You only have a certain amount of lives to play with that can be lost by falling down a gap at the bottom of a stage, or touching a wall/obstacle that you otherwise shouldn’t be touching. To reclaim lives, you can collect them around the level you are playing in.

Apart from collecting all balloons, golden stars and not losing any lives to score a perfect five stars at the end of a level, you also need to get to the end within a specified time limit. Having a time limit makes it quite difficult to accomplish everything in a level quickly, so you’ll be very tempted to sit down for a few hours and get everything right!

By collecting more and more stars in your score, your clown rank will go up. This is a nice little addition and reminds me of the ranking system used in Vagrant Story by Square Enix.

Aesthetic Charm

Graphically speaking, CarneyVale: Showtime utilises relatively simple designs and animations that provide a rather retro feeling to the experience. The ragdoll physics of the clown are believable, and obstacles scattered within a level are designed nicely.

The sound effects and music inject a circus-like feeling to the game which I love.

Final Thoughts

For a simple game, I must say that I had my doubts. But instead, Appxplore have proven once again that they can provide addictive gameplay in a charming environment.

At such a small price-tag, CarneyVale: Showtime is well worth the time spent playing and would make a great addition to your little one’s game collection on your tablet/phone.

Score

4 stars – addictive from the get go and a great unique concept