Inspired by Shining Time Station, the popular children's television series, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends was designed for children from three different age groups: four and younger, five to seven year olds, and eight years old and up. The game is composed of a series of reading adventures, jigsaw puzzles, sliding puzzles, and quizzes, all of which contain characters familiar to fans of the television series. These characters include Bertie the Bus, Harold the Helicopter, and Sir Topham Hatt, superintendent of the railways.
In addition to the educational games, there are action contests such as: Setting the Switches in which you guide Thomas to his destination by setting track switches; Let's Race, which pits Thomas in a race against either Bertie or Percy, the cheerful small engine; and Fixing the Tracks, in which you must construct tracks to help Thomas transport people and goods around the Island of Sodor.