As a Thomas superfan, Thomas and Friends Wonders of Sodor would have blown my four-year-old mind

Every kid has something they’re obsessed with in their early years. Dinosaurs, dogs, space, or something else – the kind of thing you’d have on your pyjamas or bed sheets until your age started approaching double figures. For me, that was Thomas the Tank Engine. I’d spend the morning watching the TV show, clutching my Thomas toy, while in my Gordon jumper.

My grandpa was, and still is, big into his trains, and that started to rub off on me. In the midlands of the UK in the late 90s, Thomas the Tank Engine-themed days would take place at the railway my grandad worked at part-time. The full-size steam trains would be replaced by Thomas versions for the weekend, letting kids take pictures with him and other engines from the series. Since my grandad knew everyone, including the train drivers, I was able to actually ride in the cab of the Thomas engine, tooting the horn and shovelling coal as it trundled along. I felt so special, and it’s still a claim to fame of mine to this day.

That’s a long-winded introduction to explain why Thomas and Friends Wonders of Sodor would have been such a magical experience for four-year-old Tom. Thomas hasn’t been that present in my life since I was a kid, really, but the theme tune brought memories flooding back when I loaded up the simulation game.

As someone in their 30s who’s covered videogames for over a decade, Wonders of Sodor has a lot of problems. It’s clunky, not the best looking, and full of strange design decisions, but it’s a great showcase for the characters of the Thomas series.

The game’s main mode plays out through individual stories in the form of scenarios. An early one sees you, as Thomas, annoy Gordon, before he races to the other side of Sodor with Thomas stuck to the back of a group of carriages. Even early on, the playful, lighthearted tone of the series has been brought over well. The voice acting is comfortingly familiar, the writing is simple, and there’s a great degree of personality to the engines themselves.

From the cab of Thomas himself, you can drive along the tracks of Sodor, attach to carriages, and even get out and wander around to change points. That would have been incredible for me as a young Thomas fan. What Wonders of Sodor lets you do, and the tone of the game, are spot on for younger players.

The frustration comes from how inaccessible the developers have made parts of it. In the scenarios that make up the story mode, one mistake means you have to start the whole thing again; there aren’t any checkpoints. You’ll have seen some of the absurd physics-based memes on social media in the last week, and I failed one story by arriving at a station too quickly after a six-mile journey. I lost 15 minutes of progress for a very fussy reason, and that’s not something Thomas-loving kids are going to want to put up with.

While the tone, style, and structure of Wonders of Sodor are perfect for young fans, the mechanics seem to have been developed with adult train sim fans in mind. That seems like the completely wrong approach to me, but that didn’t stop the memories flooding back and the nostalgia reaching extreme levels as I explored.