 Challenging Circus Fun |
| Review Date: June 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Christine A. Reifer, So Cal |
My friend and I were so impressed with Wii Carnival, that we snatched this up when we saw it. While its not as fun as Carnival, it still provides a challenge and is entertaining. You can choose between using the balance board or remote on 12 of 15 games. They did a very good job using the balance board to its full potential. It is equally fun either one you use.
Games:
Knife throwing- very fun, pop the balloons without stabbing the dummy in the middle of the rotating wheel.
Trampoline-bounce to collect popped balloons and do tricks
Human cannonball- launch yourself thru various hoops and land on the pad
Silks- Cirque du Solei style acrobatics to catch more balloons without running into other performers
Unicycle- on a tightrope without getting punched off by a giant boxing glove
Elephant balancing- keep your balance while doing tricks
Pony dancing- similar to dance dance revolution, not as fun
Tightrope- keep your balance, do tricks
Monkey dodging- dodge pies, catch bananas, throw pies back at the monkeys, great fun once you get the hang of it
These are the ones I've unlocked so far. The goal is to get the audience to like you and gain fans. The more fans you have the more money you make in order to unlock more games. Worth the money. Probably too hard for the younger group. |
A fun game for the money you pay
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| Review Date: November 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. Pohli, Seattle, WA United States |
| We got this game for $10 at Costco. So for $10, I didn't expect very much. I would say it is a great value for the price we paid. There are lots of different activities (some better than others), and lots of opportunities to increase the level and unlock different games. The fact that you can use the balance board with it is a plus. The biggest drawback to that, though, is that at the end of each activity in which you use the balance board, the game turns off the balance board, for some reason...then when you want to go back and do that activity (or another that uses the board), you have to go through the process of turning it on again, waiting for it to register, and then step on, let it "sense" you, etc. This process results in annoying waiting time in between EVERY activity. But other than that, it's a game my 6-year old really likes, and I even have fun playing it. Oh, one more thing...I initially looked into buying it for the possibility of it being active enough that I could count it as a "workout". It does not serve this purpose. Just an FYI for anyone else considering it for this reason. Only one of the activities (the trampoline) even remotely gets your heart rate up. However, I would still recommend it as definitely worth purchasing; it earns its $10 in fun. |
Not a bad, mostly balance centered mini game collection
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| Review Date: November 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: LanaF, ny |
I agree with the other reviewers in both this games cons & pros. the presentation is better then many other cheap mini game collection games, but can still tell they had to cut corners.
I love the music, I think it really helps keep one going, it seems to have popular classic circus music.
there are only 3 adult male & female stereotypical characters to choose from & no customization, though that's not the important aspect for game play. interesting is 1 of the characters you can be is a male villain. the ringleader is a bit creepy, but he has a good voice & the acting was done well. the only thing bad is he has limited lines which get repetitive. they don't hold back when you do poorly, but he doesn't get mean.
rewards -
the better you do at a game, the more fans & money you win. when you do poorly, you lose fans. the money is used to unlock games, such as the beginner tent, there are 3 games to unlock for $50-200 each. to unlock the next area the advanced arena, you need $1,000. the more fans you have, the more money you get for the same performance, kind of like an added bonus rate. in game, there are the sounds of the fans clapping/cheering or booing & throw fruit/vegetables at you at the end if you do poorly as well as having a small hand/splash art "fan meter."
menu -
the main area shows the beginner/circus tent, advanced/arena (locked), expert/stadium (locked), circus camp (multi player competition), and training area (to practice w/o losing fans). the training area shows there are 15 additional games to unlock in the whole game, you start out with 6 unlocked in the beginner area. going between menu areas is almost instantaneous which is great, because if you don't replay a game, it ALWAYS takes you back out of the section, so you're back to the main menu & have to re-click on the area you were once in. game selections in each tent is in squares that you can scroll.
