Pitch 'N' Toss Review

There's an old coin game where the object is to toss a coin towards a wall getting it as close to the wall as possible without touching it. Pitch 'N' Toss is what that game would look like if it were created by some fiendish carny with a penchant for neon colors, woodworking, and pinball machines.

The goal of Pitch 'N' Toss is to flick a coin and get it as close to the stage's far wall as possible. Here, touching the wall is allowed and is actually awarded the highest score. To accomplish this, players must deftly flick their coins and get them through various obstacles including hoops, force fields, and goo traps. There are also several aides like cannons, flippers, bounce pads, and shortcut tubes to help players guide their coins to the wall. While it is almost always possible to just toss a coin over all of a stage's obstacles without any help, more points are awarded for using these aides.

Once each coin comes to rest a score is awarded based on how far away from the wall it rests. Players receive three coins each round and must attain a certain score level with those three coins before progressing to the next stage. The score levels needed to advance are easy to miss, though, because they only show up briefly towards the bottom of the screen at the start of each round.

The frenzied pinball-like action of ricocheting coins off of obstacles and shooting them out of cannons is a great deal of fun, when it works. The problem with Pitch 'N' Toss lies in the unpredictability of the game's physics. Trying to gauge how far and high each flick will send a coin is almost impossible and getting a toss just right seems to require more luck than anything else. With a little practice this becomes easier, but precision is not this game's strong suit.

The stages are creative and well designed and they provide some entertaining moments. In fact, the game could be quite addictive if it weren't for the frustration of fighting against wild tosses. This is a game best played in small doses. For a bit of extra value, Pitch 'N' Toss also includes a versus mode where players compete by passing the device. Just be sure that everyone playing is well in control of their tempers or this game might send them into a rage.