Cirque de Zale offers rather reluctant hero

In the over-documented fiction “map” (so to speak) of The Hero’s Journey, the hero always rejects the call to adventure. In the normal vein of the hero’s journey, the hero eventually responds to the call (albeit reluctantly). In Cirque de Zale, the protagonist (who is named Alexander Zale) doesn’t ever really answer the call.

Actually, he pretty much ignores it.

Although he is asked by a rather flat King of Diamonds to save the kingdom from some dreadful fate (and rescue the princess), Zale, instead, decides that he shall pursue his dream to become a ringmaster of the rather dilapidated circus outside of town. Of course, he does manage to save the world while doing so. Not that he wanted to, by any means.

Cirque de Zale is a point-and-click game in the vein of Monkey Island or (to have a more recent comparison) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Therefore, you never have to utilize your keyboard during actual gameplay (although you do use your F5 key to access the load/save screen). Simple enough, right?

The problem lies in the puzzles. While most adventure games will let you obtain everything from dandelions growing on the ground to two-headed cats, there are relatively few items that you can interact with in Cirque. This actually makes the game a little easier, since you won’t have the 50+ item inventory to deal with. You use nearly every item that you are given; it’s just a matter of figuring out where to use them. The puzzles can be a little hard at some points, especially ones that require you to interact with items that are hidden very nicely into the background.

For any of you familiar with the adventure game genre, the story can get a little quirky. The humor is slightly distasteful at times, as one puzzle leads to the untimely demise of a circus-performing seal. Of course, you can grind your goldfish Sushi into a pulp by sending him through the garbage disposal in Zak McKracken, so there’s nothing really out of line in “Zale.” I mean, how can you hate a story that actually features a foreign performer who only knows awful jokes?

The odd humor never becomes strained because the storyline doesn’t take itself too seriously. Zale never sways from being the uncaring protagonist who wants to run a circus (and hit on a certain lady of the evening), and his actions follow suit. Sure, he’s a little bit of a shallow character, but the game is so short there’s really no way to flesh him out any more.

“Cirque de Zale” is an entertaining romp through a fictional world. My only complaint is that it’s a tad on the shorter side. If you don’t think that only 30 hour games are worth your time, then you’ll probably enjoy playing Zale.

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