controls -
they are surprisingly sensitive. not impossible, but a child under 8 will probably have a lot of trouble on all the games unless they have great hand/eye coordination or great body awareness balance. even many adults may have trouble getting $$/fans on some games, I did. so far, all the games that use balance or rhythm use the board, only knife throwing did not for obvious reasons. yes, once you finish a game & want to choose another, the board is always shut down, so you have to keep waiting for it to turn on, step off/on calibration. nunchuck is only used for juggling.
games -
almost all games have ~60 sec. timer, there is no pause button.
knife throwing -
1st perform view, usual stuffed dummy on the spinning wheel. hold the wiimote like a dart, point & lock with A & throw & weak throws will not make it/bounce off. it took me time to get all the balloons in the time allotted amount, you have to be nearly perfect. I have yet to get good at getting the yellow balloons that float down randomly & change direction.
trampoline -
boring far away 3rd person view, you time your bounce on the BB or wiimote trying to get high, timing the left/right motion as well to hit random floating yellow balloons for extra points, but not bouncing so high you hit the metal beam overhead. the better you do keeping up high & hitting balloons, the meter goes up & when you hit A you get a cut scene trick performed for extra points.
human cannonball -
aim/click on hoop in air, click on the power you want on the meter & fly through hoops to land safely on the mat. BB nor wiimote can I seem to figure this out, I only notice left/right working though slowly/small increments.
pony dancing -
very easy. 1 line of directions scroll on bottom. when hits the circle, move the wiimote or BB in that direction. do well, meter goes up, hit A for cut scene tricks of ponies doing diff things. only good for ego boost or faster way to gain fans & $
tightrope -
there's a line at the bottom & feet icons randomly pop up 1 at a time at different spots. you balance wiimote or BB swinging back & forth so you roll over the the icons w/o going all the way to the end of either side of the line or else you fall. also has VERY strong wind many times. very sensitive controls to make it much harder than it sounds. also has the meter if do well to hit A for cut scene tricks for more $/fans.
monkey dodging -
like wii fit soccer, but instead of only 3 positions, there are FIVE monkeys/positions. very close 3rd person view. you avoid the pies & pick up bananas. I had a bit of trouble when I only had one monkey not throwing to stay in that safe zone, it was hard to gauge where that safe zone was, even with the wiimote much less BB. you again have a meter & hit A to throw pie back at monkey.
unicycle $50? -
balance on unicycle on tightrope to other side in time. same gameplay as tightrope w/addition jump(A)to avoid punching glove. also uses the BB. pretty easy considering tightrope is much harder.
elephant balancing $75? -
balance on elephant. same line again as tightrope & unicycle, this time there is a elephant head at all times that moves back/forth along it. keep your balance dot over the elephant head at all times not to lose balance. has a meter again when do well to do cut scene tricks.
silks $200 -
3rd person of character holding on silk & using wiimote or BB to change up/down, left/right to pop blue balloons, while also avoiding another flyer who swing on/off screen. meter goes up the more balloons you pop & least amount of collision & hit A for cut scene tricks.
other locked games (text manual description of game play):
rola bola - balance as weight shift from 1 hand to the other.
trapeze - fly through the air....
big cat taming - keep the rhythm....
stunt diver - lean left/right to fly through hoops into barrel of water.
magic show - touch each star as it appears, then tap, tap tap & see the magic.
juggling - keep up the rhythm to keep the balls in the air
pros
* decent graphics for a cheap mini game collection, bright & cheerful
* mostly very close cam angle views to make it more exciting, though 1st person in some respects would be even better (knife throwing is 1st person)
* great acting from ringleader
* good, VERY sensitive controls (except for cannonball)
* interesting game play ideas like the meter & fans
* great use of the BB
* good sounds effects
* good music
* no career mode (so you don't have to succeed at ALL games to collect $$/fans to unlock more games)
cons
* no pause ability
* no difficulty or sensitivity setting choices
* only 15 games & some seem very similar
* board turns off after every game
* thrown to main menu after every game
* limited (only a handful) of lines from ringleader & only a couple from your character which can get annoying fast.
