Are you ready to rock?! Are you at least ready to sorta roll? OK then, let's get started. You'll be doing neither in Third Law's shooter, KISS Psycho Circus. While you may sway at times, and possibly even tilt forward and backward a little, there's definitely no rockin' and/or rollin' to be had within the pixels of this game. First off, if you didn't have a chance to read my first impressions, give them a peek -- it will give you some info on my initial feelings about the game. After a full day of playing, I was worried that the game would keep the same solid but uninventive momentum, and I was more than a little annoyed by some of the funkier glitches in the final version of the game. While a new patch has been released, fixing most of the problems I had with KISS Psycho Circus, some of you with TNT cards will freak out about the in-game menu problems and keyboard glitches that plague the pre-patch version of the game. That being said, once you get past some technical problems, it's time to get into the meat of the matter -- is this going to entertain you all night long, or not?
By Chris Commodore |
You'll put yourself in the shoes of four different characters, each slowly gaining armor and weapons to become one of four different super-powerful entities who look remarkably similar to your favorite four KISS rockers. The armor gives you access to new areas in each level (such as boots that allow you to jump higher), or adds to your overall strength and total health. Get all the armor, including the mask, and you'll be a fighting machine with a special unique power to pummel your foes with. Each character also has their own unique melee weapon, which I've described in my first impressions. You can play the game out of order, but if you follow the storyline, you'll start with Paul Stanley, er, the Starbearer as you enter the water realm. While each character infiltrates their own separate realm, the general gameplay and enemies you'll encounter will feel very similar, although there are a few unique monsters and tricks for each realm. And that's it -- run in, destroy the spawners as quickly as possible, do a lot of backpedaling, curse at the interminably slow shotgun, and move your way to the next map.
KISS Psycho Circus is not Half-Life, nor does it try to be. This is a straightforward fragfest with an emphasis on ammo-pumping. You'll see more enemies on screen in Psycho Circus than any other shooter, sometimes in ridiculously entertaining amounts. Spawners, organic versions of a hostess cupcake factory, keep weak enemies coming a la' Gauntlet until you destroy them, and on top of the spawned enemies, the game will also plain toss enemies in front of you at times just to keep things stressful. There are some great moments, when you'll walk into a warehouse to find dozens of enemies crashing through the glass ceiling, or a cavalcade of fire-emblazoned headless creatures surrounding you in frightening numbers. Psycho Circus' other contribution to the shooter market are the health bars, which give you the health of nearby enemies, a fantastic feature that gives you the room to run in blazing, or hold back and take some potshots, depending on the strength of the enemy. Like any shooter, there are some key/door puzzles, but they're kept simple and easy to wrangle, with more work spent trying to get to the key (usually clearly visible) than actually trying to find it on a large map. Thank god. It looks as if the Third Law team has definitely learned a few things from working on the bloated and downright confusing layout of Daikatana. Where Daikatana tried to 'innovate' through the use of such things as pointless new weapon types and horrible jumping puzzles, Psycho Circus gives you slight variants on old weapon favorites and levels which look new but feel familiar. Unfortunately, while this definitely works better than Daikatana's fumblings steps, it falls under its own trap. While there are some small new features in Psycho Circus, overall the game feels like a lot of shooters you've played before, which in our bloated shooter market is about as dangerous as making a platormer was at the end of the SNES's life.
Because the game focuses on action almost solely, you'll definitely be kept busy -- but sometimes the game design does this at the expense of everything else. While it's a great concept to put spawners in a shooter to keep a stream of enemies coming at you, I'm not such a fan of the 'let's drop twenty beasts behind his head when he thinks the room is empty' philosophy, especially when it's really hard to tell where you're being attacked from. Sometimes the monster poppin' technique works, but later in the game it can be absolutely fist-pounding, especially when you can't help but think that the game is just playing cheap by having monsters just appear, or even re-appear when you past certain points, without any clues. Just trying working through some of the later levels, and you'll see where this trick can really suck the joy out of levels, to the point where you'll be quicksaving like someone with obsessive compulsive disorder just to move to the next level.
The weapons don't help matters much, either. Suppressor k baffle design for small. You'll feel Quake in each and every new weapon you get in the game, from the railgun/rope pinpoint punch of the whip to the standard shotgun/plama gun variants. Unfortunately, weapon switching is incredibly slow, and items like the shotgun take way too long to reload, especially when quicker weapons are laughably weak against most enemies in the game. And Psycho Circus' variant on the grenade is a messy affair that isn't powerful enough to cause critical damage to important enemies, but is bouncy and annoying enough to cause you death and misery. Most confusing is the spray of weapons like the shotgun and the game's take on the rocket launcher -- one minute nearby enemies are taking major damage from spray, the next it seems as if you need pinpoint accuracy to cause any damage to your targeted foe. All of this sounds finicky, but we're reaching critical mass when it comes to shooters on the PC, so you tend to get particular about what feels right and what doesn't in a game like this.
