Carnival

"Let the review of the extremely strange shooting gallery game begin.........."

I don't even know where to begin reviewing this game. Like I said, it's a shooting gallery game with a ''step right up, shoot the rabbit and win a prize'' theme. It was made by Sega. It sounds fun, and as a matter of fact it is, especially if you like games like that. What separates this game from similar games, however, is the fact that it's very very very very WEIRD. Weird in a good or bad way, you ask? Well, sometimes I found myself laughing, other times I found myself raising an eyebrow and a few times I was more than a little freaked out. It really is something you have to experience for yourself.

Story: N/A
Um...if you haven't figured out what this game is about yet...go to Coney Island, or something. :P

Gameplay: 7
:: takes a deep breath :: Okay, here we go...

When you turn on the game, you will see your deformed gun at the bottom of the screen, strange blobs of color (some of which remotely resemble rabbits and ducks) in the middle of the screen and your score and a ferris wheel with strange numbers inside it spinning at the top. When you start the game, you gain control of your deformed gun and can shoot at the targets. Shooting targets farther to the top of the screen are worth more points than ones closer to you. As you shoot targets, the numbers on the ferris wheel change. This does not affect gameplay or your score whatsoever. You can also shoot the ferris wheel itself and make the numbers change. This also has no affect on the game whatsoever. If you shoot a target that is a number, you get that number of points.

At random times during gameplay, one of the duck targets will take flight and fly in the general direction of the bottom of the screen. If you shoot it before it gets there, you gain a lot of points. If it reaches its destination, it will quickly teleport to the bottom left corner of the screen, spazz out, move it's mouth in a really strange way (I'm not sure if it's trying to eat something or if it's trying to vomit), some messed up (and slightly frightening) music will play and your gun will be disabled for a few seconds.

If you manage to shoot all of the targets scrolling across the screen, you will sit there for a while and nothing will happen. Finally, after several seconds, a few more targets will trickle onto the screen. This goes on for what will seem to be forever.

When you FINALLY run out of targets, you will hear a ''ding'' sound and the screen will go completely black. None of the controls will respond, even the reset button. If you actually want to play again, you have to turn the power off and on again. I guess back then Sega wanted to let you know the game is over/you've won by making the game crash.

Graphics: 7
Well, I can't make out what some of the targets are and there is no background, but the detail on the spazzing duck is actually pretty good for a game system of its time.

Sound/Music: 3
The sound effects do well in adding to the creepy strangeness of this game. The sound of your gun firing sounds like a small fart. A lot of events in the game use the ''ding'' sound, which is actually a quite clear sound and sounds like a real bell. Those are the only sounds in the game. There are two songs in the game. The main gameplay song is the song that is usually played when an acrobat walks a tightrope in the circus (play the game dammit, you'll know what song I'm talking about). Almost every time you hit a target, the volume of the song will fluctuate from being really loud, to normal, to very soft and quiet. The instrument that plays this song also changes along with the volume. The other song in the game is the one that plays when the duck makes it to the bottom of the screen and convulses. There are only three notes in the song. First they are played slowly, then played again very fast. Don't be surprised if you find yourself scooting a little bit farther away from the screen when you hear the song.

Control: 10
Um, you move your gun from left to right and shoot with the side buttons...how hard can it be?

Replay Value: 10
You will want to keep playing this game just to try and make sense of the madness!! I don't think anyone has done it yet, though. They either got too scared and ran far far away (like me when I was four years old) or went crazy!!

Now that I think about it, this game would probably be fun to play drunk and with all the lights out. I should track down my relatives and see if their system still works...

Bottom Line!?
Well, it's kind of fun, in a very wacked out sort of way...if you like shooting gallery games, try it...if you like carnivals, try it...if you like extremely weird games, buy an Intellivision right now and get this game. I'm sure Sega didn't plan in that way, but the fact that the game is really bizarre and slightly scary adds to the enjoyment of it in spades, which is why I give it a 7.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/01, Updated 08/09/01