Move over Freddy Kruger, here comes Fiendish Freddy, as sweet as a Jelly Baby made from Semtex. In disguise he is a corrupt and psychotic circus clown, in real lite he's a corrupt and psychotic property type who wants to tear down the big top and build multi-storey real estate.
Freddy has has a killer cork, a hairdryer in his holster, and an arsenal of deadly toys straight out of the Merry Melody school of wanton destruction. The gameplay is thin but, then again, Fiendish Freddy's animation is as good as you'd get from a Warner Bros cartoon.
The circus is snowed under with loans and the deadline for repayment is midnight tonight. No dosh and the deeds to the site will go to Freddy's chums at the Swiss bank. There's only one hope: to swell admissions and the coffers by staging the biggest and grandest big top show ever. But Freddy will make sure that everyone wants their money back - by running the show and bumping off the performers.
And that, I'm pleased to say, is where the delightful animated sequences come in. It's also, I'm sad to say, where the gameplay tumbles down.
There's little point in explaining the mechanics of the game. When you walk the tightrope you have to move forward but not fall off; when you play the human cannonball you have to judge distance and trajectory. Once you've worked this out it's down to practise rather than challenge. What you are treated to are Freddy's dark and daffy deeds. Freddy will blow the high diver off course (who, amongst over things has to land in a bucket in the lotus position) by hovering about with a huge hair dryer. Freddy will bung up the end of the human cannonball's cannon with a monster rubber cork. He will stamp on your hands as you cling desperately to the high wire, and he will lure away the juggling seal and throw you a bomb. And when you fall to your death it's straight out of a scene from Roadrunner, a tearful wave, bemused expression and overhead perspective.
The opening and closing titles are magnificent. The former has a snootmobile pulling up and an unknown figure handing the ringmaster a threatening letter. The latter, if Freddy is victorious, shows the big top being pulled down and high rise maisonettes rising in its place. The judges are a rum bunch of artistes who prefer throwing custard pies and poking out each others' eyes to doing their job.
The biggest pain with a game so packed with complex graphics is the amount of disk swapping and the loading time, which seems to go on for ever. This is almost a game I'd rather see on a coin-op than a home computer. Fiendish Freddy is something you will put away fairly soon after purchase, but will take out now and again to perfect your favourite sequence. The soundtrack is a variation on popular classics and fairground noise, but nevertheless it's weedy.
Even so, a million times sharper than a 'Monty Python' licence, Fiendish Freddy is a thoroughly nasty treat in which the bad guy often wins. It also marks a welcome return for Chris Gray who wrote Infiltrator and Boulderdash for the 64. He spent two years doing this and it shows in the polish. I love it.
Fiendish Freddy's Big Top o' Fun... Just rolls right off the tongue doesn't it. I loved this game back in my good old amiga days! And after playing it again I can see why!! It has got superb graphics considering the year it was made and the game play is pure class too! In the intorduction you see that your circus will be closed down by the clowns if you don't raise enough money... So now you have to play against however many other people there are competing for the ruling of the circus.
Well how do I do this I hear you crying and screaming out to me!!! Well it is simple... really... well no not really. You must get your circus folk to do stunts for you! Each time BETTER than the last person. And each time harder! This makes it really quite hard to do the best. After completing all of the rounds for the act you must be put in front of the judges... who... are... clowns. So I assume they like it funny! I'm not quite sure how they do judge it because sometimes you can do better than anyone and still get less money. Which is pretty dumb.
Anyway in the first act you have to control a diver. But even this is not as simple as it may sound... especially since on the last round you must land perfectly... ON A BRICK. On each succeeding act there is other such things, like human cannon ball, trapeze artist, tight rope walking (DAMN HARD!), juggling (on a unicycle) and more!
Now, as if all this wasn't hard enough for you to cope with, there is always this annoying little clown who keeps popping up every so often trying to stop you. To do this he will throw bombs at you, blow you (oo-er), cut ropes and all sorts of other annoying things. Thus putting even more pressure on you!
I loved this game and it still appeals to me, so I suggest that it will to you. Of course if you don't like fun, don't download it.. but if you do! Then you know what to do :D
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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