STORY / GAMEPLAY Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O' Fun is a nice black-humor sports game to play. A corrupt businessman, to whom the circus that the player owns owes $10k, arrives on the scene with the intention to demolish the circus and plans to build an array of luxury hotels on the terrain, unless our hero can pay up the debt. In a fit of desperation, the show-master organizes a display of six events to raise money for the doomed circus: diving, juggling, trapeze, knife throwing, tightrope and the human cannonball. The performance in each event is judged by five clown judges who offer money depending on the quality of the show. The businessman has no intention of letting the circus raise the cash though, and he sets his lackey, the evil Fiendish Freddy, loose to steal the show.
GRAPHICS / SOUND The ZX Spectrum has nice visuals but the frame-rate is suffering (much like the CPC version), a detail that makes gameplay rather difficult. Its stunts are nicely detailed along with the sprites, but the playable area runs in two colors only! As in all versions, the main-menu theme is amusing and there are a few funny sound effects and the original in-game tunes.