Lionel Train Town Deluxe - PC Games

The game begins with a series of tutorials that outline the basic functions of play--driving trains, moving from track to track and managing loads--before presenting a series of timed puzzle scenarios. Younger players may find even the simplest of these scenarios too challenging and may prefer the options that allow them (or their parents) to lay out train routes of their own. The electronic element also allows for some creative settings, such as scenarios set on the moon or the North Pole, or ones that include dinosaur farms.

Despite these fictional elements, the program's best feature is the level of realistic detail it provides on the nuts and bolts of train systems. Each train car has a specific function, prohibiting players from loading inappropriate cargo. Track repairs, coupling and decoupling cars, refuelling, track switching--all of the basic concepts that rule the railroads are covered in Traintown Deluxe.

Though its approach is low-key, it's also very educational, developing in young players an appreciation for how trains and railways work--not to mention how food gets from the farm to the local grocery store. Traintown Deluxe may well be everything both a parent and a child could want. It's engaging, well designed and informative. Best of all, playing it is a lot of fun. (Ages 7 and older) --Alyx Dellamonica