Thomas the Tank Engine was a fundamental part of my upbringing. Every time I was at my grandparents’ place, you’d find a tiny, follicly-fuller version of me glued to yet another VHS re-run. Yesterday, Thomas and Friends Wonders of Sodor pulled into the station, and everyone, myself included, is going loco for the locomotives. Forget Crimson Desert. Who cares about GTA 6? It’s time to choo choo like it’s 1999, baby.
Thomas and Friends Wonders of Sodor is an absolute dream for nostalgics, letting you get in the cab of the iconic British kid show’s starring cast. Developer-publisher Dovetail Games says you can experience a mixture of classic stories in the train game, as well as “all-new narratives” set on the fictional island of Sodor. Listen, the anthropomorphic trains and made-up location may be one thing, but the most unrealistic thing about that show is a train in the north-west of England arriving on time and not feeling like it could cave in due to rust at any moment.
Anyway, as I was saying, Wonders of Sodor is having a bit of a viral moment. The PlayStation UK X post announcing its launch has racked up over five million views at the time of writing, and the replies are as delicious as I’d hoped for. One commenter left a DLSS 5 comparison, adding to the ever-growing compendium of memes that I have lapped up over the past couple days. Another has replaced Jujutsu Kaisen’s Gojo Satoru with a silhouette of Thomas, which gave me a hearty, weeby chuckle.
Thomas and Friends Wonders of Sodor is now available. You can check it out on Steam here. The standard edition costs $39.99 / £29.99, while the deluxe version will set you back $49.99 / £39.99. Oddly, James comes as a deluxe add-on, but considering how much of a diva he is, he’d probably love that you have to cough up extra to revel in his splendor.
Honestly, I cannot begin to explain how peak all of this is. All we need is to drag Ringo Starr back into the booth for a voiceover pack, and game of the year might as well be called now.