The upgrade to the popular 3D Ultra Lionel Train Town is here! With 80+ puzzles, 3 new train worlds (for a total of 10), and a newly designed track layout system, this is a train ride you won’t want to miss.
The title of this program might throw those who don't realize that this isn’t a game designed only for model train enthusiasts. Though it features wonderfully detailed trains based on Lionel models and some excellent model train simulation games, it’s also brimming with logic games, ranging in difficulty and style, that will have the whole family clamoring for a turn.
These trains can do all sorts of things you’d never quite expect a model train to do. They chug through elaborate layouts on the living room floor, backyard, and even the kitchen counter! They venture forth into off-the-wall locations as well, including outer space. Players ride the rails through detailed cities that are alive with little people, honking cars, and interesting locales; they direct their trains through Cactus valley, the North Pole, and Purple Moon. They'll contend with groups of reindeer or pigs blocking the track, broken switches, and various problems along the way.
While some players (especially younger ones) might be content to pick up and deliver loads in simple settings -- experimenting with track-switching and their train’s 3 different speeds -- it’s only after they start progressing through the higher levels when the game becomes so thoroughly addictive. Natural disasters, strange UFO sightings, falling "cows-monauts", and even dung wars await. Jobs run the gamut from more mundane tasks (like delivering fish to the anglers' club for breakfast) to silly (making and delivering ice cream to the ice cream social in order to help local residents combat a heat wave), to the heroic (delivering the queen safely to her fortress and saving Planet X from alien invaders). Our favorite has players saving Santa's Village from a runaway train filled with presents!
The Layout Tinkerer mode allows players to craft their own unique worlds by laying out track and adding props. These worlds can even be shared with others via the Internet.
A tutorial mode allows users to familiarize themselves with the basics of navigation with a simple "training" session in which users learn the tricks of the trade (or in this case, track). They can then work through the progressively more challenging levels, progressing from Caboose Washer to Whistle Blower. Each level includes a roster of 14 jobs, the last of which can only be unlocked once the previous 13 have been mastered. Players need not play the game in sequence, and can earn Blue Ribbons for jobs especially well done.
Players encounter a wide range of puzzles in this exciting program that brings a model train world to life. Most of them require strategy and logical thinking to complete, so kids are truly exercising their brains while they have fun. Often, the time clock is ticking either up or down, adding to the challenge – after all, many of the trains are on tight schedules!
Different puzzle themes include lining up train cars "just so" in order to form valid mathematical equations, and racing to sort train cars according to type by efficiently switching tracks and directing cars or else "little sister" will get to keep the trains (she doesn’t really get to keep them, but that’s the basic premise). Players engage in a hangman-like activity using train cars and play concentration in addition to more complicated, traditional train games. The key here is that there is great variety in this program!
