Tonka Garage - PC

• Tonka Joe needs your help to run the shop at Tonka Garage Headquarters.
• Design your own vehicles, take them for a trial run on the Test Track, give them a new look in the Paint Shop, and show them off in the Show Room.
• If they don't turn out the way you want, you can always blast them in the Junkyard.
• There are nine exciting places to explore at the Tonka Garage.
• For ages 5 years and over.

.com ---- There's plenty of work to be done at Tonka Garage Headquarters--and Tonka Joe needs your help to run the shop. Design your own vehicles, take them for a trial run on the Test Track, give them a new look in the Paint Shop, and show them off in the Show Room. If they don't turn out the way you want, you can always blast them in the Junkyard. There are nine exciting places to explore at the Tonka Garage. Review ------ Cars, trucks, and tools await children in seven activities, which fall short of the packaging promise to "design, build and customize your very own fleet of Tonka vehicles." After signing in, you see the main menu- the Tonka Garage headquarters. From here you can access the Station where you fill up cars with or visit with a goofy station attendant. The Paint Shop is where you go to add decals, change the colors, or print the vehicle, and at The Junkyard, you can recycle old cars by moving them around the screen with a crane. The Proving Grounds offers a c test and an oval race track that lets you get your vehicles rated for acceleration and durability. Our testers' favorite place was The Repair Shop, where they use a set of "cool tools" to change old parts, do brake work, or fix dents. The goal is to earn Cool Tools by completing each task in the game, but it is difficult to know when you've earned a tool. In fact, this part seems to be a last-minute add-on to the program, and not well integrated into the theme. For example, when you fix a car by doing all the required steps, you never get to see your car running. The proving grounds could be fascinating, but again, there's disappointingly little connection between your activities and actions and the way the car performs. Testers did enjoy using the tools to take the cars apart and seeing the cars c on the proving grounds. But the activities are poorly integrated, the characters are shallow, and routines lack the novelty needed to keep children engaged for the long haul. Teaches: creativity, matching Age Range: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Copyright © 2000 Children's Software Revue -- From Children's Software Revue® -- "Subscribe Now!" ( https://secure.tradenet.net/childrenssoftware/csroffer.html )