Line #12 VideoGame/KissPsychoCircusTheNightmareChild


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kpctncband.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Starbearer, The Beast King, The Celestial and The Demon, ready to make Creator/JohnRomero [[VideoGame/{{Daikatana}} their bitch.]] [[note]]The pedigree of the game's developers was a good reason to make that joke.[[/note]] ]]
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4	Hot on the heels off the resurgence of popularity Music/{{KISS}} have been enjoying in the [[UsefulNotes/The90s mid-to-late nineties]], their ''Music/PsychoCircus'' tour theme would become the basis for the ''ComicBook/KissPsychoCircus'' comic book published by Creator/ImageComics. And then Third Law Interactive - a studio made out mostly of former Creator/IonStorm employees that walked out of the company in middle of ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'s'' development - would make a FirstPersonShooter that follows up that comic, released for the PC in 2000, with a later Platform/SegaDreamcast port.
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6	The game iself follows Wicked Jester - a KISS tribute band[[note]]Pablo Ramirez as The Starbearer, Patrick Scott as The Beast King, Andy Chang as The Celesital, and Gabriel Gordo as The Demon[[/note]] - who expected to have a gig at a deserted club, only to be summoned by Madame Raven, alerting them to the existence of [[EldritchAbomination The Nightmare Child]]. Before getting to confront the ultimate evil, the player would have to go through each of the four elemental realms - in any order, although there's a recommended order: Water, Earth, Air and then Fire - of the Psycho Circus as each band member (each coming with their own melee and [[{{BFG}} ultimate weapons]] they'd get, in addition to four weapons used by all of the members), blasting off myriad of bizarre circus-themed creatures and collecting pieces of armor that bring them closer to becoming avatars for The Elder.
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9	!! Respect your tropes... or [[{{Pun}} kiss]] your ass goodbye:
10	* ArmCannon: The Zero Cannon, Magma Cannon and the Rocket Launcher have this sort of design. The Ball Buster enemies also come with their own.
11	* {{BFG}}: Each of the Wicked Jester members have their own. The Starbearer has a screen-clearing Stargaze, The Beast King has a Spear that [[OneHitPolykill can pierce through enemies like it's a Railgun]], The Celestial has the Galaxion cappable of creating Black Hole portals and The Demon has a head of a Dragon that serves as the flamethrower.
12	* BottomlessMagazines: Ammunition being finite aside, reloading isn't an issue.
13	* CircusOfFear: "Psycho Circus" is it indeed.
14	* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Each of the Elder armor piece you pick up comes with a bonus. Only the belt piece actually increases the defense, as the bracelets, vest and mask increase your max health, while the boots increase jump height and the inner armor increasing your melee damage. Each of them also increase your ammunition capacity.
15	* ColonCancer: The full game title includes the band (KISS), the concept theme/comic book (Psycho Circus) and the game's own subtitle (The Nightmare Child).
16	* EveryoneComesBackFantasyPartyEnding: The game ends with Wicked Jester - now in full KISS getup - getting to play ''God Gave Rock And Roll To You II'' in front of a crowd consisting of [[DefeatMeansFriendship mooks and bosses from the game]].
17	* JavelinThrower: The Beast King's own BFG is a Spear which functions a bit like a {{Railgun}}.
18	* LudicrousGibs: Around as en vogue in FirstPersonShooter genre at the time as it was ever.
19	* ManiacTongue: Once Gabriel Gordo completes his The Demon getup, he pulls this off about as well as Gene Simmons himself.
20	* MookDebutCutscene: New mook types are heraled in cutscenes, complete with names being displayed at the bottom of the screen.
21	* MookMaker: The game features these in the vein of Spawners.
22	* MonsterClown: Plenty of the enemies are this, including one enemy type that is mixed with [[GiantSpider spider legs]].
23	* MythologyGag: Wicked Jester are named after Wicked Lester, an early incarnation of the band that would later become Music/{{KISS}}.
24	* OurMonstersAreWeird: One of the earliest common monsters is a head-less crab-like thingy and the weirdness usually escalates from there.
25	* OverlordJr: The Nightmare Child is this to The Nightmare King from the comic.
26	* RogueProtagonist: The bosses at the end of each realm before you'd face The Nightmare Child itself [[spoiler:were all former hosts for The Elder - and thus protagonists from the comic - that underwent an evil possession]].
27	* SetAMookToKillAMook: Monster infighting is possible.
28	* ShockAndAwe: The Celestial's melee weapon is a pair of shock gauntlets that shoot close range lightning in a vein similar to [[VideoGame/{{Heretic}} the gauntlets of the necromancer]].
29	* UtilityWeapon: Whips are available as one of the common weapons, can also double as [[GrapplingHookPistol a grappling hook]] if aimed at certain hooks.
30	* TheWallsHaveEyes: The room the final boss is situated in is covered with these.
31	* TheWarSequence: The amount of enemies one can face at once - mostly because of the Spawners, regardless it's not uncommon to blast off at least around ''hundred enemies per single level'' - makes this game an early example of a Horde-style FirstPersonShooter before the formula would get eventually refined by the likes of ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' and ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}''.
32	* WolverineClaws: The Beast King's melee weapon of choice.

Context VideoGame / KissPsychoCircusTheNightmareChild