Thomas Friends Reviews

I am highly suspicious of ThomasFriends. After my son enjoyed it for a little bit it suddenly started spamming for purchases. That was expected but “wasn’t” expected was how ThomasFriends responded. It “instantly” tried to trick me into processing a payment just for tapping on any entry.

Had I not been using an old iPad mini that still requires me to type in my password much less had been supervising my child this thing would have gone ahead and charged my card without me knowing it! I quickly hit cancel when the iTunes Store asked for my account password and ThomasFriends was “kind” enough to pop up with a message saying “sometimes processing payment may take a little time”..geez thanks!

We had considered making a small purchase to remove ads but after reading reviews from other parents who thought the same thing it appears that doesn’t work. I’m already looking into how to report ThomasFriends to Apple since last I heard some of these business practices went against some of ThomasFriends Store polices. At this point it appears even if I had agreed to purchase something from them they would have went ahead and spammed my kid with another app asking for more money.

I updated the application with the August update for my 5year old. Since I don't play the game, I did not look at the update. I should have. First thing I heard.."oh no what happened to my Magic Tracks, it looks awful. Thomas looks like play doh and the haunted castle is in daylight, it is supposed to be in nighttime, mommy did you update my app?"
The graphics is a mess. The trains are washed out and lack detail, and the board, which was completed with purchase, is missing most of the buildings as you drive around. They appear suddenly, as if they were time-warped in. For the price gouging HIT and Budge do with this game, I expect better from Budge.
And don't think that 4-6 year olds won't notice your miss. Before this I previously rated the game 4 stars based on my kid's love of ThomasFriends .

I downloaded ThomasFriends years ago, and initially made in-app purchases to remove ads. This worked well for years. But ThomasFriends has now been updated so that it is impossible to remove any ads. Despite the fact that I had paid to remove ads, they are now here forever.

My kid is disabled, and can’t navigate through the ad screens independently. So ThomasFriends is now completely useless to him and to me. It’s really too bad, because he used to enjoy it and asks for it often — but doesn’t recognize the current version as the same thing.

This is ridiculous. I know how these apps work. You download the free version, which is roughly 5% of the final product, and will be hounded with ads to purchase the full version.

Well I did that, because my son really enjoys ThomasFriends. And guess what? Every 5-10 minutes, he brings his tablet to me because an ad for another Budge Studios app has stopped him from playing (where you have to tap on a tiny red X in the top right of the screen to close it).

I paid for this... STOP WITH THE ADS!!!

Let’s also not forget to mention that we encounter bugs every so often that make it where the throttle doesn’t work, and you have to close ThomasFriends and restart. The screen has also locked up a few times.

It would be a good app if the devs would fix the bugs and stop trying to squeeze more money out of those that have already bought their content.

We won’t be downloading any more Budge Studios apps.

Even though I’m not the targeted demographic for this game, I feel like this it treats kids like they’re barely a year old. The game constantly holds your hand and forces you to stop and play the same simple mini games over and over again, setting the pace to a screeching halt. Furthermore, the set can be difficult to navigate without the aid of a map to show you where certain locations are. But the worst offense in this game is how it forces you to pay real money for all the other engines after you collect everything for Thomas’ set! I can understand if you had to pay for special/fan-favorite engines like Ryan, Ashima, or Diesel 10; but having to pay for all of them is ridiculous! As a Thomas fan, I did enjoy the references to certain songs and little locations, but I’m also disgusted with how the developers made this game with the idea that kids will buy anything. Parents are better off buying real toy trains for their kids.

So back when I was younger this was my game that I would play so much. It was fun unlocking all the engines and I would always ask my parents if I could spend some money to get the engines. Well after the reboot it was ruined… I along with many others don’t like this new style. Please change it back to the original style or better yet for for the best of both worlds put an option in the settings that let you change the style back to the old one or keep it as the reboot.

I like ThomasFriends but I wish I had more control over rail choices. I also would love it if the choices were not discussed by a commentator; it stops the progress of the game even if it is only for the duration of asking the direction forward, left or right. I think it would be more fun if the forward lever could also steer the train. Also forward motion should be fully controlled by the person playing the game ( or maybe have levels that can be adjusted in settings). I really like ThomasFriends and I look forward to seeing its progression in the future. Thank you.

I wish I could give this five stars but but with the ads and purchasing it’s to much. I used to play this 6 years ago and it was fun but I remember always having to watch ads and pay for stuff, and I have to admit all of your apps are like this. I wish i could say these apps are for fun, but I’m starting to think you guys are just trying to get money. On a side note game mechanics are cool I like the hearts mechanic and the mini games, so yeah cool game but can you make some stuff free?

Downloaded the free version for my son. He loved ThomasFriends but hated having to come to me to click off the ads and the constant offer to purchase. So I decided to pay $20to unlock the whole app. Unfortunately, all it does now is freeze up. Not sure when the last update of ThomasFriends was but there must be some bugs. Love ThomasFriends and the enjoyment it brings my son. Just wish I didn’t have to force close ThomasFriends every 10 minutes.

