Circus Caper

Circus Caper, known as Moeru! Onīsan (燃える！お兄さん) in Japan, is the title of a side-scrolling NES game where the player controls a young boy on a quest to save his sister who has been kidnapped by the circus. The game was released in 1989 by Toho and received poor reviews.

The single-player, side-scrolling action game takes the player through various levels, each with a circus theme, fighting various enemies and bosses until he finally defeats the ringmaster and saves his sister. The player starts out in the game with little life, and few weapons, but he can collect various icons to increase how many direct hits that he can withstand, keys to open doors, along with various circus items to shoot as projectiles.

Many of the levels can be avoided altogether by walking left, back through the curtain from where the player begins. This will take him right to that level's boss battle. Bonus levels include themes such as guiding a bear to jump over flames, avoiding boulders in a car, using Rodan as target practice and meeting Godzilla at the circus grounds.

The USA version has a number of changes from the Japanese versions. Mainly minigame and RPG elements were removed, the stages were modified and the setting was changed to a circus. The Japanese version also features several credits screens at the end which were removed from the USA version. The soundtracks also differentiate (for the most part). In the Japanese version, instead of weapons, your character shouted quote bubbles and the stages are in a different order.

The Japanese version had an entirely different plot. Moeru! Oniisan is based on a manga and anime of the same name, also known as The Burning Wild Man, about a boy named Kenichi who was lost in the wild and subsequently discovered and raised by a kindly old man who also taught him karate. He returns to civilization upon becoming 15, and his sister Yukie tries in vain to keep him under control.

Story
In Circus Caper, a boy named Tim takes his sister Judy to a circus show. However, the two siblings can't afford to enter. A clown offers the children tickets if they beat him in a dice game. After beating him, the clown says there is only one ticket left, so Tim lets his sister go in. After the show, Tim goes to pick up his sister, and is greeted by Mr. Magic, who has kidnapped her. Tim then enters the circus to try and rescue his sister.

In the Japanese version, based on the anime Moeru! Oniisan Yukie has been kidnapped by Dra Gon, a dragon. It is up to Kenichi and his friends Hidou, Rocky, and Shiranui to save her. Many characters from the anime appear in the show, including Duck Nicholson, as well as the Narrator talking in the cutscenes.