If you were expecting lots of circus tricks and acrobatic action -- forget it, this is a platform game.

You play Sid Chip who must get through 20 screens of 'circus rings' filled with the usual form of platform obstacles and nasties. On each ring there is an exit which is extremely tough to get to and leads to the next screen.

Sid can only move left and right or jump and has to work out the exact route to the exit because there is only one correct one.

There are plenty of platforms and creatures to bar your way, and contact with anything that moves is fatal. Disappearing platforms can cause problems and often drop you into the clutches of an animal or some waiting mantrap.

All the animals follow regular patterns, some moving in circles, others straight across screen. Most are easy to avoid once you've got your jumping timed right. Animals like the kangaroo which hops across screen are well done, but for the most part the graphics and animation are crude. The tune also is pretty horrible and you'll rapidly turn the sound down.

You have an energy bar which runs down from nine to zero, and once it runs out you explode in the same way as when you touch an animal. You start with five lives and an extra one is awarded every five screens.

BW
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Droll scroll

When you first appear on screen, all you can see is yourself and the animals. To make the rest of the scenery appear, you have to move left or right and the screen will fill-in.

There doesn't seem to be any real purpose in this, and it becomes distinctly tiresome after a while. Frustration like that led to the discovery of a cheat method of warping through the screens. We won't tell you what it is (yet), but try experimenting with the keyboard.
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Htmlized by Dimitris Kiminas (10 December 2001)

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