The look is clean, with a different color palette reflecting each realm, including the colors of some of the common creatures. Third Law has done a lot of nice things with the LithTech engine, and it's definitely impressive to see just how many creatures they can throw on a screen at one time, without bringing your computer to a halt. While outdoor environments aren't as impressive as the indoor structures, they aren't an eyesore, and overall the art staff has done a great job of keeping the KISS references coming, and the look of the game gothic but much more colorful and vibrant than the competition.
Unfortunately, while the graphics are entertaining, the music is a big, big disappointment. While I can swallow not using the real-life personalities of the band, since this is based on the comic, I can't deal with a game based on musicians that features sub-par in-game music. You'd think that a KISS game would use hour after hour of hot KISS tunes, but you'd think wrong. While you'll hear a variety of KISS music through your travels, it's always connected to a stereo or jukebox within the game, used as a special addition rather than an integral part of the game itself, which frankly it should be. Instead, what you get is bad MIDI guitar tracks that aren't just forgettable, but actually take away from the overall quality of game. There were times when I actually wanted to hold back and stand by a jukebox for a while, just so I could get my KISS fix and avoid having to listen to more of the tedious in-game tunes. Couldn't you have at least used real guitars and instruments for the tracks? Making sound the lowest on the totem pole for a game based on a band just doesn't seem like a good idea.
Last but not least, let's talk a lil' multiplayer. The weapons don't lend themselves very well to multiplayer (try smacking someone with a whip), and while you can setup 16 players online, there isn't a matching service -- read, full support of the multiplayer game. The single player game is fairly long however, so you can count the multiplayer features of Psycho Circus more as a mark on the checklist of bullet points for the back of the box than as a full-featured addition to the game as a whole.
KISS Psycho Circus has moments of fun, but it never quite breaks away from the path set by the umpteen shooters that have come before it. Spawners and health meters are great touches, but if there isn't a foundation of inventive gameplay, and a good story to back it up, you quickly lose interest. For a game based on such vibrant characters, the designers have managed to make KISS Psycho Circus feel more like a VH1 documentary than a big, loud rock spectacle. Hopefully the KISS Alive game will fare better.
-- Vincent Lopez
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Psycho Circus is the eighteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss and the final album to involve all four original members. Some pressings featured a lenticular cover that alternates between a black Kiss logo and the album title with pictures of a clown and the band members, while the Japan initial first pressing featured a pop-up cover which had three foam spring-loaded panels of a clown face and two others with band members faces that popped out when the doors were opened. 'You Wanted the Best' is the only Kiss song in which lead vocals are shared by the entire lineup.
Production[edit]
Following the highly successful 1996â97 reunion tour, Psycho Circus was marketed as the first new studio album by the band's original lineup since 1979's Dynasty (as Peter Criss did not participate on 1980s Unmasked, although Criss' drum work is limited to only one of the nine songs on Dynasty). As with Dynasty and Unmasked, however, many of the songs were recorded by uncredited players. Ace Frehley and Criss were used sparingly, with Criss playing drums only on 'Into the Void'. Frehley played on two songs from the album (not including vocals). In 2011, in Frehley's book No Regrets, he says that he wrote a lot of songs for the album, one of those songs being titled 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Rock 'n' Roll'. He mentions that the title and song were deemed very similar to the song 'I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock 'n' Roll'. Frehley would record the song under the title 'Pursuit of Rock and Roll' for his 2018 solo album Spaceman. 'Into the Void' was originally titled 'Shakin' Sharp Shooter', but Simmons and Stanley were unhappy with the lyrics and title, so Frehley went up to a separate room and rewrote it. The song 'Within' was originally written and demoed for Kiss's previous album Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions and contains the original backwards guitar intro from the demo by previous Kiss member Bruce Kulick.