My kids love vehicles and this game is enjoyable for them. However, I paid $20 for all the “toys” and expected the annoying ads to be removed, but it still pops up in the corner of the screen to tempt my children to nag me for more games. I would appreciate it if ThomasFriends developers could think of us parents too and remove all ads if we decide to pay for the whole game. Thanks for reading my review of me whining about stupid ads in children’s games/apps. Other than the ads, this is a great game for kids.

My 3 year old son used to love this game, for a while every time he opened ThomasFriends he asked where various trains are and why they were gone, he now has the response memorized and says “ugh the people that make the game changed it to baby Thomas and that’s not good.”

Your target audience does not like the change. Please bring back the original trains. Make a different “baby Thomas” game. Another thing, baby Thomas says “tidmouth” wrong.

When I download this game there was a new update, but no old trains, when I loaded the game the first thing that I do is restore purchases and since I purchased all the old ones on the old version, and it gave back all my app purchases, if you read this budge in the go go Thomas game I have issues that I can’t restore no matter what I do, but on this game I could restore purchases from the old version, so could you help me budge on the go go Thomas app, but back to Thomas magic tracks the restore purchases worked and I finished the game, thank you budge for your great work and keep it up😉👍, bonus there’s a glitch where I go to a cart place one gets stuck and I have to go every time to get my cart back please fix it, if you do thank you budge!

I’ve seen many complaints from parents about ThomasFriends spamming with purchase prompts, but as an ipad player for the last 7 years, take it from me… this is not unusual for a mobile game so honestly here’s an easy solution, TURN OFF THE WIFI IDIOT LIKE HOW HARD IS THAT TO FIGURE OUT?!? LIKE GROW UP DUDE ITS NOT THE 1980s ANYMORE LOL LITTERALY EVERYONE WANTS MONEY SO JUST DEAL WITH IT!!!

Anyways what I’m saying is kids games like to prompt you with purchases so the kid will buy it

I was like 2 and spent 50 bucks on a train game using fake previews

I did some funny things with Thomas. First, Budge the cringe monster greeted me. Then I entered the game. Then I made Thomas speed and no police pulled him over. After that, I went to the train station and found some people who look like wax figures and I left some behind. After a while, I was randomly driving and fell into the ICE AGE?!?! After I escaped, I found a volcano and instantly fell in and witnessed Thomas the soulless looking tank dying :) experience: it was totally a 10/10

This is ridiculous! Such a cool concept behind the game and my son loves it. Problem is you can’t do anything without paying real money. I would have no problem paying $5-$10 for ThomasFriends and let my son play to unlock everything. Problem is that’s not the case. $10 wouldn’t unlock 1/100th of the game. What toddler or young kid has the money to play this game. So now my son just keeps doing the same old challenges over and over because he completed Thomas’ challenges and you have to pay crazy amounts of money for them to move to more. You will never get a dollar from us because of how you are trying to rip these kids off. I feel like the developers are scum bags for trying to exploit our children for money like they are. I would give this game negative stars if it were possible for this.

This game is amazing and every way the all engines go thing is pretty cool and this is amazing because it has Thomas in it and the other engine from all engines go like kana diesel Ken Kenji hiro characters like James Percy, Emily and Thomas and Borden and other characters like Nia and riff and jiff and Federico and farona and Carly and Sandy I love this game very much and it’s so cool that the original version got turned into a completely different version although most people don’t like it I like it though and amazing nowadays

As soon as I opened ThomasFriends I was greeted with Thomas the soulless lookin tank engine seriously who ever made this game ANIMATE THOMAS EYES!! Anyway while I was driving Thomas to a station to pick up some passengers and then WAHHHHHH!!!! THE PASSENGERS LOOK LIKE GROSS WAX FIGURES (which they probably are) so they got into Thomas and I drove off I was heading up a hill when I saw Henry we talked for a bit but then he challenged me to a race!! WHAT A RACE!?! WHAAAA????? Anyways we jumped over a FREAKING VOLCANO AND I FELL IN THE LAVA and I had to witness Thomas melting slowly.. 10/10

We were a bit disappointed when we realized that there were still adds piping up even after we paid $20 for ThomasFriends. I would expect to not have to make my 4 year old stare at adds especially after I pay for it. We love Thomas but we will not be purchasing other games from them.

My son plays with this game and there seems to be quite a few glitches. The round table won’t let him go to the right and makes his train crash. The brick bridge pieces won’t always move. The crane wouldn’t turn either. After these we restart the game but it still glitches. Please take these suggestions into consideration as this is one of the most expensive games I have bought him.

My son loves this game. It became a reward for getting his schoolwork done. It was aggravating to constantly be told of new purchases you can make, but that also became a reward. We rarely had a problem with the game but now there is no audio. You can still play it, and he has it memorized, but you can’t pull the whistle to hear it.

In all my son will say, “I love playing this with you, Mommy!”