Who knew that throwing knives at a clown could be so much fun? Well, you don’t actually want to throw the knives at the clown, but rather the balloons scattered around the clown. Knife Toss puts unlimited knives in your hand with the ultimate goal of scoring as many points as possible by popping the balloons on the wheel. It’s surprisingly fun and truly addicting.

At first, the wheel spins very slowly, making it very easy to throw the knives at the board and pop the balloons. You use the accelerometer to aim the crosshairs and tap anywhere on the screen to fire. You have an unlimited supply of knives, but the clock is ticking. Each popped balloon will score you points. If you miss, there are no negative points, but you’ll lose your streak. If you miss and hit the clown, the clown’s life will start to decline. Hit the clown enough times or let the clock run down to zero, and the game will end.

In order to advance to the next level you need to pop all the balloons on the wheel. Each level gets progressively harder as the wheel spins faster and faster. The faster the wheel spins, the more difficult it is to hit the balloons. When the wheel is spinning fast you actually need to throw ahead of the balloon so the knife makes contact by the time it reaches the wheel. There are several “power ups” that help you along the way. At times, smaller targets will appear along the perimeter of the wheel that you can hit with your knives. These targets may add points to your score, add time to the clock, slow the wheel down or stop it completely for a short amount of time. There is also a target that, if hit, will bring up a bonus round with floating balloons filled with points, health packs and other helpful items.

For a game that requires such aiming precision, you’d hope that the accelerometer would be calibrated properly. Well, you’ll be happy to know that the accelerometer works very well in this game. However, there were times when I felt that the controls weren’t as precise as I wanted them to be. I noticed that, at times, it appeared that I hit a balloon, but the balloon didn’t pop. Sometimes you really have to hit the balloon dead on for it to burst.

The graphics, animations and sound effects in Knife Toss are all pretty basic. The visuals won’t wow you, but that’s not what makes this game great. The gameplay is really what will have you glued to your device. The controls are responsive, the animations are smooth, and the game itself is quite challenging. There are three difficulty levels to play through, and even the easy difficulty is pretty hard. This game will definitely appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers alike.

There are only a few features I’d like to see added to this game. First, there should definitely be some crazy clown music while you’re playing. Even though the sound effects are great, it really needs some music in the background. Second, it would be nice to have the background scenery change every now and then. In addition, there should be a variety of clowns to be strapped to the wheel. There are some great possibilities here and I can’t wait to see what the developer puts out in future updates. Knife Toss is absolutely one of the most unique and addicting games I’ve played in a while and I strongly recommend checking it out.

Visit Appolicious for more iPhone app reviews and articles.