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L-l-l-l-adies and gen'r'men, roll up, roll up for the Ringling Brothers circus - the grrreatest show on earth.

Step right up, step right up! You sir, in the Zzap! T-shirt, the one with the bright red hair - you, and up to three of your friends. Right this way, right this way.

Feeling fit today are we, sir? Ready for anything? Right then, here's your special participator's ticket - if you'll just move this way now ladies and gen'r'men, you'll see this gentleman here take part in four circus tricks for the very first time in his life. A big hand for the competitor. Thank you very much.

And tonight's dangerous, hair-raising and most spectacular events are: the tightrope, trick horse riding, trapeze and, a big hand for this one, most dangerous of all, putting life and limb right in the path of death - tiger training.

Step right this way, ladies and gen'r'men. Come to the circus... the greatest show on earth.

Sorry sir, no fat people and no dogs...

Tarantantara tarantanta-ra. I think the circus is great (I'm talking Charlie Caroli's greatest fan) so when I heard that this was coming out, I was weelly, weelly pleased. Well, you've got to admit - it was a good idea. It's just a pity that the final product hasn't come off.

On both formats, all the events are far too difficult and the really illogical control method just makes things worse. By the time you've waited for the multi-load on the C64 version (which is slightly more playable, by the way) or spent a couple of hours swapping Amiga disks, you'll probably be quite happy to throw this in the ring - and leave it there.

If you've stepped up to take a look at this, the best thing you could possibly do is step right down again. If you were expecting something up to the standard of Tynesoft's Summer Olympiad and Winter Olympiad, cut your losses 'cos this isn't it.

Apart from the trapeze, which is quite fun, the events are boring, difficult to control and as playable as a broken ukelele. If you really want a fun night out at the circus, save your money for when the real thing comes to town.

Presentation 70%
Up to four player tournament option, plus end of game fanfare, chance to practise events and slick links in between events. The C64 multi-load, however, is very slow and there's a lot of tedious disk swapping on the Amiga version.

Graphics 69%
Colourful and well-defined on both formats; there's a bit more attention to detail on the Amiga.

Sound 80%
A whole medley of silly, atmospheric title and in-game circus tunes, interspersed with the odd sound effect.

Hookability 69%
Difficult control methods undermine the initial novelty value.

Lastability 42%
It's hard to play, tedious to load and not particularly addictive.

Overall 41%
An unusual and highly original idea let down by its very disappointing execution.