the show though, either, so it might just be bias in that way. She’s more action-oriented.

I’m thinking the Didj makes for a good 6-10 year old’s product, and with the system being about $89 USD and the games coming in around $29.00 each, it’s not cheap, but it’s also less expensive than some TV console game platforms. Might make a higher end stocking stuffer or one of your 8 Channukah gifts.

Have you tried it? What did you think?