* cut scene tricks are nice idea, but there's NO interactivity during & it tends to throw you off your zone when you return.
trailer on youtube com under "Go Play Circus Star Game Trailer"
this game, overall is a bit too difficult for me. I found the original wii fit balance games mostly easy to beat after a few attempts. my balance skills: I can do yoga dancer's pose easily w/foot as high as my head; a not high leg, but still a standing split without my hands on the floor, have attended almost a year's worth of tai chi classes; can kick fwd, back, left, right again & again w/o losing my balance.
if you are killer w/balance you will love the challenge, if your balance skills are worse, this may frustrate you too much. |
good for price and time gotten out of
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| Review Date: June 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Anthony Comerford, |
So the wife and i enjoyed it well enough, but the kids are the ones who seiriously got a kick. Josh and Aaron (ten, and twelve) have been wiiing and balancing boarding with thsi game non stop for three or four days now.
Really enjoy it and have thanked me on three different occasions. Good purchase. Couldn't be happier that my kids are happy. |
No rewards for playing this game
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| Review Date: December 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: G. Williams, Issaquah, WA USA |
I got this for my daughter for christmas - she tried hard, as did I but we just got fed up with the booing and jeering, and negative points and being insulted by the ring master. And the constant need to reset the wii fit board drove us crazy. also knife throwing at at a dummy that squealed when hit with the knives didn't suit us. It was a mistake purchase, and i won't buy anymore games in quick moment at costco.
poor quality graphics, annoying sound, and overall not a nice game. |
Just OK compared to others we have
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| Review Date: June 22, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Reviewer, DFW, TX |
My daughters would love to be cirus stars, so we got this game and christmas and its barely used. Its better than some we have, but its a little hard for a 10 and 8 year old. Not terrible by any means, but my kids get tired of it quickly (unlike Wii Sports, Wii Fit Plus and Guiness).
I got this for $[...] on one of those Gamestop buy two get one free preowned sales and really wish I wouldn't have. I like having a variety of games for my kids to play but this one just isn't up to snuff. Has better graphics than Farmyard and Redneck, but I guess you get what you pay for. Don't waste your money. Its more important to pay more for good games than get alot of ok ones. |
It is okay
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| Review Date: June 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: D. Bergan, |
| The games are really fun, and its great to be able to use the balance board. however, you have to constantly keep turning the board on, because after one game the board shuts off. There is also a lot of time between games, even if you "retry" the same game. It has to ask every time if you are using the balance board or the remote and if then it has to start up the balance board. |
SO much fun!!!!
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| Review Date: July 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Hackborn, Bay Area, CA United States |
I love the Wii Balance Board and it gets a lot of use in this game.
Each player is a circus star doing various feats, winning or losing fans and earning money to unlock new feats and arenas. Some feats are harder than others to figure out how to do, but they are fun and challenging.
After unlocking many feats, this game is really great to use in the practice/training mode at parties. No scores are given but the ringmaster will let you know how you are doing with his rhymes and prose. People take turns and have fun!
I love the knife throwing, rola-bola, monkey dodging, elephant riding, flying silks, trapeze, and the tight-rope is far superior to the one in the Wii-fit.
I don't really care much for the magic act.
The feats load faster than the exercises on the Wii-fit and the UI is easier too. Loads of fun, and I was surprised the next day by how many muscles were hurting after sever hours of play on the balance board. |
not fun for all ages
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| Review Date: October 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ash, Idaho |
This has been the first game that my 5 year old and myself wanted to quit playing. My husband agreed after trying it as well. To be fair, we tried all the unlocked game options and found a couple OK, but for the most part, some of the mini games were a poor quality copy-cat of a couple of the Wii Sports games (that are fun and easier to master).
The characters were creepy looking. Their movements were often difficult to manage. Basically, it is just an object in frustration playing this game.
If you want to buy this game, mine is for sale :). I'm listing it asap and finding something that someone in this house enjoys. |
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