"Get ready for the greatest pinball on earth!"
That voiceover clip which starts each game of this isn't lying by the way. Cirqus Voltaire is one of the best and most unique pinball machines of all time. It was designed and released in 1997 by mechanical and artistic genius turned fucking grifting cunt John Popadiuk, sadly, but we won't hold that and his subsequent disappearing over the horizon with backers' money of Magic Girl in the mid 2010s against this game.
The first thing you notice about Cirqus Voltaire is its eye watering colour scheme, which is predominantly lime green and pink, with flashes of cyan. The second thing you notice about it is that unlike most other pins of its era, it doesn't have a DMD in the backbox, but in the back of the cabinet and angled upwards. This means that the backglass is a single square piece like the old school pins of the electromechanical or early solid state eras. The art features a wonderfully off image of acrobats ad circus performers against a background of swirling lightning. The playfield has the similar slightly "off" art on it. Themes-wise, it has the energy of "we really wanted to be the licenced Cirque du Soleil pin but they wouldn't let us." Not that that's a bad thing, Cirqus Voltaire has its own feel which is half that and your more traditional three ring circus. Indeed, the background music is Entrance of the Gladiators (that's the "clown" music of infamy) but remixed into a smooth electronic remix. In terms of layout, only two flippers here, but there's a "soft plunge" skill shot to a target. Next to that is an orbital around a bay with a magnet in and a bank of three targets labelled "WOW." If you hit these, the magnet momentarily grabs the ball and lets go. If you light WOW, it seizes the ball and you are then ominously aware of a grinning green head on a spring emerging from the playfield and wobbling around. This is the Ringmaster, and you have to hit him a number of times to make him go back down. Beating him multiple times starts a two ball multiball. To the far right of the playfield is a lane which goes around the back and becomes a ramp in that it's an orbital but from this angle centrifugal force sends the ball up it and down to the left flipper. In the middle is a fairly steep ramp which leads up and round in a wide curve before going to a wiggly ramp with a neon tube on it that lights up when it is shot. There's also a magnet at the top of it which, when the lock is lit, grabs the ball and sends it down a separate rail into the ball lock. It is possible to soft-plunge or nudge the ball into the lock without it being lit, this the game calls a "sneaky lock" and shows an animation of the ball with legs tiptoeing across the DMD. Then further left, there's the left orbital which has diverters to the Juggler sinkhole and the Sideshow. Middle right of the playfield are two pop bumpers and also a third one which pops up when the Boom Balloon mode is active. Middle left, there's a captive ball inside a round cage which exists solely to throw off your aim, and the Menagerie target.
Now, your objectives, such as it is, is to Join the Cirqus, and to do this you need to light all nine of the Marvels, which are named after various circus acts. So, you've got the Juggler, the Boom Balloon, the Menagerie, the Acrobats, the High Wire, the Sideshow (a video mode called The Amazing Roonie featuring a kangaroo on rollerskates jumping obstacles), and then beat the ringmaster three times. If you do this you get to the Wizard Mode which has four "levels" which involve doing very tight combo shots all without draining the ball. If you do this everything is lit and your score hits the absolute roof because you get a four ball multiball with 30 seconds drain protection. However if you drain just once before going through all four levels, you're back to square one. While all this is going on a lady announcer is coming out with lines like, "Eyes right, the boom balloon!" and "Spell WOW, to summon the Ringmaster!" She also has a bit of snark about her. If you make the skill shot upon launching the ball or putting it back into play post-lock five times in one game her reaction goes from "Amazing Skill!" to "Skilfully done. Show off." And of course, if you active the High Wire Multiball (the intro to which features two tightrope walkers being electrified by a lion flipping a big switch) the call out is, of course, "Are you ready for a SHOCKING experience?"
One other point of note - the end of ball bonus. You don't add things to it through rolling over switches or making shots. Instead the game uses a sort of fuzzy algorithm to determine how quickly and efficiently you beat the modes you activated during that ball and then has a panel of judges hold up scores out of ten - "Let's review your cirqus ability!" "WHoooaaaa!" "Take a bow, THEY LOVED YOU!" Or... not as the case may be. Usually not in my case, because Cirqus Voltaire is a really tough pinball. The magnets and things designed to send the ball just that bit off course add a layer of unpredictability to it and the orbital and ramp shots send the ball perilously close to the tip of the flipper. You really need to be on top of your passing to do well here. Also the many diverters and things that pop up and down and the Ringmaster wobbling around and shouting abuse at you if you can't seem to get him. It is a game that feels as vertiginous as a trapeze act, or a tightrope, or something similar, yet at the same time strangely joyous. Never fails to leave me with a smile on my face.
Such a pity I haven't played one IRL since 2015. Because sadly, Cirqus Voltaire is a quite rare game. I think they only made a couple of thousand, and not only that, but they command spectacular prices. Expect to pay five figures for one in good condition. They're also a bit of a bastard to maintain with so many moving parts and an on-playfield neon tube and things going off in the backbox and magnetic diverters, I suspect.
It would also be the last genuinely good game that Mr Popadiuk would design. His next outing would be the licenced Star Wars Episode One pinball, on the ill-fated Pinball 2000 platform, and then after that he'd only resurface in 2014 to announce a brand new boutique manufactured game and then bugger off with everyone's money. Groan.