Game News The value of this video game rose from $3,800 to $50 in just a few days and the reason for this is hard to believe
Contrary to what the release date of the title we are going to talk about might suggest, this is no joke. This software published by the Uni Post Company was launched on PC Engine in the first week of April 1991 and had a fate that was hard to imagine. From an insignificant puzzle platformer, it became the most sought-after game on the console developed by NEC, before its rating lost 98% of its value in the blink of an eye. Welcome to the incredible circus of Circus Lido.
The ghost game with its deafening rattling
Nothing predestined Circus Lido to make headlines in newspapers and specialist pages. To be honest, this game, heavily inspired by Bubble Bobble, should normally have ended its life far from the limelight after releasing an overall forgettable performance.. This puzzle platformer challenges you to use the tongue of the hero – a chameleon – to devour your opponents and then spit them out into the mouths of voracious plants. Its tail, in turn, allows it to reach elevated places, since the little animal cannot jump. Once the carnivorous flora is satiated, a door opens to the next level. As the player progresses, the challenge increases with the addition of removable decorations, vicious bosses or even colored balls used to grab or fill holes respectively.
Circus Lido did not stand out for its gameplay, which was already outdated for the time, nor for its passable, if colorful, graphics. If we heard about it in the early 1990s, it was precisely because nobody mentioned it. Paradoxical, isn’t it? The specialized magazines of the time ignored it, while the few players who were informed of its arrival could not buy it in their usual stores. Circus Lido seems to be a ghost game. However, examples circulate in nature. The years go by and the price of starting the Uni Post Company rises without ever falling, quite unlike the chameleon that acts as the hero of his game. Its rarity is so great that some experts believe it was never officially released commercially. The truth is even more ridiculous.
The Ghost of the Librarian
At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, the ratings for Circus Lido reached absurd heights. The game was almost impossible to find at the time of its release, was produced by a small publisher that probably didn’t design many copies, and made headlines. In Japan, the few copies that are on sale cost several hundred thousand yen, while in France we find that they cost several hundred thousand yen credentials evokes the proud sum of 30,000 francs (more than 4,600 dollars). In No. 16 of Oubliés de la playhistoire, Florent Gorges explains that in 2000 a buyer spent 400,000 yen (or just over 3,800 dollars) to get his hands on this coveted jewel. “A record at the time” he adds.
There is a strange reason why Circus Lido is so rare. The game wasn’t actually sold in regular stores, but it was distributed anyway… in small quantities, in hand-picked Japanese bookstores! At this point in your reading, you’re probably wondering why a company would sell video games in stores that also sell books. That’s a great question that doesn’t yet have an official answer. Some enthusiasts I believe this is a backdoor scheme to get people talking about the game and exploit the fear of scarcity. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that inside the game’s pretty box we find a numbered card with the caption “”.User card“. Other experts Instead, rely on the incompetence of Uni Post Company, a small publisher who probably thought their game was for children, and children liked to go to bookstores with their parents. It wasn’t until 2000 – almost ten years after Circus Lido was first released – that collectors discovered this strange decision that changed everything.
Amazonian Legend
The Circus Lido was sold at auction in early 2000 for 400,000 yen because it was so hard to find. Now it’s making a comeback: more and more cartridges are appearing on online resale sites. Logically, prices are melting like snow in the sun… 200,000 yen, 100,000 yen, something is happening. In early 2001, it was a mysterious Internet user who revealed the story : After discovering an old advertisement for the game, which stated that the software would be distributed in bookstores, he discovered that there was still a huge stock of Circus Lido on Amazon.jp… in the “Books“, and not in the “Video games”! A nuance that is important.
The supposedly rarest PC Engine game, sold second-hand for 400,000 yen (3,800 dollars) in the early 2000s, was actually available new for years at a price of 5,243 yen (50 dollars) on one of the most famous landmarks in the world! The absurd information starts circulating everywhere. Amazon.jp is robbedso much so that in early 2001 Circus Lido invited bestseller the famous site. Yes, ten years after its release! Today, Circus Lido, which has not only become famous for its improbable story but has also become rare again, is sold in its boxed version for around 200 dollars. As for Uni Post, the company will not be able to release its other game, Dino Force, a side-scrolling space shooter in the style of R-Type. Unless it was secretly marketed on the shelves.”Toys“from Intermarché…
