Nightmare Circus is a game that's filled to the brim with cool ideas and mechanics and creepiness abound, but stumbles a bit far in the execution for a solid experience. That said, it's probably one of my favorite 2/5 games.

Rescuing the spirits of his family murdered at a circus, the Native American warrior Raven (with a co-op companion if 2P) must come to the Nightmare Circus after the sun sets to fight the evil Jester that rules the dark domain. The visuals immediately pop with freakish roller coasters, flaming Ferris wheels, disorienting mazes, disgusting worms in tubes, and creepy mannequins in the big top. Everything looks great and Raven himself is particularly expressive in all his maneuvers. Nightmare Circus also utilizes some great Genesis techno to add to the dark atmosphere.

As for the gameplay, Nightmare Circus operates as a six-button (yes, six buttons on the controller) brawler where Raven has a staggering amount of special moves and contextual actions as well as using the Mode (?!) button to operate special abilities such as magic shielding from hits and refilling health with magic. The biggest issue up front is that nearly none of this is properly explained in the manual or elsewhere, leading to many a guesswork to figure out the solutions. Raven is also fairly finnicky in some very important actions, such as turning around and climbing ladders. This fight with the controls drags down what is a very unique set of abilities, which can be built upon by sucking the souls out of the dead bosses in the game for even more abilities.

The game itself is pretty short but always throws a new set piece to keep things both interesting but also maddeningly cryptic. If it's not the side-scrolling maze that shifts in 3D at its center, it's the burning Ferris wheel that stops burning after a certain point, or the roller coaster that needs to enter a door with metal bars, or beating panels out of a clown painting to lure out bosses? A hint system or something could lend Nightmare Circus a hand, but it expects the player to know these cryptic solutions from scratch, leading to some very frustrating moments.

That said, Nightmare Circus is still worth playing and holds many a secret within its brutal grasp. If anyone wants to make something truly unique and interesting, perhaps taking some hints from this game and building upon them could make a very compelling iteration.