Fisher-Price Rescue Heroes: Lava Landslide

The action starts out in space, where a broken satellite makes it impossible for the Rescue Heroes to properly assess Volcano Island's danger. Players ages 4 to 7 begin this game by retrieving lost satellite parts from the moon and then making the appropriate repairs. Only then can they see the extent of the coming volcanic activity, and the tourists and rain forest animals who need to be rescued from the island before time runs out.

Like other Rescue Heroes games, Lava Landslide offers a series of two-part activities, each featuring excitement and action but no violence. Players pilot various vehicles--from powered spacesuits to dune buggies--through a maze of obstacles, desired items, and power-ups. The vehicles are always on the edge of running out of power and ending the game, which is where the second activity comes in. Additional power-ups are available to players who complete a matching game or maze challenge hidden within each game level.

With a boisterous soundtrack and a limited range of activities, Lava Landslide is definitely a game that falls more on the arcade end of the software spectrum than on its educational side. It does have some shape identification and memory exercises, but this is primarily an offering for children who like their games loud, fast, and laced with comparatively simple obstacles. Racing along the beach, threading through collapsing lava caves, and hoping the next power-up comes along in time are the essence of this program.

Lava Landslide unfolds in linear fashion, like a story: you must fix the satellite before going on to the island, for example. It is a perfect choice for any young child who likes a beginning, middle, and end structure integrated into their gameplay.--Alyx Dellamonica