Its games teach the alphabet, phonics, basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and art and animal facts to players.

The Leapster L-MAX, a version that has one extra feature (an A/V TV output, which allows the user to view and hear gameplay on their television) was released in 2004.

The Leapster TV, a screenless version with the same basic control layout in a console form, was released in 2005 and retired in 2007.

Ian Bogost stated "the potential for improved educational game design is simply not going to come from inside the LeapFrog corporation".

Tom Prichard, Sr. Vice President of Marketing for Leapfrog, said that he believed using Flash allowed them to "bring the Leapster system to life more rapidly than we could have with any other development method".