Cross Town Heroes
Rating: E
Ages: 4-7

You just let that young girl get her hands on this heavy equipment - Fire Crusher, Police Car and Armored Police Truck and set her loose at saving the community - herding animals back into the zoo, dousing fires and catching thieves. The bonus vehicles are Police SUV, Fire Pumper and Battering Ram. The reason for the heavy equipment is - well they're more fun and the steering is deliberately difficult so that you trash the town while pursuing your mission. Think of it as Junior Grand Theft Auto - Nice.

Editor Review 12/02

Matchbox is going to save the town - but this time, you're going to help in Matchbox Cross Town Heroes. The point of the game is to save three different towns: Circusville, Zooland, and Metropolis. You save the towns by driving the vehicle that belongs in that town (which might be a police car, a fire truck, or an armored police truck) through the town and putting out fires, rescuing puppies and penguins, and stopping robbers and crazy monkeys.

I like Circusville because the mini-games in Circusville are the best. For example, in one of the mini-games, you put a road together, kind of like a puzzle. When you're finished building the road, you click on the green circle, and then your fire truck goes on the road you just built and gets back to rescuing puppies and penguins and putting out fires.

The game is pretty fun and exciting. I like putting out the fires and rescuing the puppies and penguins. But you only get told one time how to work the controls, so pay attention. There's really nothing confusing about this game. You just drive and pay attention to the road (or else you're going to hit the water or a house or a person) and watch where you're shooting water or laughing gas.

This game is always the same every time you play (not like Freddie Fish or other games like that), but I still like to play it. I've had the game for two weeks, and I've already played it almost ten times. I've also taught my four-year-old brothers how to play the game. (You can't play this game with a friend, so they just had to take turns.) My brothers liked the game, but they had a hard time steering. You have to use either the arrow keys or the mouse to steer your vehicle. This frustrated my brothers, especially when one of my brothers ran into a hot dog stand and got stuck, so this guy who owns the stand kept screaming, which annoyed me and my mom.

As a matter of fact, the noises in the game are pretty annoying. The game has a siren that sounds like a real police car. The good thing about the siren is that when it goes off, it helps you go faster. The bad thing is . . . it's annoying. There isn't any talking in this game, except when you get a badge. When you get a badge, this girl comes on and says something like "Hey hero," or "You're good at collecting badges." She sounds okay, but the game has music. The music is fine the first or second time you play, but once you play eight times or more, the music gets kind of annoying because it keeps playing the same little bit again and again.

If I made the game, I would not let the people walk in the middle of the road, and I would cut out the screaming. If you get stuck, like my brother did, I would just let the person scream for ten seconds, and then he is DONE screaming!

Reviewed by: Callie K. Age 8 - 03/03