Room Escape Artist

Crazy Train is one of the best games in Orlando. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in Orlando.

Update 12/19/23: If you enjoyed this article, we hope you’ll check out our interview with Doldrick’s creators Mike Dold and Rick George on The Reality Escape Pod.

Zany, brainy, and entertain-y

Location:  Kissimmee, FL

Date Played: November 10, 2023

Team size: 2-5; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: $37.99 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  Let your gamemaster know if strobe lights are an issue.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Crazy Train was a labor of love, and we can see why it took multiple years to deliver something so far above.

Doldricks’ earlier games showed talent and wit, but with Crazy Train they leveled up in technology, technique, and craft in each and every bit.

With integrated comedy, tech, story, and game, remarkably consistent as an experience, it became.

The aesthetic was perfect, with zero design hole, plus the screens and projection gave the cartooneyness a dominant role.

The gameplay was exciting throughout, but in the finale, it captured the frenzy and the antics of classic cartoons, no doubt.

Crazy Train was compact, with linear play, so bring a small group to send this baddie away.

While this review is in rhyme (because a game of this caliber was worth the extra time!), it doesn’t abide by meter… but Doldricks didn’t follow that either!

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Cartoon fans
• Any experience level
• Perfect for smaller teams

Why play?

• To be inside a cartoon land
• For a crazy character… and the boss battle to take the upper hand
• It’s a small set packed from floor to ceiling and wall to wall that you get to appreciate firsthand
• Because dinosaurs make everything extra grand

Story

Skeemin’ Plotz was a nefarious trickster on the loose.

Now it was up to us to ride this caboose.

Because we would not put up with his terrible abuse!

Setting

This long, narrow train was a little bit tight.

But it looked exactly like a cartoon, fully black and white.

And each hand-drawn detail was such a delight.

With projections and animation, the movement all felt right.

Gameplay

Doldricks’ Crazy Train was a standard escape room, and not too hard.

Gameplay required making connections, solving puzzles… and lots of detail not to disregard.

Analysis

➕ Doldricks’ humor was on full display, as this ridiculous character tried to get away.

➕ Wow to cartoon set drawn in white and black, and especially how the windows moved us down the track.

➖ This set design does easily show wear, and Doldricks will need to be extra attentive with repair.

➕ The world was made bigger with interactions from outside the train, in fact, we’d both offload and obtain.

➕ Each action and each solve furthered the story, as we continued on our quest for glory.

➖ One prop appeared too soon, and we tried to use it awkwardly before it fulfilled its purpose in this cartoon.

➕ Doldricks has a talent for animating a vid. With the intro and the commercials, Spoopy Bones, they outdid.

➖ At one point a character was distracting on the big screen; other times we were sad when afar animations went largely unseen.

➕ Projection mapping was especially yay, like when it amped up anticipation, or just showed us the way.

➕ At the end we got to battle the boss, in a high energy segment where across the train the whole team did crisscross!

➕ The references and Easter eggs slipped right in, and recognizing these was an extra win.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.
• For dinner, Smokey Bones is a convenient spot.

Book your session with Doldrick’s Escape Room’s Crazy Train, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Doldrick’s Escape Room comped our tickets for this game.