In a radio interview with Eddie Trunk following his departure, Criss stated that only 'Into the Void' featured instrumental contributions from all four members. Regarding the lack of cohesion in the group at the time of recording, Paul Stanley stated, 'We tried to do a Kiss album, and it was an ill-fated attempt because there was no real band,'[2] and continued by adding, 'For a band to make a great album, it has to share a common purpose..and we didn't have it.'[2] In 2014, Stanley later revealed that Criss and Frehley were trying to renegotiate deals and get to compose more songs when he and Simmons thought that 'Why would they be equal partners? The band had existed [for many years without them].' Although the subsequent Kiss Farewell Tour was meant to 'put Kiss out of its misery', Stanley eventually decided to continue playing because 'I don't want Psycho Circus to be our last album. It's not a good memory.'[3]
Bruce Fairbairn was brought to produce the album, and stated that he wanted to stay away from gimmicks and trends such as guest appearances, just 'tried to stay true to what Kiss does best and people remember them for'. The album was mostly recorded at Los Angeles's A&M Studios and One on One Recording Studios, with the performances being first recorded with analogue equipment, and then digitized for mixing and overdubs. Afterwards it was mixed by Mick Guzauski in his New York studio, and mastered by Fairbarn and Kiss' longtime partner George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York. Fairbairn complimented the band for being collaborative, declaring that 'it had the potential to be a nightmare because they're all disparate and strong characters, musically and as people.'[4]
It is sometimes assumed that Psycho Circus is based on the comic-book series Kiss: Psycho Circus, which debuted the year before the album was released; however, while it is true that the album had not been conceived at the time the comic book was first published, Simmons claims that the Psycho Circus concept was originally created as a Kiss tour theme.[5]
Reception[edit]
Psycho Circus debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, selling 110,000 copies in its first week of release, and was certified gold by the RIAA on October 22, 1998.[10][11]
Rolling Stone said, 'Psycho Circus is an album of platform-stomping rhythms, roller-coaster guitar riffs and sing-along choruses â is far more respectable than any of the awkward flops from the no-makeup years.'[8]Entertainment Weekly (9/25/98, p. 106) said, 'This is rock with a capital R, captured in all its cheesy glory.. This new effort proves that in the circus of hard-rock dinosaurs, Kiss remains its Barnum & Bailey.'[9] 'Well up to the band's usual standards of corny hoopla,' wrote Clark Collis in The Daily Telegraph. 'Typical of the beast is 'I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll' â three and a half minutes of hilariously bombastic pomp-rock that simply crushes thoughts of all post-glam musical developments beneath a silver-painted stack-heel boot.'[12]
The song 'Dreamin' bears a resemblance to Alice Cooper's 'I'm Eighteen' (1970): a month after the release of Psycho Circus Cooper's publisher filed a plagiarism suit, settled out of court in Cooper's favor.[13] Trend reversal signal.
Accolades[edit]
The album was voted Album of the Year in the 1998 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards, while the title track won Song of the Year and Best Video Clip.[14]
Track listing[edit]
Personnel[edit]
Additional musicians[edit]
Charts[edit]
Certifications[edit]
References[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Psycho_Circus&oldid=904257194'
> >KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
Balance 3d game free download for pc. Windows - 2000
4.69 / 5 - 16 votes
Description of KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child Windows
Here is the video game âKISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Childâ! Released in 2000 on Windows, it's still available and playable with some tinkering. It's an action game, set in a horror, shooter and licensed title themes.
External linksCaptures and Snapshots
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Comments and reviews
@BRAZZJAZZ
after clicking play button it is giving error of please correct CD-rom
Xdetonate2019-04-180 point
The best game i remember so much fun!!!
Verilog2019-02-151 point
To get it running well use dgvoodoo.
TonyApex2019-01-281 point
I tried everything to get this to work I give up
Red2018-11-070 point
I want this game.
brazzjazz2018-10-250 point
If anyone needs help with getting this game to run or would like to try out multiplayer, you can add me on Steam etc.
Zorro2018-10-160 point
@Contramage Try loading the ISO file of the installation CD as a virtual CD-ROM / Bluray drive. I recommend Virtual CloneDrive. The game should detect it and launch without problems.
CONTRAmage2018-09-151 point
No matter what I did this game refuses to work, even with the no CD patch it still won't run!, But it did went somewhere till it failed to load 3 times til it kicks me out everytime, it's a shame that the developers couldn't put this up on steam or something so it would work so we don't have to fiddle around to get it to work
Daniel Alves2018-07-310 point
Jogo kiss
Lord Derpy2018-04-012 points
When I run this on my laptop, it keeps showing up as purple and not in a regular colored mode. What settings will run this game to achieve its best looking potential? Thanks
Cloudstrife64772018-02-240 point
Holy shit they made a KISS game? Wooooooaaaahhh..
