I just read the below about how much better the explorer is. But I think I remember reading somewhere that the leapster 2 is better for the little ones.
DD got the Leapster 2 for her 4th birthday and just loves it! She had a little trouble using the up/down/side arrow keys at first and stuck to just using the "pen". But now she's really getting the hang of it all. I love that the games have 3 levels to chose from so that she won't get bored with them so fast!
Re: s/o Leapster 2 or Leapster explorer for a 3yo?
The Explorer is just an updated version of the Leapster 2, rather than calling it Leapster 3. This might help understand the differences though:
https://www.brighthub.com/parenting/grade-school/articles/83517.aspx