Fiendish Freddy's Big Top o' Fun

Did You Know?

• Your Sinclair awarded the disk version 80%, but noted the tape version suffered from an unwieldy multi-load system.
• CRASH awarded the game 90%.
• Zzap! magazine awarded the game 89%, while Power Play gave a rating of 66%.

Plot

A greedy banker named I.M. Tightwad arrives at the Big Top o' Fun circus, which owes him $10,000, intending to demolish it that night and build a luxury hotel complex. The ringmaster organizes six acts to raise the money: diving, juggling, trapeze, knife throwing, tightrope, and human cannonball. Five clown judges offer money based on performance quality. Tightwad sends his evil clown lackey, Fiendish Freddy, to sabotage the acts.

Premise

The game resembles multi-event sports games such as Epyx' California Games, Winter Games, and Summer Games, but differs by its circus setting, comedy element, and a plot with the clear goal of earning $10,000. Each player may choose to be represented by one of five circus animals: a lion, a bear, a tiger, a monkey, or an elephant. The six acts are: diving, juggling, trapeze, knife throwing, tightrope, and human cannonball. In the diving act, the player jumps off four diving boards of increasing height into containers of decreasing size (a huge wooden container, a bucket, a wet sponge, a glass of water), performing stunts for more money; Freddy blows the diver off course with an enormous hair dryer if the stunt is not performed in time. In juggling, the player rides a unicycle and completes four sessions of increasing difficulty, juggling items including babies that must be thrown back into prams; Freddy throws bombs (which can be thrown back to explode in his face) and missiles that must be juggled, and if any bomb or missile hits the ground the juggler dies. The juggler is allowed five mistakes (dots change from green to red) before failing; missing five times without dying from a bomb or missile causes an off-stage performer to yank the juggler with a cane. In the trapeze act, the player proceeds from right to left over three levels, jumping from rope to rope through rings of fire and moving targets; Freddy appears on a jetpack with large scissors to cut the rope if the player takes too long, causing a fall. Ground sights such as a marching band, an organ, and a trainer with an elephant provide possible distraction or music.

Graphic violence

The game's black humor was very dark, and the violence was surprisingly graphic for the period. The tightrope walker is sliced in two through the midriff when hit by a blade, and the juggler is blown to pieces when hit by a bomb. The lack of media panic may seem surprising, though such outrage only became common from about 1992 onwards, following Wolfenstein 3D and Mortal Kombat.