KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
Windows - 2000
Description of KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
Clowning around
I'd like to begin this review with a heartfelt appeal for your help in combating a grave misperception that has become rooted in the psyche of many of the inhabitants of this world. As disturbing as it may seem, there are apparently some people who see clowns not as they are, but instead see them in a rather twisted way. These tragic misfits labour under the impression that clowns are somehow friendly, happy and even funny figures of entertainment, when any right-minded person can clearly see that they are in fact darkly sinister beings with their freakishly painted faces and grim humourless antics. So if you know one of these unfortunate clown-loving individuals, why not help them to see the light by persuading them to watch one of the many evil clown films, such as "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" or the slash-em-up, "The Clown at Midnight." Or why not try dressing up as a clown yourself and leaping out of their wardrobe late at night? With perseverance, you should be able to convince them that clowns are indeed sinister and evil rather than amusing or entertaining. And perhaps then they can do the same to convert someone they know.
It appears that the creators of KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child know which side their scary clown-flavoured bread is buttered on, as the game features a great number of clowns, all of them mean, macabre and intent on eviscerating you at the earliest opportunity. In fact, as the game's title suggests, KISS Psycho Circus takes place in a strange realm inhabited by evil clowns and other creatures from some weird, twisted circus which itself is under the control of a strange being called the Nightmare Child - and only you, playing as the members of rock group KISS can save it from being totally corrupted. Although, given the total weirdness of the Psycho Circus world, it's doubtful anyone would notice the difference.
Gibberfields
The manual doesn't actually state why it is that the only people who can save this crazy, alternate world are a bunch of glam rockers in goth costumes and make-up, but that's presumably covered in Todd McFarlane's KISS Psycho Circus comic upon which the game is based. Given that KISS have to be one of the most successful rock bands around, surpassing even Marilyn "Alice Cooper rip-off" Manson in the marketing stakes (with dolls, figures, comics and a huge number of other tasteful items available), it would have been easy for Psycho Circus to end up being a cheap and nasty cash-in along the lines of the dire Iron Maiden and Queengames a while back. In fact, most music related games to date have been pretty dire. But, luckily for 3D shoot-em-up fans and computer-owning KISSfollowers, Psycho Circus hasn't fallen into that trap. Certainly, while Psycho Circus isn't a revolutionary title, it offers plenty to keep 3D shoot-em-up fans entertained.
As in most shoot-em-ups, you play a heavily armed hero - or in this case a heavily armed member of KISS; you take role of a different band member in each of the game's episodes. You have to liberate the twisted world by, er, shooting and hacking your way mercilessly through its enslaved inhabitants. As a somewhat mindless shoot-em-up, Psycho Circus has more in common with Blood and the somewhat inferior, but similarly dark, Blood 2 than with Half Life. An impressive AI and a compelling storyline are not to be found here - instead broodingly dark levels, macabre monsters and high octane blasting are the order of the day. Another thing it has in common with Blood 2 is that both games use Monolith's Lithtech 3D engine, with Psycho Circus using a heavily improved version of the earlier LithTech games. But unlike Blood 2, Psycho Circus actually plays well out of the box, so it appears Third Law, the designers of the game, won't be doing a Monolith in abandoning their game, then claiming it's not their game, yet mysteriously not giving back any of the money they were paid to create it.
Realms of the Haunted
The game is split up into five realms, four proper realms and a final two-level "Nightmare Realm" where you get to kick Nightmare Child arse. Each of these four realms can be played in any order, but it's not recommended for plot fluidity reasons. These realms are in turn split up into about eight levels each. The locations you get to explore within these levels range from the slightly off-kilter to the truly bonkers. You start off your musical mystery tour in an abandoned roadhouse, wondering where everyone's got to. After a bit of exploring, and picking up your first weapon -- a sword -- you realise you're not in Kansas anymore when a headless creature pops through a nearby mirror and makes for you at high speed. Naturally, this foe can be dispatched with your sword but given that this is one darkly twisted shoot-em-up, things just get weirder from there on in. Subsequent locations in the first realm include a freak show, a strange sort of abandoned warehouse, a spooky town square and more. The second, third, fourth and fifth realms are just as gothic and spooky, although the second realm does start off with a couple of slightly uninteresting cavern levels of the type seen in virtually all 3D shoot-em-ups (though it picks up from there).
