For fans of casual shooter games and displaced carnies who enjoy clowning around, Knife Toss by Crawlspace Games and Elevate Entertainment could hit the mark as the next game in your iPhone or iPod touch arsenal to combat boredom.
Knife Toss is a target shooting game that features a clown strapped to a spinning wheel and balloons as the target. With tilt-to-aim and tap-to-throw controls, this game is about as casual as a pick up and play game can be.
Knife Toss features three different difficulty levels, which not only step up the challenge, but also unlock new weapons to move players from knife tossing to axe throwing. Pity the clown, because as the levels advance the wheel spins a bit faster. If you’re quick enough and paying attention, there are bonus targets that will temporarily slow the wheel, stop the wheel all together, or at least double your points. If you truly like the spinning clown, be wary of the rabbit target, which speeds things up a bit.
The controls in Knife Toss are pretty simple to get the hang of, but still a challenge nonetheless. You simply tilt your device until the crosshairs are over your balloon target and then tap. You don’t need to keep the crosshairs over the target until the target is hit, just have good aim when you tap to throw your weapon. Sadly, there is a bit of lag from time to time that causes a seemingly good aim to go astray, but the game is pretty stable for the most part.
There is an in-game pause button that gives you access to the options menu as well as allows you to restart a level, but no auto-save feature. This is possibly the game’s biggest downside because if you exit the game mid-level, you have to start all over again. This is particularly frustrating since you have to unlock the additional difficulty levels by completing all the levels on easy first. On the plus side, Knife Toss is colorfully animated and has some amusing sound effects accompanying it.
Knife Toss is right on target, no pun intended, for its .99 asking price and delivers decency as a fun, casual shooter by incorporating simple aim and fire controls combined with an amusing and casual premise. There’s no gore involved if you hit the clown, just an “ouch” icon, making it acceptable and humorous for kids to play, too.
