In a fit of desperation, the ringmaster organises a display of six acts to raise money for the doomed circus: diving, juggling, trapeze, knife throwing, tightrope and the human cannonball.

Mr. Tightwad, however, doesn't want the circus to successfully pay up its due, so he sends his evil clown lackey, Fiendish Freddy, to sabotage the acts.

Freddy will attempt to hinder the player by blowing the diver off course with an enormous hair dryer if he fails to perform the stunt in time.

Missing five times without dying from a bomb or missile causes an off-stage performer to use a cane on the juggler and yank him.

Sights on the ground, ranging from a marching band and organ to a trainer with his elephant, are also present as a possible distraction, although it can also be argued that the former are providing the music for the act.

The player assumes the role of a knife thrower and must throw knives at balloons on a rotating wheel with a female assistant strapped to it.

Freddy plays a smaller role in this act; he only gets involved if the player takes too long to decide where to land, upon which he destroys the cannon by jamming it with a cork.

There are two endings to the game, depending on whether or not the player manages to collect enough money to save the circus: The game's black humor was principally very dark and the violence was surprisingly graphic for a title of this period – the tightrope walker gets sliced in two through the midriff when hit by a blade, and the juggler is blown to pieces when hit by a bomb, for example.

The lack of any kind of media panic in retrospect might seem surprising, although such public outrage only became common from about 1992 onwards, following the releases of Wolfenstein 3D and Mortal Kombat, which contained CGI blood and gore.