Thomas the Tank Engine 2/Gameplay

Controls

 * Q, A, Z, and X: Use these keys to direct your chosen engine (or bus, in the case of Bertie) up, down, left and right; if they ever try to pass a signal at danger (or traffic light at red, in the case of Bertie), the Fat Controller will appear, and tell them to wait, which could allow their opponents to get ahead of them. You must also use Q and A to select the various options on the game's options menu, and Space to confirm your choices, and F1 to pause the game - and when the game is paused, pressing Escape will abort it, but you should only do this if you have absolutely no chance of winning it.

Characters
There are eight selectable characters for this game: Thomas, Gordon (who again does not have his tender, or 4), James (who again does not have his tender, or 5), Percy, Toby, Bill and Ben (who again look exactly the same), and Bertie the Bus (and if you select him, the stations and water towers will get changed into garages, the tracks to roads, and the other engines to green vans); oddly enough, Edward, Henry, Duck, Donald, Douglas, Oliver, Diesel, Daisy, Boco, Mavis, Stepney, D261 "The Diesel", the Skarloey Railway engines (Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan and Duke) and Harold the Helicopter are not present in this game, and if your engine is ever rammed by another one (or Bertie by a green van), he will be stunned for a few seconds (indicated by him looking like he has just crashed!), which could allow his opponent to get ahead of him. Also, if you direct your engine (or Bertie) onto a piece of track (or road) which is flashing red and has the text IN hovering above it, you will be transported to a Bonus Stage, where you will have to pick up the five letters that spell out the word BONUS - and if you collect them all, you reappear closer to the finish.