Circus Atari

aka: Circus
Moby ID: 9748
Atari 2600 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Pop the balloons and score points. A wall of red, blue and white balloons will appear at the top of the screen. You must pop balloons by catching a clown on the teeter-totter and bouncing him up to the balloons. Use the controller to move the teeter-totter across the screen to catch the clowns. Each time a clown pops a balloon, the balloon will disappear and you score points. Each player receives five clowns or turns. If you fail to catch a clown on the teeter-totter he will crash and disappear from the playfield. Press the controller button and another clown will bounce off the trampoline from the right or left corner of the playfield. After five clowns have crashed the game is over. The clowns may land on any point on the teeter-totter except where the other clown is sitting, which causes them to crash.

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Credits (Atari 2600 version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 6 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 1 reviews)

Boing Boing. Bounce your clown and pop balloons.

The Good
It has simple fun game play that you can pick up any time for a few minutes of distraction. This game was the reason my parents bought a 2600 for my sister, because she played the arcade version and wanted it at home. So besides combat it was the first Atari 2600 game I played.

The Bad
There is very little not to like about the early 2600 games. Circus Atari was one of the older arcade games to be brought to the home console. By the time it was out on the 2600 space invaders and asteroids were also out.

The Bottom Line
You have a paddle controlled see saw with a little clown on one side. Another little clown jumps and you have to catch him on the see saw so he makes the other jump into the air. Across the top are moving boxes which are balloons. Touch a balloon and it pops. Simple. Like breakout the angle changes depending where on the see saw you catch the clown. Pop all the balloons and you get more. Everything speeds up and gets harder. Go for a high score.

Atari 2600 · by gametrader (208) · 2006

Discussion

Subject By Date
Arcade port? Kabushi (261192) Jan 24, 2014

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 9748
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Quapil.

Xbox 360, Windows added by Alaka. Antstream added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: LepricahnsGold.

Game added July 17, 2003. Last modified March 12, 2024.