While you can have the best looking levels in the world -- Psycho Circus doesn't quite achieve those lofty heights, but the levels do look pretty damn good - if they're badly designed then you're not going to hold the interest of Joe Gamesplayer. But Third Law, the games designers, have done a good job of creating levels that not only look good but play well too. Psycho Circus 's levels are full of twists and turns and other surprises, and are rarely mundane. If you're the kind person who loathes wandering from location to location hunting for some hidden switch or trigger panel, don't worry. In Psycho Circus there are no hubs to get lost wandering around; nor will you find yourself collecting an item in the Tombs of Ydrrrynx used to solve a puzzle in the Ice Caves of Fnnnip. The most you'll have to do here is collect a key or flick an easily seen switch to open a door and in the latter case, you are nearly always shown where the door you opened is, usually nearby, so there's little toing or froing required, just plenty of monster maiming.
Monster Mash
There are indeed plenty of monsters lining up to fight you, enough to make your quest to kill the Nightmare Child quite hard indeed. There are no enemies that are unique to a particular realm; instead, you encounter one or two new enemies on each realm as well as bumping into all the ones you dealt with in the previous realm. The real cannon fodder of the game are the "Headless": creepy crablike creatures which are, er, headless, and have rather nasty slashing claws but can be eliminated quite easily. Then there are the fire-spitting dog creatures that are still easy to take out but can be tricky given their ability to gob on you from a distance. Then there are the other circus psychos like cannon ball-hurling strongmen, half-spider half-clown Arachniclowns, Fat Ladies and a whole host of other really freaky monsters, including the Nightmare Child himself who has clearly seen John Carpenter's The Thing.
None of the monsters in the game are too bright. The headless do attack in groups but that's more scripted than anything else; they don't attempt to cut off your escape route or anything. Nor do the other enemies move out of the way when you're blasting at them, attacking you at every opportunity. The AI here is nothing to write home about. Though, if the monsters were any brighter you'd find yourself in real trouble. As things stand, you've got an even chance of being able to take them out with your weaponry before they introduce you to the business end of a strongman's dumbbell. A nice touch is that you do know how much damage you need to do to them before they expire as when you hit a monster, an unobtrusive little meter pops up, showing how much life that creature has left (a la Diablo) - a nice touch and one that is usually reserved for the big bosses in most action games. In this game, all monsters are treated with equal contempt.
Blast-o-matic
To wipe out the scary clowns and their cohorts, you have access to a wide range of weaponry all of which looks weird and wonderful. You have access to a rocket launcher, an energy chaingun, close range melee weapons (each character has his own melee weapon but the rest of the weapons are used by all the characters), a huge BFG-style laser gun, and others. There's also a whip which can be used to do damage or as a kind of a grappling hook in the odd place to swing onto the pre-positioned hooks to get to another area of the level. Truth be told, the weapons work in the same way as most other shoot-em-up weapons, so you should be at home toting most of the guns in the game. And naturally you also get to point them at the face of human opponents in the deathmatch mode. You may have a bit of a problem finding a multiplayer game unless you have access to a network as there's no Gamespy style matchmaking service included with KISS. But going by the fact that Psycho Circus only supports head to head deathmatch play, and that there are plenty of better established multiplayer games about offering more varied multiplayer options, you're not going to be missing much.
Farewell Tour
KISS Psycho Circus won't win any awards for originality, but it is surprisingly entertaining -- partly due to the truly bizarre baddies that assault you and the odd locations you find yourself in as you make your way through the Psycho Circusworld, and partly due to the fact that there's enough challenge and carnage to keep most hardened shoot-em-up addicts busy. So it's by no means a classic game; it doesn't re-define the shoot-em-up genre, nor does it offer enough to keep you coming back to the game after you've finished it. But if you're a KISS fan, a gamer with a taste for the macabre, or just a shoot-em-up fan looking for something to tide you over until Half Life 2 or whatever, then Psycho Circus is worth checking out.
