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Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
(Didn't you have an old-fashioned mode of transport as a childhood hero?)

//introduction

When facing a game of this sort, it's a bit difficult to objectively review everything. I mean, the game's basically meant for 4-10 year olds. How's a (rather sad) 19 year old supposed to accurately judge how much a 5 year old child would enjoy this and how educating it would be?

Well, I suppose at times like this, my intelligence is brought into question. Am I able to take my knowledge of Snes games and computer games in general and apply that knowledge to judging this game's worth from the point of view of a younger player? I'd have to have a decent knowledge of what younger players like, and what games are already available for that age group.

Luckily, I have spent many a fond hour with my cousin's young son. I feel that I have some experience with children in general, and I feel that after playing with many young boys (mainly friends of the aforementioned cousin's son). Anyway, I'll stop wittering now. But I hope I've convinved you of my competence in talking about and then judging this game. If not... ah well.

//overview of the game

This game is basically a collection of 8 mini-games which are accessed from a main menu. But 2 of them are pretty much the same, so that's 7 then.

These mini-games can be played in any order and they're all a bit pointless. I mean, you do have a win condition for each game, but you don't get any reward for winning (apart from a little bit of text). It's basically a toy rather than a 'proper' game.

(Although I'm not necessarily saying that that's a bad thing. I'm just informing you of that fact.)

To select these mini-games, you move a 'hand' around a menu, the hand jumping from one selectable game to another. All games involve moving this hand around the screen and pressing either A or B.

The intended age of players is made obvious as soon as you switch on the machine with the cart inside, press start and read what appears on the screen. You are asked how old you are: '4 or younger', '5, 6 or 7' or '8 or older'. This acts as a difficulty selection. I, being 19, chose the last option. Even so, I still felt like I was playing a game intended for a youger audience. Obvious reasons were the cause of that.

//'Thomas's Quiz'

The first mini-game you'll probably play is this. Mainly because the aforementioned hand you use to select the mini games starts here.

Simply move the the hand to select what you think is the correct answer to the question being asked and press the B button. If the answer was correct, you move onto the next question. If you get it wrong, you can just try again until you manage to get it right.

You get 3, 4 or 5 questions depending on the age you selected. Some of the questions are about the show (you need to know what Thomas is...), but most simply ask you to name objects or count stuff.

//'The Sliding Puzzle'

In the 2nd mini game, a picture is divided into 6 horizontal strips. 1, 2 or 3 (depending on the age you selected) of them are moved. You must then move these strips back to their starting position by moving the cursor over arrows and pressing a button to move each individual strip left or right.

There are about 4 pictures.

//'Setting the Switches'

In this game, you see a picture of some railway lines, and you need to 'click' on the yellow bits that show the direction Thomas will turn at the junctions.

Your objective is to 'set the switches' so that Thomas ends up at the station.

There are about 3 or 4 maps for each age group. The age group determines whether you have 1-2, 2-3 or 3-4 switches on each map.

//'The Jigsaw Puzzle'

This game involves a picture being split up into pieces, and you must put 3, 4 or 5 pieces back together, with a darkened picture to help you.

There seem to be about 2 pictures.

//'Fixing the Tracks.'

If you are playing this on the '4 or less' age range selected, this mini-game simply involves 'clicking' on a few squares which are meant to have pieces of track present but don't. To help you, these squares are highlighted for you.

On a higher difficulty level, however, the game totally changes.

You are given a map with Thomas, a farm, a windmill and a station on it, as well as a few other miscellaneous items.

You need to lay a train track so that it takes Thomas from his present position to the farm, then the windmill, and finally the station. However, some of the scenery can't be built over, so you need to work around it.

If you are playing the game after selecting the '5, 6 or 7' age range, you will see some highlights, which attempt to help you by showing you where Thomas would turn.

However, I found that these highlighted squares were a bit confusing, as I thought - to begin with at least - that I simply had to click on any highlighted squares.

//'Let's Go with Thomas!'

This is basically a story book. You get 3 stories, 1 of which is only accessible if you are '8 or older'.

With the 2 other stories, you can click on any words to hear that word being spoken or you can click on a mouth-icon to hear the entire 'page' being spoken. There is also a button which lets you hear a noise related to the picture which goes wih the current 'page' and a question mark, which makes random stuff happen in the picture.

However, you can't hear the title being spoken. Nor can you hear some occasional questions which pop along being spoken.

//'Let's Race Berties'/'Let's Race Percy'

This is basically a case of hitting a button quickly for about 7 seconds or so.

//sound

The sound basically involves simple, repetitive sounds, simple, repetitive ditties and the voice which reads out the names of the mini-games and the stories' text.

//graphics

The graphics aren't technically great. They don't puch the Snes to its limit, but serve their purpose.

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how far I got: tried, finished and fully examined everything.

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rating : 2

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I thought that this game had a few nice ideas, but was definitely flawed - a thing which really lets it down.

The movement of the hand which you control is my first gripe. At some times, it kind of 'jumps' from one option to the other. At others, you need to kind of move it, and you can move it somewhere where there is nothing to be selected.

Either system would be fair enough. However, the makers have decided that (for the 2 higher age ranges) it is a good idea to sometimes adopt one method for some mini-games, and sometimes adopt the other for some other situations - a thing even a 19 year old found confusing.

Also, sometimes text disappears before all the letters have even appeared on the screen - a serious crime.

I also got annoyed with the way that pictures are re-used. So, people look exactly the same whether they're telling you off or praising you, and you get smiling people telling you that you made a horrendous mistake whilst the fat controller scowls and tells you that you did a good job and are a Really Useful Engine.

Also, I found the races a bit confusing, which would suggest that an 8 year old might also be confused.

Also, the manual calls what is referred to as 'Thomas's Quiz' in the game 'The Fat Controller's Quiz'.

Also, it doesn't explain what the signal/whistle thing does in the race.

Lastly (and probably most annoying), on the main menu, where you select the mini-game you want to play, a voice reads out the name of the mini-game as you select it and you can't move the cursor (the hand) until the voice had stopped speaking.

This makes for slow navigation and is REALLY annoying.

However, despite these flaws, I can detect some nice ideas in this package. 'Fixing the Tracks' and 'Setting the Tracks' are both nice ideas and rather anjoyable. If I was about 6, I could definitely see myself loving these 2 sections.

But even there, you only get about 4 maps for each game. Which is really not very many when you consider how long they'll last.

And this is ultimately how the entire game feels. Like an unfinished product.

Bugs and flaws needed to be pointed out and sorted. The manual needed to be re-read and checked a few more times. Most of the stuff needed to be expanded upon.

If you buy this, expect about 2 hours entertainment for a 4-8 year old and no more. And of those 2 hours, only about 1 hour will be really 'entertainment'.

It's your choice...

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Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends