Circus Charlie(NES) FAQ version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net ****AD SPACE**** My games page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762/games/games.htm ================ INTRODUCTION NES VS. ARCADE POINT TOTALS LEVEL ONE LEVEL TWO LEVEL THREE LEVEL FOUR LEVEL FIVE THE GREAT (OR NOT-SO-GREAT) BEYOND VERSIONS/CREDITS ================ INTRODUCTION Circus Charlie, whom you control, has five different trick circuits he must complete before he gets the privilege of doing them all again. This was originally a great arcade game and is still a pretty good NES game. NES VS. ARCADE The NES has too many earth tones, but I suppose it's all right. The arcade game was totally awesome(you could choose which scene you wanted to try and even do the same--which would get progressively tougher--five times) and even had a fun scene where Charlie bounces through tramploine platforms and past fire breathers and sword jugglers, which was eliminated--it would be between the NES's levels 2 and 3. The NES has less complicated control and critical puzzles and point-scoring(for instance, bonus is determined in plateaued levels by time left on the arcade, but it is linearly related to time on the NES) but is not too bad overall. Even if Charlie does look like Raggedy Andy, and there's nothing cool at the end of the fifth scene. POINT TOTALS --in general, you don't get any points for your last jump. So if you jump through a hoop and land on the finishing platform, you don't get an extra hundred points. --bonus points are bumped back up to 5000 if you die. They seem to decrease at the rate of 40 per second, and if they go to zero, you lose a life. --running into anything else except a money bag or coin(first level) is a killer. --you can also lose a life by missing the final platform, so don't jump over it! --You start with four lives, with extra guys at 20000 and every 40000 thereafter. --on level one, you can get 500 or 1000 points for getting money in one of the higher hoops --you also get 100 points for each time you land after jumping through a hoop, even one with money. For double hoops on later levels, you get 100 for each hoop--200. It's possible to jump backward through a lower hoop, but it's very tough. --you get 200 points for jumping forward over a pot of fire. This can be done repeatedly. --you get an extra 100 points if you jump through a hoop and over a fire pot. --you can get 5000 points if you jump over a pot and back, a coin pops up, and you jump to get it. This seems to happen most after 1)you get a money bag in the higher hoop and 2)you jump back and forth without jumping through a hoop. --on level two, you get 500 for jumping over a blue and a brown monkey. --you also get 1000 for jumping over a brown and two blue monkeys. --you get 200 for each blue monkey you jump over without jumping over a brown one --each brown monkey you jump over gets you 100 --on level three, you get 100 for jumping forward from one ball to the next --you get 500 if you jump over a ball to another. However, if you jump as your ball hits another, you only get 100. --on level four, you get 100 for the first time you bounce on a set of two platforms, 200 for the next time, then 400 and 800. --on level five, you get 500 for each rope you jump to. There are nine ropes total. LEVEL ONE You have one hundred meters to go in this one--Circus Charlie must jump his lion through hoops and over fire pots. It's not too difficult to time the jumps through the hoops or over the pits. The main thing is to learn how to jump through one and over the other without touching anything(i.e. getting killed.) Hoops come at pretty regular intervals, so if you can't jump over a fire pot without getting hit by a hoop, back up and jump through the hoop and then over the pot. Pots appear every ten meters just before the marker. You cannot run under the low hoops, and the high hoops are much tougher to jump through. To get five thousand bonus points, grab the money in a hoop. Then, at the next fire pot, jump back and forth until a coin flips up in the air. The coin is worth five thousand. You may not get the coin until hoops are no longer presence, but just be persistent. LEVEL TWO You have sixty meters to go on the tightrope here, and you will probably never have to back-track, so this is in many ways easier than level one. Touching a monkey calls Charlie to fall off. One of the things you need to watch out for is a sequence of three monkeys; at some point you will want to stop to jump straight up over one of them. The timing is not too tricky here. There are also some blue monkeys that run at you and jump over the brown ones in front of them. Usually the blue monkeys will not run through brown monkeys, so have your guard up if there's one brown monkey--don't jump too early or you'll hit the blue monkey. You can jump over the different colored monkeys separately, but that is tougher and will get you fewer points. At the end of the level, you'll have to jump up onto a platform to get your bonus. LEVEL THREE You start off eighty meters from the goal. You get there by jumping from one ball to the next. You can move backwards and forwards and jump that way, too. You need to watch for another ball bumping into yours or misjudging a jump. Don't be scared to jump or move considerably backward. Also note that you have a split second after your ball hits another to jump. As far as getting through the level, you will often need to backpedal, jump to the next ball, and repeat a few times. The balls seem to come out at random, and your best bet to get through quickly is to learn when you can jump over a ball and fall a few times in the process. LEVEL FOUR You have two hundred meters to go before the end. Despite this being the longest it's almost one of the fastest. Note first that if you go slowly then every ten meters takes up 120 units of time. The result? You will have at least 2600 bonus when you reach the finish line. It's advisable to put on the brakes after a jump as a platform you must jump on may come by and ambush you. It's strange that going slowly gets you the most points and is safest--something that is safest should get you fewer points. Some platforms are higher than others, so you can't always go slowly while bouncing, but note that you can change the speed you and your horse go forward whenever you are on 1) the horse and 2)the platform, bouncing. There is no backward jumping here, only small forward jumps, forward jumps, and fast-forward jumps. LEVEL FIVE You start off fifty meters, or ten rope jumps, from the end. The only time you can make it to the next rope is when you are at the apex of your swing(if you don't seem to be swinging high enough, just push left, right, etc. as the rope swings to get there) and the other rope is close. With correct timing you can breeze through the level without swinging, but otherwise, it will take a while. Be sure also not to relax at the end--jumping on the ending platform is as dangerous as jumping to the next rope. Note that if you jump before the apex, you will fall, and afterwards, you may bounce on the trampoline under you. Two bounces later you'll be back on the previous rope, or you can take a chance pushing forward to grab the next rope. Unlike the arcade there seems no punishment for holding on too long. THE GREAT (OR NOT-SO-GREAT) BEYOND Once you finish five levels, there are slight alterations in some levels to make them a bit tougher. They're listed below. --level 1+5x: there may be 2 hoops sometimes that can get pretty far apart. --level 2+5x: two blue monkeys may jump over a brown monkey. When in doubt, wait until the last minute before jumping over a monkey. --level 3+5x: no big rises in difficulty. --level 4+5x: the platforms you must bounce on get smaller. --level 5+5x: I can't see any differences. Note that game B seems to start with these levels. END OF FAQ PROPER ================ VERSIONS/CREDITS 1.0.0 sent first and probably last version to GameFAQs 7/21/2001