Knife Toss Review

Who knew throwing knives at clowns could be so much fun! Well that’s what you get here in Knife Toss, another unique and addictive game by the cool folks over at Crawl Space Games. Your job is to hit the balloons surrounding the clown by throwing knives at them but does Knife Toss hit its targets? Or miss them completely?

Story
Well let’s just say that there really isn’t a story here but then again some of the best games don’t have a story at all and make up for the lack of it through gameplay which Knife Toss brings a lot of. But if I had to guess, I’d say that either you are entertaining a crowd of some sort or just injecting fear into the clown by narrowly missing his body with knives.

Gameplay
Gameplay is definitely what makes Knife Toss as you are basically throwing knives at a clown strapped down to a spinning wheel, but don’t let this discourage you as you’re not actually meant to aim for the clown but the balloons surrounding it. You tilt the IPhone to control the onscreen cursor and tap the screen to throw the knives. It’s a nice touch; the cursor’s movement is really smooth so it’ll take more than a little skill to hit the targets.

Before you start throwing knives like crazy! You should calibrate your cursor 1st.

It’s not as easy as that though as you are on a time limit, so you have to hit all those balloons before the time runs out but do not despair because kindly enough power ups and such have been added to aid you in your balloon popping venture. These power ups vary from slowing down the wheel to increasing the amount of time you have left but be careful as some of them can work against you. It’s a good addition to the gameplay because it almost adds a risk; do you focus your efforts on the power up that can help you? Or just make sure you get all the balloons instead. Also the fact that a power up that would make you loses could appear.

Another factor that makes Knife Toss even more difficult is the fact that the clown has his own life bar. The life bar drops every time you happen to “accidently” hit the clown and once it hits the bottom, it shows the game over screen with the clown being carried off in an ambulance. I like how difficult the game is however to casual players, they may find this a turn off as I found out that even playing on the easy difficulty can prove quite a challenge.

The main game in Knife Toss. Here you hit the balloons using the onscreen cursor to aim

Once you hit all the balloons, you advance to the next level and so forth going through the easy, medium and hard difficulty levels. The only problem with this is that there is no way to save your game if you exit the app, so expect to be starting from the beginning if you come back again.

Graphics
Knife Toss uses bold, 2d graphics to bring the knife tossing fun to you. I like how the graphics represent the circus, from the opening curtains before a round to the bullseye on the spinning wheel. It’s an eye catching look that isn’t too straining on the eyes, yet stands out really well.

The graphics also work in the sense that the game is meant for all ages too, since the name ‘Knife Toss’ doesn’t sound too child friendly, however after checking out the graphics its portrays a light theme meant more for comedy rather than darker purposes.

The clown after receiving too many knives. Bold and bright colours makes the situation more comical then serious.

Final Verdict
Knife Toss proves to challenge any type of gamer through its high paced levels and difficulty. However where it does lack in justifying why the a clown is strapped down to a spinning wheel, it’s graphics give it a colourful look and make it accessible for all ages.

Story = 4/10
Gameplay = 8.5/10
Graphics = 8/10

Final We Know Gamers score = 6.8/10