Choo Choo Charles is one of the most iconic horror games of 2022, despite being released right at the end of it! Despite the seemingly silly premise of the game, Choo Choo Charles is actually incredibly difficult; fighting monstrous spider trains from hell takes a lot more work than you’d think. The oddly difficult gameplay isn’t the only exciting thing about this game, however. The story behind Choo Choo Charles is even more intriguing than the monsters!
No one can deny that the story of Choo Choo Charles is intriguing, but the lore behind the game can be difficult to piece together if you don’t have all the right pieces of information. Trying to pick apart every context clue and lore fragment while playing can be extremely tedious, so thankfully, you don’t have to! This is an in-depth explanation of the full story of Choo Choo Charles.
Choo Choo Charles Full Story Explained
The full story of Choo Choo Charles is difficult to get a good grasp on while playing, but it’s much easier to piece together after you’ve played the game a couple of times. The full story goes like this:
The Birth of Charles
Warren Charles III, a successful mining business owner, heard rumors of ancient ruins and unbelievable power residing on the hidden island of Aranearum (fun fact: “aranea” is the Latin word for spider). On a quest for fame and riches, Warren traveled to the island with a full mining crew. Fearing competition, Warren lied about the real reason he came to the island and insisted that he came to the island in search of gold.
Warren ordered his crew to dig mines all over the island, though the crew became suspicious when they didn’t find anything of value, least of all gold. Eventually, however, they stumbled across something that none of them had anticipated: a plethora of ancient, underground ruins. Once these ruins were found, Warren finally revealed to his crew that these were what he had been searching for all along, not gold. After the first set of ruins was uncovered, Warren opened up a plethora of new mining locations all over the island, in hopes that they’d uncover more ruins (and treasures).
Although they did end up finding more ruins, they eventually stumbled across something that even Warren Charles III never anticipated: an ancient, underground cavern full of glowing monster eggs. As they explored the cavern, they found something even more astonishing than the glowing eggs: the monster they came from (presumably). A giant creature that was later described as a “giga-spider from hell” emerged from the cavern and became enraged, ruthlessly killing all of the trespassing miners. The miners began to shoot at it in self-defense and, once it began to take on extensive damage, the “giga-spider from hell” crawled inside or fused with one of the mining trains. Thus, “Choo Choo Charles” was born.
The Bloodshed
Once Charles was freed from the cavern, it went on a murderous rampage that killed nearly all of the miners and many of the island’s residents, the remaining of whom went into hiding. Warren miraculously escaped the cavern along with a handful of miners, including Eugene, who was the supervisor of the mining operation. Warren allowed many of the island’s residents to evacuate but made it clear that he didn’t want news of the monster to reach the mainland, despite all of the bloodshed. Once Charles left the cavern, Warren (against his better judgment) ventured back down to collect a few of the eggs, only to discover that they held fantastical properties.
Warren discovered that the eggs were capable of providing a nearly endless supply of immense energy. He also discovered they had the ability to whip Charles into a frenzy (and make him stronger) under certain conditions; the miners had discovered an ancient temple on the island with a mysterious prism inside, and if three eggs were placed inside the prism, the life energy would be sucked out of the eggs and Charles would be whipped into a bloodthirsty frenzy. Once it became apparent that the temple and the prism were created to destroy monster eggs (and giga-spiders), Warren decided to keep the eggs as far away from the temple as possible.
Despite the numerous deaths that he had already inadvertently caused, Warren decided to prioritize the protection of the valuable eggs, rather than the safety of his people. Warren saved three of the eggs from the cavern and ordered his remaining miners to guard them in three separate mines. He also gave his guards orders to shoot anyone on sight if they came near any of the eggs. As time went on and the bloodshed only increased, the residents of the island knew that Warren was no longer looking out for their safety, and decided to take matters into their own hands.
To the Rescue
Eugene, the former supervisor of the original mining operation, escaped the island in search of help. This is where the actual game begins; Eugene called an “old friend”, the player, who happened to be a monster hunter/museum owner. Eugene asked the player to come back to the island with him to kill Charles and offered Charles’s dead body as a reward (to use as a museum exhibit). The player was convinced, and the two of them set out to Aranearum island on a rowboat to kill Charles.
Once they reached the island, Eugene gave the player an old mining train. The train had a machine gun on the back, and Eugene informed the player that the train was the best bet they had at killing Charles. Once Eugene and the player set out on the train, however, tragedy struck in the form of Charles. Charles swiped Eugene off the train and gored him, right before it took off back into the forest. With his dying breaths, Eugene informed the player of the importance of finding his son, and locating the three eggs to defeat Charles. After he died, the player was able to explore the island and help the remaining residents reestablish some semblance of order.
Eugene’s son helped the player devise a plan to kill Charles. The plan required placing all three of the heavily guarded eggs into the temple’s powerful prism. The idea behind this was that the draining of the eggs would draw Charles out, and goad him into a final battle to the death. After the player infiltrated all three mines and brought the monster eggs to the temple, Warren Charles III attempted to stop them from placing the eggs in the prism but was interrupted by Charles, who ate him. After the eggs were placed in the prism, Charles entered his final form: Hell Charles.
The Final Battle
The final battle between the player and Hell Charles included weakening Hell Charles and leading him onto a wooden, explosive-rigged bridge. Once Hell Charles was on the bridge, the explosives were set off, and Hell Charles was flung head-first onto a metal spike below the bridge, which killed it instantly. Charles’s death marked the end of the game, but the story of Choo Choo Charles was far from over: as the credits rolled, it was revealed that below the bridge, there was another cavern filled with monster eggs. If that wasn’t bad enough, one of the eggs began to twitch, as if it were hatching.
This open-ended ending intrigued many viewers, but it certainly didn’t sate their curiosity. It’s obvious that Charles was not the first “giga-spider from hell” to grace the island with its presence, and it’s very apparent that these hellish monsters had been around for several centuries. What’s not apparent is why they were there, or how they even got there in the first place. This game certainly provides more questions than answers; hopefully, these mysteries will be solved in the next installment of Choo Choo Charles (if a sequel or DLC is released).
Related: All Easter Eggs in Choo Choo Charles
The only thing scarier than Charles in Choo Choo Charles is the cast of characters that you have to interact with; check out Gamer Journalist’s list of all Choo Choo Charles characters if you want to pick your favorite in-game weirdo! If you ever need help beating the game, you can always refer to our archive of helpful Choo Choo Charles guides as well.
