Kiss: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
2000
- shooter
- action
- science fiction
- horror
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
Wicked Jester, a band of four, are headed for a Friday night gig at The Coventry, a rundown dive outside of town. They arrive only to find the parking lot deserted, the club seemingly dead. The band's members: Pablo Ramirez, Andy Chang, Gabriel Gordo and Patrick Scott, stepping from their van, are startled by a voice from the shadows. She offers them four tickets to a circus -- tonight's the grand finale! Having nothing better to do, the four accept and the nightmare begins. Based on characters from comic book author Todd McFarlane, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child brings the horror and carnage of the Psycho Circus to the PC in a shooter format. There are two-dozen creatures to battle with and three classes of weapons to use, each with four specific types: melee (beast claws, thornblade, twister and punisher), common (zero cannon, magma cannon, windblade and scourge) and ultimate (stargaze, galaxion, spirit lance and draco). In addition to the weaponry, temporary power-ups and instant items such as health, attack and defense powers are available.
What it’s like
Grimy, comic-book grotesque, with inky shadows, sickly carnival colours, and creatures drawn with McFarlane's heavy, sinister line. Dark, fog-hung circus grounds and derelict interiors make up the backdrop, and rock guitar sits over the combat, so the mood is loud, sweaty and tense rather than quiet. Its vibe is gleeful, gory B-movie mayhem with a bit of swagger. It suits a late-night, adrenaline-hungry session or a nostalgic evening with friends who remember early-2000s PC shooters. Pacing is brisk run-and-gun, with weapon swaps, power-ups and some backtracking through familiar rooms between bursts of action. The tone is campy and overblown rather than dread-soaked, and the four bandmates are cartoonish, mostly defined by their willingness to fight their way out. Violence is frequent and bloody, with mutants and aliens dying in splashes of gore and no restraint in the depiction, but it stays stylised and comic, not realistic. Not gentle. It is for players who enjoy theatrical horror, colourful weaponry and a rock-and-roll attitude, and who don't mind a dated, rough-edged shooter.
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