Review: Thomas & Friends for VTech V-Motion

Written on Nov 27, 2008 by Brian and filed under Reviews, VTech

Thomas & Friends have chugged onto the V-Motion game system. Kids get to interact with Thomas, fly Harold the helicopter, drive Bertie the bus and count with Sir Topham Hatt as they explore seven learning games with their favorite characters on Sodor.

Thomas is like most V-Motion games in that it comes with Learning Adventure and Learning Zone game modes. The Learning Adventure is a little different than a lot of the games though, in that the games can be played independently and don’t really flow in a story-mode, like Wall-E for instance. While there are only seven games in total, Thomas does add Sing Along and Engine Depot sections for additional gameplay.

Thomas works with the V.Link system, though the option to save to V.Link is buried in the options menu, something that’s much less intuitive and useful than most of the other V-Motion games. That’s probably part of the reason there are so few Thomas scores saved in the top 100 rankings online. (For more on V.Link and the V-Motion system read our V-Motion Review).

While Thomas works with motion controls or joystick controls, there is no 2-player mode. Not that 2-player mode is huge in a lot of these games, but the lack of this mode highlights an unfinished feel that Thomas has.

Learning Adventure

Game 1 – Calling all Engines (Letters, Logic) 

In this game Thomas wants to get the engines together to discuss building an airport on Sodor. First though, he has to find the missing letters in each engine’s name. There are obstacles to avoid and decisions to make at switches. Kids will need to select the right letter to fill in an engine’s name or avoid an obstacle like a parked train car. Kids also have to help Thomas avoid other engines that are driving about. There’s also a little bonus game where Thomas goes into a cave and has to find the exit within a time limit. 

On the easy setting, kids will have to find 2-4 missing letters for three engines. The difficult level has 3-5 letters missing for each engine.

Kids liked this game mostly because they got to control Thomas. The motion controls were very difficult for them to use though, as Thomas changes directions, kids have to re-orient themselves to get him going the right way.

It’s worth noting here that the graphics in all of these games are at the lower-end of what we’ve seen for the V-Motion system. In our review we noted that most kids won’t mind or notice and that’s still the case here, but if this is the first game you see on V-Motion, just know many are much better in their production.

Game 2 – Flying to the Rescue (Directions, Picture Matching)

Kids get to fly Harold the helicopter in this game as they help Sir Topham Hatt. This game is actually the most enjoyable on the cartridge. Kids fly Harold about, landing at different locations to pick up or drop off items and people. While flying they have to avoid clouds, balloons and other objects. The difficult mode makes the building references (top left corner of screenshot) more difficult to identify, but the kids who played this game used the radar image or the help arrows if they got too far off course, so the harder mode isn’t really much more difficult.

Game 3 – Cargo Catch-up (Colors)

For whatever reason Harold gets a lot of activity in Thomas. This time he’s delivering boxes via air drop to Thomas as he pulls trucks down the line. Harold has to duck airborne obstacles while dropping cargo into the properly marked cars. Thankfully, kids won’t have to lead Thomas as you would in real life, if they drop the cargo while it’s lined up, the cargo floats forward to land in the proper car. Accuracy is important though, as cargo that lands on the side of a car will break and won’t count. 

This game is pretty simple but was still fun for kids in out test group. The difficult level doesn’t add much however, there are just more colors to deal with. 

Game 4 – Bertie Beats the Clock (Counting, Numbers)

Bertie has to carry school children and drop off the proper number at each stop along the way, while beating the clock. This game was the least liked by our kids, and even parents were easily frustrated by driving Bertie. Bertie isn’t terribly responsive and bounces backward off obstacles and the side of the road, making controlling the bus quite annoying. On the easy level kids drop off and count 3-7 students at each stop, the difficult level makes it 4-9 at each stop, again, not much of a difference. There’s also a mini-game where Bertie has to use the colored buttons to answer questions. 

Learning Zone

Zone 1 – Recycle Challenge (Sorting)

Kids drop recyclable items into the proper Troublesome Trucks in this game. The actions are pretty simple and even the younger kids didn’t have enough going on here to be very interested.

Zone 2 – Count the Engines (Counting)

Kids control Sir Topham Hatt as they wave a flag with the enter button each time a train passes by in this counting game. After the game kids get a replay and compare their count with right number. Thomas fans enjoyed the variety of engines in this game and younger kids found the counting to be fun. The harder level increases the speed of the trains.

Zone 3 – Fix the Tracks (Puzzle)

Fix the Tracks is a puzzle game, but kids didn’t really get the point and parents agreed that putting the track down on a marked path isn’t the best of this system. After the first few tries, we saw little replay interest in this game.

Sing Along

In the Sing Along kids get to pick from a variety of engines, but only two songs, to sing along with. This is yet another one that kids played once or twice but were quickly bored with. It’s hard to blame them, with only two songs it gets repetitive pretty quickly.

Engine Depot

At the engine depot kids can learn fun facts about 10 of their favorite characters from Thomas. It’s a nice throw in but all of our kids preferred playing the games and never went back to the Engine Depot after the first viewing.

Bottom Line

It’s not surprising to learn that Thomas and Friends for V-Motion is just a port over from another VTech system. Sadly, this is one of the worst games for V-Motion. The graphics are at the low-end, there’s no 2-player mode and the difficult levels just aren’t hard enough for kids to grow with this game. We limit our recommendation to kids that are in the 3-4 range, or very avid Thomas fans. But even older kids in the latter group got bored with the games as they offered little challenge. There are simply many better options for the V-Motion system, we’re disappointed VTech didn’t do more with Thomas and Friends.

2.5 out of 5 stars

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