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A first-person shooter featuring members of KISS, the '70s schlock rockers dressed in leather outfits and funky makeup? While you'd think Third Law's intentions were malicious, to leave permanent stains on the genre not to mention cashing in on the musical group's farewell tour, their plans were much different.
Released in an age where first-person shooters are damned for lacking innovation, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child single-handedly rekindles the ashes of Doom without reinventing the genre.
And it works. Although it does lack innovative gameplay, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child features blistering, intense action throughout well-crafted gothic settings with a fast-paced engine lending itself to multiple on-screen enemies. With four characters, varying adventures, a decent arsenal of punishing weapons and smooth graphics, this is one for the adrenaline-loving masochists..you know who you are.
Encompassing haunted cathedrals, dark streets, abandoned and decrepit buildings, dank sewers and colorful circus settings, the level design is well done although the latter levels leave a little to be desired. With monster and environmental traps (flooding and crumbling terrain) located throughout every level, id Software's influence is felt.
Kiss Psycho Circus Pc Game
At the end of each character's campaign for elemental prowess, you must traverse a twisted carnival filled with horrible textures and annoying layouts -- levels that give the appearance of having been created by map designers indulging in a host of mind altering substances.
Succeeding in KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child means destroying hordes of enemies roaming the various levels, literally hundreds at a time. Ranging from the Headless spider monstrosities and big-boned Ballbuster to the menacing Unipsycho, the abominations attack in droves with almost no slowdown whatsoever.
Because violence is the name of this game, you can mutilate and sever creatures' legs and arms and blow off their heads. Yowza! In order to prevent the almost unavoidable onslaught, you must seek out and destroy spawning machines that create these baddies. Additionally, there are boss characters in the ending circus levels including axe throwing clowns and huge arachnids.
Needless to say, the action can get overwhelming at times. Almost too overwhelming. With spawning machines located in strange locations and positions, there are times when monsters block corridors, making it almost impossible to move forward; mowing them down with the provided weaponry is almost futile when ammunition is low.
Additionally, certain levels contain platform elements requiring precision maneuvering and jumping. Prepare to die often if dozens of enemies are behind your character and pelting him with projectiles. On the other hand, the provided arsenal is a decent mix of shotguns, melee weapons and other projectile shooters and depending on the character, the melee weapons differ. While exploring the levels, you'll also find important pieces of armor and weaponry that increase attack power.
While there are various references to the rock band including musical tracks, posters and assorted textures located throughout the levels, make no bones about it: KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is for those craving an action packed first-person shooter.
Although there are story elements and cut-scenes (mostly for introducing new enemies), these features take a backseat to the ultra-violent shooting element and grandiose level designs. In conclusion, if you're looking for a 3D version of id Software's Doom, look no further.
And you don't even have to like KISS.
Graphics: Using an enhanced version of the Lithtech engine, the gothic textures and settings come together with little to no problems; the exception being the realm-ending circus levels. The monsters are basic though well designed.
Sound: Ironically, the sound department is somewhat lacking. While there are sporadic KISS anthems thrown in for extra measure, the basic soundtrack is a bit uninspired. Additionally, the sound effects are redundant and a bit unoriginal.
Enjoyment: KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is the epitome of adrenaline-pumping action. With a super-smooth engine boasting tons of on-screen enemies, this first-person shooter is fast and furious. Although navigation becomes hectic at times, the challenge is adequate. On the other hand, cheap death syndrome is in full effect -- some of the platform elements are frustrating and your character is on the receiving end of unavoidable hits.
Replay Value: While there are tons of levels, the game seems almost too short. Like other first-person shooters, online support has been included with LAN and Internet options.
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Kiss Psycho Circus The Nightmare Child Free Download for PC is a first person shooter computer game developed by Third Law Interactive and published by Gathering of Developers for the PC in July 2000. It was also released later that year for the Dreamcast (using Windows CE) following a port by Tremor Entertainment. The game is based on Todd McFarlane's Kiss: Psycho Circus series of comic books, themselves inspired by the rock band Kiss. Kiss: Psycho Circus was the first game to be developed by Third Law Interactive, themselves having recently formed in December 1998 after a widely publicized mass walkout from Ion Storm. Versions for the PlayStation and the Game Boy Color were planned, but were later canceled. The PC version of the game was done on an enhanced version of the Lithtech engine, licensed from Monolith Productions.
The game's story revolves around a Kiss tribute band, who suddenly receive superhuman powers. Kiss Psycho Circus The Nightmare Child Download free Full Version.
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