Game Description

After a fearsome battle, the Elder have finally defeated the Nightmare King. Or have they? In his last desperate (or planned?) act, the Destroyer captures the Elder spirits and pulls them down into the void with him. But, even then, he's not done. With the last vestiges of his strength, the Nightmare King plants a seed of evil in a far off, desolate corner of the cosmos, hoping to rekindle his power in a new form, that of the Nightmare Child.

The Four Who Are One, the Elder, once proud champions of the realm, can only drift helplessly through the abyss and watch events unfold as the Destroyer's creation fills the space vacated by their disappearance. Perhaps not all is lost, though. Madame Raven, clairvoyant sorceress of the Psycho Circus, has a plan -- recruit four unsuspecting avatars and have them collect the remains of the Elder's power. Thus prepared, the four can enter the Womb of Hell}to search out and destroy the Nightmare Child.

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. 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 your PC screen 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.

One of the major objectives of the game is to assemble the Elder armor (costumes) made up of six specific pieces: gauntlets, boots, belt, vest, plate and mask. The Elder Arms, as they're called, must be collected in each of the four episodes, or realms. The four locations are the Water Realm (slime-covered canals and ice demons), Fire Realm (lava-flooded sewers), Air Realm (flying freaks and electrical hell) and the Earth Realm (subterranean).

KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is played with a mouse or keyboard and actions include running, walking, exploring, building an inventory, jumping, strafing, swimming, ducking and, of course, shooting. A head-up display (HUD) helps you keep track of your current status and notes information on items such as ammunition, armor, weapons, strength, health, score and inventory.

Multiplayer action for up to 16 combatants is available over both a LAN and the Internet and includes two deathmatch formats. In Normal Deathmatch there is only one rule: frag your opponents -- the player with the most, wins! The victory condition can be set to either a time or frag limit. In Conquer Deathmatch, specific point awards are earned depending on the relative strengths (percentage-wise) of the opponent you frag. For example, getting the leader nets you three frag points while zapping someone in the lower 25% gets you none. You can even earn a minus point for fragging the lowest ranked player!

Been to the circus lately? Be forewarned if you attend this one -- you won't find the three rings with elephants, clowns and high-wire acts you saw in your younger days. Put on your fragging shoes and prepare to dance -- at the KISS Psycho Circus! ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

While this type of gameplay worked great for Doom, the time has come to move on. The game quickly becomes repetitive and boring. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Lead Programmer: Larry Smith

Programmers: Eric Hart, Julian Manolov, Asen Kovachev, Anthony Ignacio, Sean Hunt, Chia-Wei Liao, Johnny Tsao, Anthony Saunders

Project Leader: Bran Kelly

Art: Juan Sanchez

UI Redesign: Jeffrey Vaughn

QA: Matt Sivaborvorn, Anthony Saunders

Special Thanks: Rod Barr, Jonathon, Wright, Mike Maynard, Mike Williams, Third Law Team

MUSIC CREDITS

"Psycho Circus"

Mercury Records 1998

"Rock And Roll All Night"

Mercury Records 1975

"Detroit Rock City"

Mercury records 1976

"Shout It Out Loud"

Mercury Records 1977

"Hotter Than Hell"

Mercury Records 1974

"God of Thunder"

Mercury Records 1976

"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"

Mercury Records 1992

"Love Gun"

Mercury Records 1977

"Cold Gin"

Mercury Records 1974

"Unholy"

Mercury Records 1992

All Songs Performed by: KISS ~ Eric Caroen, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

For this being a game based on the universe of KISS, there sure isn't a whole lot of KISS in the game. That's right, the game which is purported to bring KISS to a videogame in a way never before seen has ended up bringing home generic gameplay that we've seen a thousand times, but not much in the way of KISS.

The game's design certainly has to do more with the designs of comic book artist Todd McFarlane. McFarlane, creator of the popular Spawn series, has also handled the KISS property, both in comic book form and with his toy division. His trademark stamp is all over Psycho Circus in terms of its look, as you can clearly see his influence of the design of both enemies and locations. KISS does show up occasionally, but in the form of the KISS Elders, a group of godlike characters with some make up you might recognize. But you don't actually play as the members of KISS, and the appearance of these elders is an extremely rare occurrence.

Rather, the game's focus is pure action, throwing tremendous amounts of enemies in your path to kill with one of the many instruments of destruction you can acquire over the course of its numerous levels. It's almost Doom-like in its enjoyment of hurling these creatures in your path, letting you wade through them in an orgy of blood and pieces. Occasionally, a locked door will get in your way, but all you'll have to do is kill another horde of enemies down another passage to find the key. Beyond that, there is no real puzzle aspect to the game.

Remember how fun this type of gameplay was in Doom? And remember how Doom was released years ago and how the best first-person shooters have taken the genre far beyond that point? The Psycho Circus development team hasn't seemed to recall this fact, as you must trudge through level after level of this gameplay, over and over, through corridors, hallways and passages that will seem quite familiar to anyone who's ever played any of the other first-person shooters released in the last few years. There's no innovation in Psycho Circus, and the gameplay takes steps backwards, in fact. None of the levels plays differently from the other, and no interesting twists or tricks are brought into play. It's simply "kill, collect item, kill some more," and it is a game we've played a number of times before.

And in the rush to get this title out the door for the Dreamcast, the developers have showed that they weren't really interested in making improvements upon the game for Sega fans. There is no keyboard and mouse support, and the hard-core types that would be drawn to a game like this will be severely let down by that fact. Perhaps even more rotten is the removal of any multi-player support. You can't go online with the game, but you can't even play two-player split screen, making this game a single-player experience and nothing else. And the single-player experience in the game is fun for a level or two, but beyond that it becomes merely routine.

The game looks decent enough, although the problem with the design, despite the work of Todd McFarlane, is that it possesses a very generic graphical sheen. While everything is well designed, the look of the levels and monsters quickly becomes repetitive, especially when you don't have anything to focus on beyond the killing. The music is dismal, rarely even allowing you to hear a KISS song. Instead, it shoves sub-standard ambient and techno sounds in your ears. If you're not a KISS fan, you'll still be bored by the music, but if you are one, this title will probably make you furious in that regard. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

While there are some neat visual tricks in Psycho Circus, the levels and enemies quickly become repetitive. Although some areas are diverse, they rarely interact with the gameplay in any significant manner. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

For a KISS game, this title sure lacks KISS. And even if you hate the aging, make-up adorned rockers, it's doubtful you'll have any love for the bland techno music that has been put in its place. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

You'll be hard-pressed to make it through the entire game since everything is so repetitive. And with no multiplayer support, this title is pathetic when it comes to replayability. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

The instruction manual is satisfying in its explanations on how to play the game. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide