YMMV / Choo-Choo Charles

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• Catharsis Factor: After spending the entire game being hunted by Charles and seeing the damage he's caused all over Aranearum, watching the survivors' trap work out and result in him falling face-first onto a wooden spike is immensely satisfying. Especially if you get to see it play out in Nightmare Mode.
• Cheese Strategy:
  • There are certain areas where the game expects you to sneak past Warren's minions, since the player can't carry any weapons while you're on foot. That being said, they can be killed by the train's weapons (or run over) if you can lure them to the train, and they will happily chase you forever as long as they can see you. Since Warren's minions do not respawn after they're killed, there is nothing stopping the player from intentionally getting spotted by Warren's goons, luring them out towards the train, and then shooting them to pieces so that they can explore these areas without constantly having to sneak around and hide. Note that this method is a lot more risky in Nightmare Mode, since Warren's minions deal three times their usual damage and you risk Charles coming by if you take too long.
  • The Side Quest where you have to wade through a small swamp to get some fish for a witch is supposed to be taken slowly, as Barry the Swamp Monster will One-Hit Kill you if you move while he's close. However, if you spam tap the sprint and movement buttons instead of holding them down, you can make it to and back from the island without Barry ever getting close to you due to an exploit in his AI. Do make sure you don't try to move through his splashing spot though, as he can still kill you if you're not careful.
• Critical Dissonance: IGN caught serious flak for giving the game a 4/10, while many users gave the game a much higher score. It was bad enough that Markiplier called them out on it at the end of his stream of the game, saying that such a low score for a fairly good game made by mostly only one person was incredibly unreasonable.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite his uncanny appearance and being a Sacrificial Lamb for Charles, a lot of players find Eugene's excitement to take down the killer train pretty endearing. Eugene being a caring father to his son also helps. Despite his short contribution to the game, some players were immediately attached to his bright and cheerful personality and were sad to see him killed by Charles.
    • This has actually led to at least two separate YouTubers specifically dedicating videos towards finding a way to save Eugene from death, whether it be through the use of mods or by exploiting glitches in the code. They succeeded, and judging from the thousands of likes the videos garnered, the viewers were extremely happy as well. As one commenter puts it, "The one thing more powerful than a demonic spider train is the love for a brother in arms".
  • The Pickle Lady is easily the most popular quest-giver, thanks to her over-the-top personality and voice acting centred entirely around her Trademark Favorite Food (to the extent that she's one of the few friendly characters in the game with No Name Given: even her subtitles just read "Pickle Lady"). The fact that she also possesses one of the more attractive character models in the game might help, if only because it adds to the hilarity. Expect to see any streamers who miss her optional side-quest scolded by chat until they go back.
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of Thomas & Friends naturally latched on to this due to being a darker take on the concept from the original series, even drawing crossover fanart of Thomas and Charles. It also helps that the concept of Charles and the Island of Aranearum was inspired by Thomas and the Island of Sodor.
• Game-Breaker: The Bug Spray averts Video Game Flamethrowers Suck hard. It has the least amount of damage and range of the four weapons, but it easily makes up for it by having by far the biggest slowing effect. Space out your flame bursts a bit so the weapon doesn't overheat and Charles won't even be able to get close to you. Despite being somewhat nerfed in Nightmare Mode, it's still an effective weapon if you're careful. And it's usually the second weapon you acquire, too.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: The only common criticism on Steam was the game's short length, with a casual playthrough lasting about 1-3 hours at most.
• Narm Charm: A game centered around a monster train with spider legs that eats people and is admittedly a parody of Thomas & Friends shouldn't be taken seriously, yet the ridiculous but fleshed-out storyline, endearing characters, and especially the overall surprising amount of polish for a 3D horror game mostly developed by one person manages to have earned this game a substantial amount of positive reception on release.
• Nightmare Fuel: Charles in general more than lives up to his reputation as the island's most terrifying monster. Between his nightmarishly demonic appearance, his uncanny ability to pop up when you least expect it, and the appropriately-named Hell Charles form he transforms into for the final showdown, it doesn't take long to understand why everyone's so afraid of this hellish death machine.
• Older Than They Think: A similarly-named Thomas parody called Charlie the Choo-Choo exists as a part of The Dark Tower.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Because Charles appears randomly throughout the game, you'll always be on edge as you never know when or where he'll appear. You could be chugging down the rails, and the music picks up as you're gunning for your life. It's even worse when you do quests. At times, you'll have to leave your train to do missions, and some of these can take you far away from the safety of your engine, leaving you helpless. You could be a few dozen miles from your train, but then you hear a horn that's not your own...
  • As if to make things worse, the horn only tells the player that Charles is in the area, but it doesn't necessarily mean the monster knows where they are yet. As a result, it's impossible to tell whether the monster will find them in a minute, has already seen them and will attack them in a few seconds, or will simply wander away without ever seeing the player.
  • This aspect is taken to even worse degrees in Nightmare Mode. While Charles' behavior is the same, barring increased aggression and damage, it's the fact that the mode is in Permadeath that makes him far more frightening than normal. Since Death Is no longer a Slap on the Wrist, Charles can show up at any time to take away all of your progress while you are running around on foot, forcing you to seriously consider if taking the risk to make a sprint for a quest item is really worth it. The severely reduced visibility because of it now being night time does not help.
• Special Effect Failure: No characters move their mouths when speaking, which is incredibly noticeable as early as the opening cutscene.
• Spiritual Successor: Of Charlie the Choo-Choo, a novelty book by Stephen King that's a Defictionalization of a sinister children's book appearing in his Dark Tower series (see above).
• That One Achievement: "Nightmare Hunter", which is earned by beating the game in Nightmare Mode. This hard difficulty was added with the specific purpose of making people Rage Quit, and it shows. Charles is much more aggressive, both he and Warren's goons deal at least twice their normal damage, the Bug Spray isn't as powerful anymore and, oh yeah, the entire mode is in Permadeath. Die during the final battle? Tough luck, you have to do it all over again from the very beginning. Make sure you get those headshots.
• Unexpected Character: Charles himself showed up in a dream sequence in the fourth chapter of Garten of Banban, attacking a group of the characters while they are sitting at a campfire. This was a collaboration between Two Star Games and the Euphoric Brothers, but it was never announced and no one saw it coming.

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