Another outstanding edutainment title from The Learning Company, Time Riders in American History teaches history of the United States in such a captivating way that kids will not realize that they're learning something :) Designed for kids ages 7 to 12, the game's educational content is much more in-depth than the ever-popular Where in Carmen Sandiego? games, with many photos, interesting anecdotes, and colorful historical characters. As in most other games from TLC, mini-games are arcade-oriented integrated with historical facts, and are not too difficult. As always, on-line hints provide ample help for young historians should they get stuck.
Overall, another great underdog that was sadly overlooked. Thumbs up!
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
A cousin to the beloved classic Operation Neptune. In this science fiction story, the nefarious supervillain Dr. Dread has hijacked TV broadcast satellites and is claiming credit for every event in American history with his twisted headlines. It's up to you to stop him by finding out the truth and overriding his lies before his broadcast satellite orbits out of transmission range.
This game covers a surprisingly large amount of ground, spanning American history starting in 1492 up to 1905. There's a lot of stuff in here that wasn't even covered in my 8th Grade American History classes. (In 10th grade, we focused more on the 20th century). This is where I'm glad my knowledge base has been boosted by things I learned outside of school by watching shows like Time Tunnel, Voyagers and Liberty's Kids.
The game teaches history by starting with a specific event, and the player has to figure out when, where and who beginning with a broad context background and narrowing down to specific points. It helps to have a background knowledge foundation, but even if you don't, Amanda and Josh will provide plenty of hints to help you figure out where to look. Which means that in order to be successful in this game, players not only have to do a lot of reading, but pay close attention to each clue and use deductive reasoning. As you complete
missions and advance in the story, the game will get trickier as Dr. Dread starts stacking up more obstacles and disadvantages to keep you from messing around with his version of history. You can do it.
Now if only correcting the phony history on actual TV networks was this easy...
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.