Choo choo choose your weapons carefully with Lionel's iPad-exclusive Battle Train

Receiving a Lionel train set was a right of passage for many American children around the holidays.

Sadly, most of these beloved trains were forgotten about by all but the most dedicated of model railroad enthusiasts once video games entered the picture, but Lionel isn't prepared to let them go quietly into the night.

Instead, it's decided to slap some mini-guns and flamethrowers to its iconic engines and let them run wild on the iPad with the new, free-to-play Battle Train.

Yes, you read that correctly: Battle Train.

Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Lionel's Battle Train lets you outfit your train with a variety of armour and weapons in a quest to out-gun and outlast your enemies.

The point of each level is to protect your cargo, which sounds easy but looks like it will require some serious finessing once you have a squad of enemies bearing down on your train from a series of parallel tracks.

With 19 story missions spread across three unique game environments and endless side missions as well, Battle Train is a far cry from the nostalgic track that many children wrapped around their family's Christmas tree.

But let's face it - most of these kids were probably hoping that their trains could do more than just drive around in lazy circles, anyway.

If you're ready to go off the rails on your iPad, you can download Battle Train from the App Store for the just-right price of 'free'.

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