This is the only arcade shooter I’ve played and finished it all way to be like “dang, I want to play it again!”

The shooting this game is dope and gorely like shooting an enemies face’s off but still be alive and even applied to the bosses are a neat touch.

It’s so goofy and fun, I’m glad my local arcade store got themselves a hands on it and able to enjoy such a dark clown game. Give the game a try and beat it all the way through, you won’t regret it!

"Jesus my hand hurts. I feel like a goddamn melee player after finishing one Fox vs Falco match." - Man who has shot over 4000 rounds into one boss.

I promise I'll get to playing .hack again. Just needed to scratch that old arcade itch again until I remembered this game.

Let me set the stage really quick for you.

The year is 1998, and The House of the Dead just came out with it's sequel that same year and it's hogging players left and right with how tight the controls were and how fun it was despite quarters being eaten left and right.

But... in that same arcade was a little cabinet that happened to release on Halloween day of all days.Holy geez did it look different compared to the competition at the time.

Before actually reviewing this game, I think anyone interested in this game at all should take a look at the development of this title when they have the chance.
Just seeing this game even be released was a miracle with the way things were headed for Jack Haeger's team during the beginning of the end for Midway games at the time. Only a couple of years before their impending bankruptcy in 2006.

I mean, they had good reason to think that as well. Hell, this is the same small development team that made Narc (Yes, that helmet blowing up hobos with rockets Narc.) after all.

Sadly the reviews on this game back then were not so kind. Going as far as to call it a "Crappy House of the Dead clone."

But enough of the past. We're in 2023 and I want to do some light gun shooting before MAME gives me a fucking headache upon setup. How does it play?

Like a faster paced House of the Dead. You're zooming left and right, jumping hoops and going through different rides in every level with the head camera changing every moment. The different perspectives you get while shooting down clowns, bats and whatnot is so different from any lightgun shooter that I've played. The music and the art-style is fitting for its Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas influence and the blood and gore taken from the Mortal Kombat arcade games.

This game is fucking cool as hell, but it's also short as hell too. If you're really good, you could probably beat this game in just under an hour, and with something like MAME with mom giving you infinite quarters at your disposal, you can just smash on through each hit.

Funny that the last boss is called Tokkentaker, because you'll be dying so many times throughout fighting him and the entire game really.

If you have 30 or so minutes to burn, give this a go. If you're new to using MAME like I was, check out this guide for setting up controls.

I kind of think evil clowns/circus/etc is all overdone, but if you're looking for something in that vein, this is a pretty fun take. Gunplay is super basic, but it works well - being able to reload without having to point the gun off-screen is super helpful in situations where you want to keep unloading into the enemy, like in bosses or horde encounters. Power-ups are fun modifiers, though they're over and done with way too quickly to feel like there's any strategy to using them. It's also respectably short - fewer but longer levels makes for a solid balance.

Occasionally the game veers into sneaky quarter-munching territory, like how it punishes shooting the hostage or Evil Marie. Also, holy crap does your trigger finger get tired after a while. I also don't like the look of the game and bad guys (Umlaut notwithstanding, he's fun). But it's not bad.