Play Matchbox Cross Town Heroes Online

I picked up Matchbox Cross Town Heroes on the Game Boy Advance back when it was new. It was one of those licensed titles from the early 2000s, developed by Runecraft and published by Atari. It fit right in with the era's fondness for taking popular toy brands and turning them into simple, portable adventures.

You control a team of Matchbox vehicles, each with a unique ability, navigating a large city split into separate screens. Your main goal is to complete missions for the townspeople, which usually involves fetching items or racing to a location before a timer runs out. The signature mechanics are the vehicle switching, where you pick the right car or truck for the job, and the screen by screen exploration that slowly unlocks the map. The pacing is generally relaxed, though some delivery missions can get tense. Driving around the small, detailed city with its changing objectives gives the game a pleasant, aimless kind of charm.