Nightmare Circus is a Sega Genesis video game with a strong horror bent, released late into its shelf life in 1996.
Raven, a young Native American, returns to the circus where he lost his relatives in an arson. When night comes, the spectral circus appears before him, inviting him in to face its deadly dangers and release the souls consumed in the fire.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The game itself lacks cutscenes and in-game texts that explain the story.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Apart from the circus stage, Raven fights his way through a deadly roller coaster, a ferris wheel on fire, and a labyrinthine funhouse.
- Chainsaw Good: The boss of the roller coaster section is a large man with a chainsaw for a hand.
- Circus of Fear: One of the stages involves Raven going to the big top and facing knife-throwers, annoying trapeze artists, an evil contortionist, and finally the Big Bad himself.
- Competitive Multiplayer: Another game mode allows player 2 to control the stage bosses.
- Contortionist: The enemies of "The Maggot-Men Act" (one of the last stages) are a bunch of contortionists whose bizarre abilities allow them to crawl inside tight ducts. The stage boss is a green-clad contortionist named Hydra.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: Surprisingly, the game allows for 2-player co-op mode, where the players control two Ravens, one with a black jacket and white shirt, and another with inverted colours.
- Debug Room: More of a Debug Mode. With the "Tweaker" option (called "U-Program" on the cover) in the Options Menu, the player can alter and control pretty much everything of the game, including hitbox, stage selection, enemies' respawn.
- Hall of Mirrors: After the player traverses the labyrinth section of the "amusements" stage, he enters a hall of mirrors with Wraparound Background, and fights evil, ghostly copies of himself that come out of the mirrors.
- Insurance Fraud: In the backstory, the Jester, while he was still alive, burned his whole circus to the ground in order to cash in the insurance money.
- Knife-Throwing Act: After defeating the bosses of the big top stage (two serrated-fan wielding goons), Raven can choose one of two stages. The "Maggot-Men Act" begins with him tied to a wooden board and knifes being thrown at him. To escape the trap, the player must rotate the board so that the knifes strike Raven's knots and release him.
- Life Meter: This game's life meter is unconventional: instead of the usual hearts or a green health bar, Raven's life is indicated by the outline of a crouching man, filled with a red colour.
- Magical Clown: Jester, the last boss, can shapeshift into the previous bosses to fight Raven. Also, it is implied that he summoned the ghostly circus with his evil powers.
- Magical Native American: The player character, Raven, is a Native American with Psychic Powers (called PSI in-game).
- Monster Clown: The Big Bad is a demonic clown named Jester.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Before Jester burned down the circus, it was known as "Circo del Diablo" (Spanish for "The Devil's Circus").
- Permadeath: Aside its difficulty and Byzantine gameplay, the player has only one life and no continues. In normal mode, that is.
- Red Is Violent: The final boss, Jester, is a evil clown clad in red garments.
- Reset Button: Out-of-game, in fact. Enabling the "Tweaker" mode, the player can reset the stage they are in by inputing a command in the 6-button controller. This allows Raven to restart the stage with full health.
- Spectacular Spinning: Still in the ferris wheel section, Raven has to pass through a round-up
, by using the centripetal force in his favour. - Tornado Move: One of the abilities Raven obtains from the bosses is a Tornado Move (in this case, from the ferris wheel boss). With this ability, he can spin so fast he becomes a tornado, but it can dizzy him.
