Ninja Clowns (MAME, 1991) Rarely have I played a game that made me laugh out loud even once. Ninja Clowns made me laugh several times. The graphics are pretty good for 1991. In that same year Mortal Kombat arrived in arcades, just to give you a comparison. The player controls a fighting clown, I'll call him Bozo, he's not really ninja-like but it doesn't take anything away from the character. His attacks range from punching and kicking to spinning on one finger while kicking in every direction to using different objects he picks up. Some of the objects at his disposal are a bottle of seltzer water and a spring-loaded boxing glove.
The combination of the graphics and the subject matter are what make this game funny. Mostly it's the enemies that give the game it's charm. You'll fight Elvis playing an accordion, the bearded lady will vomit in your face if you let her, hippies throw you the peace sign and say "Woodstock, dude!" before attacking you, just to name a few. There's also something entertaining about backhanding a beautiful woman or kicking a little girl in the face. (Kids don't try this at home!)
The bosses are more original than the enemies. My favorite is the giant chicken that either pecks you or bends over and shoots eggs out of her EDIT. There is also the living helium cylinder that makes balloon puppies which then explode when the get close to you. Speaking of exploding, I can't forget the magician that makes unstable bunnies. But no game about clown's would be complete without a mutated clown as the final boss.
There are also parts of the game that are not enemies that I found entertaining. The clown start the game with 3 lives and when he dies and is re-spawned for the final time, angelic music plays and God says in a thunderous voice "YOU ARE NOT DONE!". When he dies for the final time all of the enemies walk off of the screen. Press start and they all return, which made me think that the developers really put in extra effort to make the game memorable. Also, if the clown doesn't advance after all enemies have been destroyed, a hand pointing it's finger appears to point him in the right direction. If he still doesn't move, the hand floats down to the clown and flicks him forward.
All of this is only complimented by the music and sound effects. There are too many variations on clown music to even begin to describe. Actually, I'd like to have some of them as choices for ring tones on my cell phone for when one of the many strange people that I know try to call me. An example of a great sound effect from the game happens when Bozo does a rolling attack. It sounds like a bowling ball hitting pins.
Overall: 6.7
There's not much challenge but I recommend this game if you like a good laugh.
Graphics: 9
It's no Mortal Kombat but it's still pretty creative.
Sound:10
Original scores and original ideas.
Addictiveness: 5
No immediate re-playability but I might play it again in another decade just to see if it could make me laugh one more time.
Story: 10
The actual story is mediocre but I rated it a 10 because I can't remember the last time I was vomited on by a bearded lady (in a game).
I'll never forget that time when I was really at the circus, though!
Depth: 3
It has 9 levels with 2 mini-levels but there isn't much thinking to do. It's pretty straight forward.
Difficulty: 3
The only thing that was actually difficult was figuring out how to do the move where Bozo spins on his finger. Even that wasn't difficult once I learned how it's done.
Graphics
9 Sound
10 Addictive
5 Depth
3 Story
10 Difficulty
3