Not your fathers Circus Atari (or your mothers) – Circus Atari Review

Being a HUGE Circus Atari fan on the 2600 I was so excited to hear about this game coming. However, I set my expectations low and knew without a paddle there's no way Circus Atari would ever play right. So Atari took a different approach and based the game on the Doodle Jump style "how high can you get" type of game. Not very creative but in this case it works. Sort of. Basically you bounce, bounce and bounce higher and higher collecting coins as you go. That's about it. They added a safety net feature which allows you to save yourself in case you fall and miss a balloon. Now this is where it goes sour. They start you off with 5 nets. Nice! Well not really, because that's all you get. If you want more you have to cash in the coins you collect and buy more nets at the in-game store which can take a long time to do. Or you can purchase coins via an in app purchase and with those coins buy more nets. I don't mind so much the store concept but really Atari at least give us 1 net as default each game. I hate playing 10 times just to maybe be able to buy 1 net. Also alternate controls would be nice. You play tilting the device. You can't change it to buttons or anything else. I actually found it easier to play my iPad upside down for some reason. Another in game store purchase you can make is for different clowns. Male and female are free. The others you must use your coins to buy. Is there any advantage to purchase other characters? It doesn't say. I would think it would be an upgrade as the new characters are expensive, like you can jump higher, fall slower, etc… but something tells me it's just an aesthetic change. More add-ons are to come as of this review the game just shows question marks for future upgrades. We'll see! The game is free, and it's fun, but way too similar to what's out there already. Could be better.
Review by foxglove_9 on Circus Atari.