Review By GamesDomain
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Comments and reviews
Catchamouse 2024-04-08 0 point
Important thing: run RegSetup.exe from the location where the game is installed to be able to run the game (it's without using Felizpe's Windows 10 patch). From RIP version is better to copy psycho-c.exe because it has 32-bit color options and is no-cd.
Dred4170 2023-11-27 3 points
After some tinkering this is what worked for me in Windows 10. This is mostly information from here and other forums and some playing around myself.
Step 1) Download ISO version of game here on Abandonware
Step 2) Download and install winCDemu at https://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/
Step 3) Use winCDemu to mount the ISO as CD-R to avoid the corrupted disk image error
Step 4) Install the game from the mounted disc as normal with custom installall options
Step 5) Download and install patch 1.11 here on Abandonware (1.30 may work but prevents dedicated servers for some reason)
Step 6) Download and install Felizpe's Windows 10 patch from https://www.moddb.com/mods/kiss-psycho-circus-the-nightmare-child-windows-10-patch/downloads/kiss-psycho-circus-the-nightmare-child-windows-10-patch
Step 7) Run Psycho.exe from the install folder at C:\Games\Psycho and set display resolution to 1920x1080x16 or below (anything higher crashed for me)
Step 8) Play the game
If you want to play on LAN (I have no idea why this works like this)
Step 9) Have host click gameuser maps and load any map
Step 10) Press escmultiplayerhost game and start a server
Step 11) Have each user click gameuser maps and load any map
Step 12) Press escmultiplayerjoin game and you should be able to see the LAN game
If you want to use a dedicated server
Step 13) Navigate to C:\Games\Psycho and run Dedicated.exe
Step 14) Type Start to launch a server and end to stop it
Step 15) If you want to change game settings open default.cfg in notepad and change the values (more info can be found in dedicated.txt)
Step 16) Enjoy KISS Psycho Circus:)
LAertis 2023-08-17 0 point
I got the could not launch client.exe error, fixed by running the kiss.reg file. ALso I have used the pathces from 1.0 to 1.13 before running the reg file. Not sure if all are needed but for me it works perfectly now after i run the reg file
Cin 2022-11-29 5 points
None of the guides in these comments make sense... I need a cohesive step-by-step. What does "3. Download RIP (Copy RIP psycho.exe in Installed ISO-Game-Folder and replace it)" even mean? What am I replacing it with? Or where am I replacing it to? I need more steps. None of these make any sense.
Kisser 2022-11-15 4 points
For me this worked perfect (like Patient Panda said):
1. Download ISO. Mount it with Virtual Clone Drive (Windows 10 Mount doesn't work, because it says the ISO is corrupt).
2. Install Custom (install all options)
3. Download RIP (Copy RIP psycho.exe in Installed ISO-Game-Folder and replace it)
4. Download FAN-Patch for 16:9 Resoltutions (https://www.moddb.com/mods/kiss-psycho-circus-the-nightmare-child-windows-10-patch)
5. In the Game you have to try which "advanced graphic options" works perfect for you. I had some low frames, when a lot of enemies are at the screen, but settings some options "off" worked perfect).
brazzjazz 2022-11-04 0 point
To anyone aving issues getting the game to run, I recommend checking this page
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Kiss:_Psycho_Circus:_The_Nightmare_Child
and using Felizpe's patch as well as following instructions given in the readme file there.
Idiot1234 2022-10-31 0 point
I downloaded the RIP file for Kiss Psycho Circus. As I understand it, this was originally a Windows 95/98 title. As it is, you have supplied a Patch so it can run in Windows 10. I cannot install it on my system, thus the game will not run. Is it to do with the File Path? In any case, I've had no joy....
moussa 2022-10-22 0 point
Guys, when I open it it's say ; "Could not launch Client.exe!!" and when i open Client file it only says "No game resources specified" what can i do to fix this so i can play pls? btw sorry for my bad english
KissMan 2022-10-16 1 point
The ISO file is corrupted, the No-CD crack doesn't run on Windows 10 even if I set it to run in compatibility mode as Windows XP...
ScreamingEagle 2022-05-30 7 points
I try everything but it doens't work.
