Hand Held Learning Game Systems

I would go for either the new Leap pad or the Leapster Explorer. My son had the original Leapster and loved it, it was then handed down to my daughter who played it to the point it no longer worked. She was 2 at the time.
Last Christmas my daughter got the Explorer and loves it. Especially the camera attachment. She was 3 when she got that. Only thing I would suggest is to get the charger to go with it. My daughter has gone thru so many batteries I should of taken stock in Duracell. This year she is 4 and we have decided to go ahead and get her a DS. That way we dont have to worry about the batteries and we are traveling cross country in May and we have the car charger for the DS.

My daughter loves her Leapster Explorer. Seems like most of the games are geared for slightly older kids -- she is almost 4.5, and likes Mr. Pencil and some of the games on Toy Story 3 in addition to the pet store game that comes already loaded. We would probably get a lot more use out of it if I connected it to the computer, which I am trying to avoid. (My laptop is on it's way out... probably fine for a normal, working computer!)

for a 3 year old - Leap Frog has the biggest selection and things that will grow with her.

I know my boys LOVED their Leap Frogs/Pads.

We have used Vtech - but they didn't keep the boys attention like Leap did!

We just bought the Fisher Price iXL (gently used with 10 games included) for my Daughter for her 5th Birthday present - her birthday isn't till Dec. 8, so we shall see how she likes it, but it has great reviews on all the sites, and 3 moms I know have them and they have a range of ages of kids, from 2-9 and they all enjoy the different aspects of it.

My 4 year old son has the Fisher Price iXL and absolutely loves it. It's very educational and he can't put it down... perect for rainy days and long car drives! He was pretty addicted to it when he first got it but now he still will pick it up frequently to play. Not sure about how pricy the games are or how easy/hard it is for the initial setup since this was a gift from my generous sister in law who included many games and also did the setup herself.

My 3 year old son LOVES his Mobigo that he got for his birthday in August. Right now he only has the game that came with it and has mastered 3 of the games on it but he will be getting 2 more games for Christmas.

My 3.5 daughter loves her mobigo.