Producer: Central Solutions
Retail Price: £0.99
Author: Barry Jones

The show is about to begin... but wait! Something terrible has happened. All the stars have been struck down with the dreaded lurgie. There's only one thing to do - you'll have to stand in for them.

Enter the ring as Tightrope Ted. Balanced on a unicycle, brave the high wire and its perils. Then, a quick change in the dressing room, and emerge as Sidney the Strong Man. Are you a wimp, or can you manage to pull a 100 ton truck? Succeed at this and assume the guise of Marvo the Mindreader - unscramble an anagram and type in the correct answer.) Enter next as Co-Co, the Knife-Thrower, Try to score over ten points but make sure you don't stab him in the bread basket! Next, risk life and limb by taking the place of Charlie the Human Cannonball. Make sure he lands in the net or there'll be a nasty splat on the sawdust. Yuk!

Providing you last this long, all that remains is to dazzle the audience with your final act! Wonder what that can be?

COMMENTS

Control keys: varies from screen to screen
Joystick: keyboard only
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: fairly colourful
Graphics: too basic
Sound: not very good at all
Skill levels: one
Screens: six

The keyboard response is good but the things that happen when you press keys are not worth playing for. The different screens are all basically very boring.

This game, even for budget software, is below standard, graphics are sloppy, single character blocks or large unanimated figures. The backgrounds, where there are any, are dull and uninteresting. The sound is poor - only a few spot effects here and there - and it is irritating as well because you can't turn off the screeching effects on the title screen. Them is not enough in this to entertain me for more than five minutes.

Hardly what I would call the Greatest Show on Earth, despite the title. The colour schemes are terrible, the characters very basic, and the game generally lacks polish - but the idea is a good one. Although I would much rather have a better, and consequently more expensive game. TGSOE is a simply a cheap bit of fun.