I can click on Psycho.exe but when i'm click play, there's an pop-up for 2 sec and it closed
Abayasent 2022-03-05 0 point
Are there any language patches out there?
I'm looking for the german version.
knaff 2021-10-16 0 point
To run game on modern PC use fan patch; https://www.moddb.com/mods/kiss-psycho-circus-the-nightmare-child-windows-10-patch
Lorussky 2020-09-23 -3 points
Thank you a lot @Patient Panda!
To run the game, see his comments below (install and use DgVodoo)
TobiasL 2020-09-20 -6 points
it only says "Could not launch Client.exe!!" and when i open Client file it only says "No game resources specified" what can i do to fix this so i can play?
Clyde3D 2020-04-04 -1 point
Maybe this fine site can help with the NOCD errors:
https://www.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_kiss_psycho_circus.shtml
Starvoltage 2020-03-23 -1 point
hi guys, i'm trying to play this game, but the no cd crack isn't working.
Whem I'm using it it say : "This application can't run on your pc"
can someone help me ??
ty guys
S 2020-01-25 1 point
"Kiss Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child" is excellent, I played it through. (I played it on Windows 7 and it runs flawlessly, although I didn't install the patches). After 20 years, this game is still awesome and unique. It's so underrated and I don't understand why, because it's one of the best shooters I've ever played. You should check it out!!
Lucifer 2020-01-08 0 point
This is a game that I've been wanting to try ever since my uncle told me about it, he used to say for the longest time that it was on the Genesis/Mega Drive, but then I showed him that he had remembered what systems Moonwalker (Michael Jackson) and Psycho Circus (KISS) were released on, Moonwalker was Genesis/Mega Drive, this game was Dreamcast.
Kača 2019-11-19 0 point
Ahoj, hru jsem nainstalovala, spustila, menu pořád zmatené, ale co mě štve více je, že při spuštění přiběhu se kamera stočí na zem a už nejde koukat kolem ,takže nehratelné.
Patient Panda 2019-11-08 2 points
Update 4: Ok dgVoodoo fixed the game-play. The actual game renders correctly, but the menu is still messed up. However, you can still navigate it. Oh well. I'll considered this a success. :)
Patient Panda 2019-11-08 2 points
Update 3: Ok. That worked. But the game does not render graphics correctly. I am going to used dgVoodo DX wrapper to fix this. Stay tuned.
Patient Panda 2019-11-08 2 points
Update 2: I had used the ISO to install the game and patched it all the way to 1.13. Since the no-CD patch is not working for me, I am going to download the RIP of this game on this page and then just copy the psycho.exe file from RIP to the folder where I installed the game. Wait for Update 3.
Patient Panda 2019-11-08 3 points
Update 1: The No-CD patch does not run/work on Windows 10 x64 1903
admin 2019-09-11 0 point
NoCD looks fine: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/0c9fec7561cf4b7a6fbca7e26f018462e070c02e8323c7a5a5960de314d4ecf3/detection
khajiit_didnt_steal 2019-09-08 1 point
awesome game, aww, every time I play this, I cry due to a feeling of nostalgia :'3
loki 2019-07-06 1 point
just use the nocd crack they have here or you can download the iso and mount it as a cdrom
npkajale@hotmail.com 2019-05-24 -3 points
@BRAZZJAZZ
after clicking play button it is giving error of please correct CD-rom
brazzjazz 2018-10-25 0 point
If anyone needs help with getting this game to run or would like to try out multiplayer, you can add me on Steam etc.
Zorro 2018-10-16 0 point
@Contramage Try loading the ISO file of the installation CD as a virtual CD-ROM / Bluray drive. I recommend Virtual CloneDrive. The game should detect it and launch without problems.
CONTRAmage 2018-09-15 2 points
No matter what I did this game refuses to work, even with the no CD patch it still won't run!, But it did went somewhere till it failed to load 3 times til it kicks me out everytime, it's a shame that the developers couldn't put this up on steam or something so it would work so we don't have to fiddle around to get it to work
Lord Derpy 2018-04-01 3 points
When I run this on my laptop, it keeps showing up as purple and not in a regular colored mode. What settings will run this game to achieve its best looking potential? Thanks
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