The Great Race (video game)

**Released**

**The Great Race** is a Nintendo 3DS game based on the special of the same name.

## Description

HiT Entertainment presents Thomas & Friends: The Great Race - Thomas wants to go to the Great Railway Show but the big engines laugh at him saying that he's not fast or strong enough to compete, but he gets left on Sodor after an accident and Gordon forgets his safety valve. Will Thomas ever get to compete in the Great Railway Show and give Gordon his safety valve? Find out in **The Great Race (video game)**.

#### FEATURES

* Race as Thomas, Gordon, Flying Scotsman, Ashima and many more in these four exciting competitions.
* Play in Either '1 Player', '2 Player', '3 Player' or '4 Player' mode to compete against a friend.
* Try and earn the gold trophy by winning these competitions.
* If you go onto the Railway Tour, you can interact with many engines and compete against them to unlock them.

## Events

* The Strongest Engine Race
* The Best Decorated Engine Parade
* The Great Race
* The Shunting Competition

### **Non-Playable Characters in Railway Tour**

* Diesel
* Salty
* Den
* Dart
* Paxton
* Norman
* The Great Railway Show Diesels
* Victor
* Kevin
* Cranky
* The Dock Manager

## Modes

* The Great Railway Show
* Railway Tour
* Music
* Options
* Extras

## Railway Tour

The single player mode has a set of Adventure Tours which revolve around a plot which is based on the actual special where Thomas wants to go to the Great Railway Show, but the big engines laugh at him for him being not fast or strong enough to compete and he ends up having an accident causing him to not being able to go to the railway show.

### **Thomas' Story/Intro**

The story begins with Thomas asking the Fat Controller if he can go to the railway show, in which the Fat Controller tells him to just do his jobs. Thomas goes back to work shunting trucks in the yard, but he has to put the trucks in the right order, he does so and goes to rest for the rest of the day.

Thomas wakes up early so he can practise his shunting, but Diesel has shunted some trucks, along with Den, Dart and Paxton hidden crates in the middle of the yard preventing engines from getting in or out the yard. As Thomas waits for so long for Diesel to move the trucks out of the way, he decides to move them himself, but the diesels under the crates mistake Thomas' whistle for Diesel's horn, they then start pushing, unknown that Thomas was pulling them. Thomas is pushed along the line by the crated diesels and he approaches a red signal which Norman is passing by, Thomas ends up crashing into Norman, causing a big mess. At this point, the player must clean up the mess and put Thomas back onto the track.

### **Ashima's Story**

Thomas is at the docks and while he is waiting, he sees a large ferry roll in stopping at the dock, Thomas watches as twelve engines, with different colours, sizes and nationalities roll onto the shore, but as they find out that they have come to the wrong place as informed by the Dock Manager. They all head back onto the ship, but one engine is left behind, this left-behind engine accidentally bumps Thomas when he is at the ferry dock causing him to hang dangerously over the edge, the engine lifts Thomas back onto the tracks, but Thomas is furious by this, due to his anger, Salty decides to mimic Thomas by saying his name is Thomas in which the engine introduces herself as Ashima, but Thomas is not amused and chuffs out of the docks leaving Ashima.

A while later, Ashima is looking for an engine to show her a way to the Mainland, but everyone she sees, are too busy working and they cannot stop to tell her where to go, she sees Thomas soon later, but the blue tank engine just rushes by not paying any attention. Ashima puffs sadly away, sad that she cannot go to her destination.

### Promotional Videos

On Extras Mode, promotional videos of the Great Railway Show contenders from the Official Thomas & Friends YouTube channel appear and can be watched, they are released every Wednesday on the same day the videos on the Thomas & Friends YouTube channel are released.

## Pre-release and unused content

*Main article: List of The Great Race pre-release and unused content*

## Trivia

* The models and the animation are re-used from the Thomas & Friends app, *Race On!*.
* The character selection screen is similar to the character select screen from *Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games* on the Nintendo DS.

## Goofs

* On the character selection screen, there are a few things that are wrong with the character artworks, such as:
	+ Hiro and Axel's icons are mirrored.
	+ Thomas, James and Emily's icons do not depict them with the liveries they received for The Great Railway Show, Philip's icon (which is seen only during the Railway Tour mode), also depicts him without the Sudrian flag on his roof.