Lost dogs, burning buildings ­ there is no job too tall or too small for these heroes.

Matchbox Crosstown Heroes, a THQ release for the Game Boy Advance, is an arcade game that will have players dashing throughout a miniature town, attending to all manner of emergencies.

The game publicity overplays the drama of the program, but this innocuous little game will still provide a nice outlet for younger players while giving older players an interesting and light, entertaining experience.

The fire engine twists along the roads, finding and dowsing the fires that have popped up. A progress window pops up to let you know how many are left, and how many you’ve found. In that sense, this game features very arcade-like game play.

In addition to the emergency situations, Crosstown Heroes features side games to delight game players. In the opening scenario, you are tasked with putting out all 15 fires and rescuing/finding all 10 puppies. After that, there are two mini-games: a racing game in which you have to extinguish fires before fireworks go off, and collect the fireworks, and an arcade game that challenges players to put out the fires behind circus characters while dodging falling pies.

There are three major scenarios and an unlimited play, so you can continue to rescue folks and put out fires to your heart’s content.

The controls have been kept simple. The D-pad controls directional movement, A is the action key (for triggering the water cannons, or firing laughing gas), B is the vehicle accelerator, L turns the siren on and off, and R is the brake/reverse trigger. Even an inexperienced player should be able to pick these simple control elements up within five minutes or so.

The sound of the game is merely a minor player here. It generally supports the graphical elements, but little else.

The two-dimensional  graphics are … well, cute and childlike ­ completely in line with the Matchbox theme while maintaining a strictly-arcade feel.

Crosstown Heroes it not going to set the gaming world on fire, but it should be a nice diversion for younger players. Older, experience console gamers will likely find this game too simplistic.

This game is rated for Everyone.

Gameplay: 7
Simple and straightforward, this game sets a challenge, then asks players to accomplish the tasks before them. The game does have prompts to let players know how far along they are toward accomplishing the task.

Graphics: 6.8
The graphical elements of this game are rather flat and two-dimensional, but are colorful.

Sound: 6.8
Nothing here of note, the audio aspect of this game does not exceed expectations.

Difficulty: Easy
This game may be a bit more challenging for the younger set than for the older player.

Concept: 7
The game is well designed, and everything has been kept simple.

Overall: 7
The game does have certain charm, but won’t be much of a challenge for older players. While the graphical elements are somewhat simple, the Matchbox feel is there, and the game is a simple diversion.