Nightmare Circus is not only a valuable relic of video-game history, but also a pretty decent game that just appeared at the wrong time in the Mega Drive's life. While it's certainly not the Mega Drive's answer to Donkey Kong Country as Sega had initially hoped, it's a psychedelic, well-designed 2D platformer that's extremely hard to come by today. You control Raven, a native American man who goes to investigate a haunted circus and proceeds to kick the crap out of marionettes, clowns, and other freaky carnie types. The game sounded great and didn't look bad either, with some nightmarishly trippy backgrounds and decent animations. What worked against Nightmare Circus was that it came out in 1996 - by which time the Mega Drive was a fading platform in the face of the rising PSX and inbound N64. Nightmare Circus wasn't released in most major markets, apart from Brazil and the overlooked Sega Channel in the US - a distant ancestor to today's digital gaming platforms. It's not known whether an English version of Nightmare Circus exists, and buying a Brazilian copy will set you back around $200.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
