izigame.me

Well now that was just a lot of fun. It was absolutely ridiculous, but a lot of fun.
I will warn potential buyers: if you're looking for epic amounts of playtime, in-depth play mechanics and extensive amounts of things to do, tons of quests and a gripping story, this isn't that. If you're looking for a FANTASTIC way to burn through an afternoon without putting much thought into it, then this is the PERFECT game.
What Choo-Choo Charles does well is not overstay its welcome in any way, shape, or form. We all know those novelty games that just pad out their playtime and get really boring by the time you're finally getting near the end of the game - this is absolutely not that. I got about five hours of playtime from start to finish in normal mode - and that is having done all the NPC quests, all the weapon and required quests, and a couple extra little things. The game kept a nice pace and kept me engaged right up to the finish.
The "story" is... well, not very deep, but again, you're here to have a blast, not get pulled into a swirling vortex of narrative. You're going to an island. You're going to hunt down, and kill, a giant half-train, half-spider. The entire island is filled with people living in terror - and also filled with weird crazy killers. From there, it's about what you'd expect.
You go out and do quests to earn scrap. You use the scrap to upgrade your train. The quests are generally just very simple fetch quests, sometimes made more dangerous by the roaming crazy killers. It's especially dangerous since you have no way to defend yourself except on the train - out on the ground, all you can do is run. (And the 'stealth' mechanics are kinda lame. Most of the time I found myself just getting bad guys to chase me back to my train so I could hop on and use the gun to take them out.)
There are weapon quests you can do to get new weapons for your train, and there are 'required' quests you can do to advance the story.
You can drive your train around the island, switching tracks and stuff. By the way, if you're looking for an immersive train sim, this is also NOT that. There are three big levers you can pull to control the train - forward, backward, stop. There are other interactive things around the train, but again, it's not super in depth. You're here to have fun, not to dig into the gritty details. The train driving also looks a little jumpy - but again, fun, not details.
I have seen a few reviews mentioning 'puzzles,' but there are no real puzzles in this game. You will not have to use your brain at all. In fact, it's probably more fun if you don't.
The graphics were really nice. Despite the people looking very weird and following pre-set movement patterns (such as one guy who just moves his head from left, to right, to left, to right), it's a nice landscape to move around in. I enjoyed the music and sound effects. It was all a lot of fun.
I ESPECIALLY enjoyed the battle with Charles. THAT was a lot of fun. The entire game leads up to that, so it's a blast. The developer did a REALLY good job with that ending battle.
Overall, again, this is the game for you if you're looking for a heck of a way to burn out an afternoon and leave your brain on autopilot. It is a LOT of fun if you're not expecting a lot of depth out of it. I could easily recommend this game to about anyone.
Is it worth full price? Well there's the only part I might balk a little at - $20 seems like a lot for something most people seem to be beating within 4-7 hours. I would be hesitant to do a full recommend at a $20 price tag, although I think some wouldn't mind it. Wish list it, though - it does go on sale from time to time. I can't remember how much I paid for it, but it was far less than $20 (like maybe $5 or $10). I think $10 would be a fine price - so if you see it go on sale to that, I think pull the plug and go for it.
Great game, fantastic time, and now I can die saying that I fought a half-train half-spider with a demonic clown face.