UPDATE:
Well, almost a year has passed since we got this game and my 3 1/2 year old son is 4 1/2. He's learned his 1+1's and 2+2's and is getting the hang of subtraction too. Though he is still not quite in the age range, he just was level tested for Hooked On Math (out of the blue he asked to take math class, go figure) and he tested into the "Recommended Age: 6-7" books, so I dug this cartridge out of the couch cushions to see how he fared.

Even though he now knows enough math to actually answer questions on the easy level, he's still not really getting that much out of this game because he can't think fast enough.

The game is set up so that it "softballs" you a question one of two ways depending on your level of skill:

1) You are presented with a problem and you select one of two answers
2) You are given an answer and you select which of two math problems gets you the answer.

At the lowest level, you get addition, then subtratction, then as you move up they mix in multiplication and division.

In any case, even though my son now knows all of his sums from 1+1 up to 5+5 and the other biggies like 10+10, he doesn't have the mental dexterity to answer the questions in the two seconds the game gives you to answer...and the faster you answer the farther the ball gets hit. So he pretty much just presses the A button still, which I can't help but wonder if that'll ultimately undermine his math ability. Probably not...but just a thought. In any event, given the laws of probability, "A" is the answer often enough that you do get on base and score a few runs, but there's no real correlation for him yet.

My daughter, who knows her math very well now and is almost 7, still won't play it at all. And the multiplication and division are too hard for her anyway...I imagine that's what they save for the "8" portion of the 5-8 age range. She prefers playing the Bratz game to learn her math -- and as a side note, my son also prefers the Bratz game -- which geared for 1st-3rd grade and the Bratz game also teaches "greater than" and "equal than," which has helped my daughter learn that concept very well for 1st grade.

To respond to the comments posted after my earlier review below regarding writing a review for a product outside the age range, part of the beauty of Leapster cartridges is that, despite the age recommendations, there is usually something to be learned even outside the age range. For example, my son learned to read at 3 1/2 -- well before the "recommended age" -- thanks in part to Leapster's use of songs and games to reinforce concepts, so I hoped some of that might carry over into other cartridges. Unlike most of Leapster's other cartridges, my son was able to play this came without learning anything. There are no math songs or games or anything to reinforce the concepts -- it is just simple equation recognition.

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This cartridge came as part of a Leapster bundle I bought for my 3 year old son and 6 year old daughter from kohls.com. The entire set was $80, but they sell this game individually at Target for $19.99.

The box indicates it is for 5-8 years old, and you'd better believe them.

My daughter is not much into baseball, so I couldn't get her interested in the game. My son, however, loves baseball and loves this game. For many reasons, however, I wouldn't recommend it for kids his age.

First of all, it is difficult for a little one to get the game set up initially. You are permitted to select what players you want on your team and, though you can just select the first one that pops up, you have to select nine players (for obvious reasons) and a mascot and a logo and it is not an intuitive process for a little kid. I can see how an older child would have fun, though, as you can select players based on hair color and style, skin color, and gender -- it's very multi-cultural.

Your child does also get to choose if (s)he gets to do addition, subtraction, multiplication or division -- or a combination of all, so you can progress through levels depending on how advanced your child is mathematically. However, the way the came is set up, if a child just wants to watch the pictures and hear the sounds (s)he can just keep pressing the "A" button and watch the game progress without ever really having to learn the correct answers to the math questions. (The game either gives you the answer with an (a) or (b) choice for the equation or gives you the equation with an (a) or (b) choice for the answer).

The fact that my son does press "A" most of the time doesn't seem to bother him, I just don't see that he's currently learning anything. Maybe he's absorbing some of it and it'll pay off in time, but if you want them to really learn from this, I'd definitely wait until your child is within the age range.

Recommended: Yes