Circus Charlie is one of those NES games that looks cute but will absolutely wreck you if you're not careful. You play as this little clown dude who's basically risking his life for applause—jumping through flaming hoops on horseback, tightrope walking over crocodiles, bouncing on trampolines while dodging monkeys. Classic circus chaos.

The first stage feels manageable, just hopping between horses and grabbing money bags mid-air. But by the time you hit the lion-taming level or the trapeze section, things get wild. The controls are simple (run, jump, that's it), but the timing has to be perfect or you're toast. And yeah, after you beat all six stages, the game loops back around faster and meaner.

Weirdly, the timer doesn't kill you if it runs out—you just miss out on bonus points. So sometimes you'll just stand there staring at a lion, waiting for the right moment, which feels oddly tense for a game about a clown. It's way more fun than it has any right to be.