Thomas & Friends: Track Stars (PlayStation 2)

Track Stars is a video game developed and published by THQ for the PlayStation 2 in 2006 in America. Players can pick between four engines to play with: Thomas, Emily, Percy and James. They can also color in the engines. It has three different skill levels for three levels; Game, Race and Explore.

The narration was provided by Michael Brandon.

Please do not edit without permission from User:Paul Young.

Description
Join Thomas and his friends in exciting adventures in this amazing video game! The Island of Sodor is always bustling with trainloads of work to be done, and keeping it all on track are the engine heroes!

Meet our track stars --- Thomas, Emily, Percy and James, and take the part of one of your favorite engines!

Finish different tasks in the train yard! Race against other engines down the tracks! Explore the tracks on the Island of Sodor! All of this and a coloring book screen too!

Sodor's track stars ride the rails to adventure in this all-new, fun, and exciting video game!

Characters

 * Thomas
 * James
 * Percy
 * Emily
 * Edward (non-playable)
 * Henry (non-playable)
 * Gordon (non-playable)
 * Toby (non-playable)
 * Sir Topham Hatt (voice-over)
 * Annie and Clarabel (not named; do not speak)
 * Troublesome Trucks (not named; do not speak)

Starting the Game
The player must choose an engine from Thomas, Emily, Percy or James. The player can color-in any engine.

There is an opportunity to enter the player's name.

You must also select a skill level of Beginner, Intermediate or Expert.

Pressing the triangle button will uncouple Coaches or Freight Cars from the engine. The circle button activates an engine's whistle; though it serves no purpose in-game, it creates a noise and shows a graphic of an engine's whistle blowing. Players who have forgot the request or need help can press the square button to see the current objective.

Game
To find the correct rolling stock and take them to the designated station (any station in beginner mode). Once complete, Sir Topham Hatt will make a comment on speed and memory, and a score will be tallied.

Rolling stock include flat cars, log cars, empty cars (Troublesome Trucks), coal cars (also Troublesome Trucks), gravel cars (also Troublesome Trucks), passenger coaches (Annie), brake coaches (Clarabel), vans, and flat cars having a shape of varying quantity or color.

If the job is finished around 0 or 1 minute, Gordon, Henry, Edward or Toby will congratulate you and tell Sir Topham Hatt how well you did.

Race
Race to the finish line before the other engine reaches it, the player must keep up with his or her skills and speed.

The first race is against James, the second race is against Percy, the third race is against Emily, and the fourth and final race is against Thomas. (The characters often switch around depending on the engine the player chooses at the start)

The player's marker is the color of the player's engine, and the same goes to the computer.

The up arrow balloons will make the engine go faster making them give the player a happy face, while the mud and down arrow balloons will slow the engine down making them give the player a sad face. Running into another engine on the tracks will cause the player's engine to give the player a surprised face and you'll have to wait until the engine clears the track.

In the event the player does not win against the computer, the course may be repeated indefinitely.

Winning against three engines will give the player a silver medal and winning against all four will give the player a gold medal and end the game.

Explore
The chance to explore the maps from 'Game' and 'Race' without a timer and points. Players can pick up coaches or freight cars and take them anywhere.

Trivia

 * The game is based off of the Sega Genesis game.
 * The picture for the Game mode is a scene of Thomas at Maron from the eighth season episode, Thomas Gets it Right, the picture for Race is a deleted scene of James passing by Emily while she is rolling her eyes from the movie, Calling All Engines, and the picture for Explore is a deleted scene of Percy passing the windmill, from the eighth season episode, Percy and the Magic Carpet.
 * A few instrumental tracks of songs have been used:
 * During the title screen, an instrumental of Engine Rollcall is played.
 * During the Color-in mode, an instrumental of Surprises is played.
 * During the Game mode, an instrumental of Emily (song) is played.
 * During the Race mode, an instrumental of Ode to Gordon is played.
 * During the Explore mode, an instrumental of A World Around You is played.
 * This game uses most of the location names from the Railway Series and the classic series.

Goofs

 * Crewe and Barrow are depicted as stations on the North Western Railway, yet none of them are part of the Island.
 * James' wheels are grey when they should be black.
 * Emily has Henry's whistle sound.
 * On the "Coloring your Engine" screens, All of the engines lack their coupling hooks.
 * On the "Coloring your Engine" screens, Emily's buffers are black, but in the in-game sprites, they are the correct color, sliver.
 * The picture for the Explore mode is mirrored.