Rescue Heroes: Meteor Madness (PlayStation 1)

Rescue Heroes: Meteor Madness is another in the Fisher-Price Rescue Heroes Series, this one is aimed at children in the 4-7 age range. The story behind the game is that the earth has been struck by a cluster of meteors that have done damage in specific areas. It is the Rescue Heroes task to travel to the trouble spots and rescue people who are trapped. There are four hot spots to be dealt with, each representing a different mini game featuring different heroes. Each game has three levels of difficulty, trainee, specialist and expert, with each level of difficulty having more people and animals in need of rescue. The player can change the difficulty if they find the game too hard or too easy. When all missions have been completed the game unlocks one of a series of printable pictures which the player is invited to colour in.

The four mini games in this title are:

• • Outback Nature Preserve: This game is set in the Australian Outback and features Billy Blazes. It is in two parts, the first part is a side scrolling game in which the player uses the mouse to navigate Billy’s All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to the bush fire. Some obstacles such as rivers cannot be driven around and here the player uses the winch to get the vehicle back on track. The second part of the game is to put out the fires which is done by pointing at the flames with the mouse and firing water at them. Once all the fires are out the player calls Ariel Flyer to transport the animals to safety. When playing this game on the expert setting Billy’s backpack has a limited quantity of water and this must be replenished from the ATV.

• • Seaside Studios: A nearby meteor strike has flooded the Seaside movie studio, this is a job for Gil Gripper and rescue dolphin Nemo. Nemo finds the trapped people one at a time and the player steers Gil’s jet-ski to their location through a watery maze. Once there the player has to fire rescue buoys over floating obstacles to the victim at which point Nemo guides them to safety.

• • Klondike Canyons: This game features hero Rocky Canyon with Jake Justice as his unseen assistant. Hikers in the Klondike Canyons were left stranded after meteors caused the cliff paths to fall away. The player guides Rocky around the cliff face to locate each hiker. Once the hiker dons the safety harness Rocky gives them Jake winches them to safety. This is the only game with active hazards. There are vultures, snakes and falling rocks any of which can knock Rocky off the cliff face.

• Alpine Slopes: In this game the object is to rescue climbers trapped when a meteor triggered an avalanche. It features heroes Al Pine and rescue dog Wind Chill in a two-part game. In the first part the player navigates Al Pine around obstacles as he races down the mountain side on his snowboard. This part ends when Al encounters Wind Chill who’s found a trapped climber. Al then smashes the ice away from the cave in which the climber is sheltering and Wind Chill guides them to safety. These two stages are repeated until all climbers have been rescued.