Update
8/28/08 -
Tap Tap Revenge v1.2 released.
Overview
From the iTunes' page: "Tap Tap Revenge is a music game that puts your rhythmic skills to the test in all-new ways. Tap through the beats or shake left and right as the arrows fall. Download exclusive tracks or take on your friends in Tap Tap's unique two player mode."
Gameplay
There are two possibilities here, and they say a lot about you as an iPhone user.
If you have or had the original iPhone, take a bow. And if you unlocked your iPhone and downloaded unauthorized apps, take another. In that case, you may have played Tap Tap Revolution, the precursor to Revenge, and if so, the gameplay is no big surprise.
If you followed Steve Jobs' directives and didn't hack your original iPhone, or you're just entering the iPhone universe with your new 3G phone, don't worry; if you've played Guitar Hero, or at least have working fingers, you can enjoy Tap Tap Revenge, too. As the number one app at the iTunes store, plenty of you certainly already have.
Entering the game, you can choose one player, two player, tutorial (don't bother, it's pretty self explanatory, and anyways, that's what I'm here for), Download More Tracks (a brand new feature just added to v1.1) and Options. The Option Menu allows you to turn off shakes (more on that in a moment) and to create a Tap Tap profile, for registering your scores online.
The game plays much like Guitar Hero, if you were looking at and shaking a 2"-by-3" television screen, and playing a three string guitar.
The Basics
- There are four levels of play: easy, normal, hard and extreme, none of which are particularly difficult. But at the same time, even easy isn't boringly simple.
- As expected, as you increase in difficulty, there are more balls, and they come at you faster. Yeah, I said it.
- Colored balls travel down the strings as a song plays, and it's up to you to touch the base of the correct string when the balls are about to hit the bottom.
- At the start of the second level, in addition to touching the colored balls, arrows are sent down the string, indicating the direction you must shake the iPhone when the arrows hit the base.
- In the two player game, players hold either end of the iPhone and wait for the balls to come down in diagonal lines. By doing it this way, it's surprisingly undistracting to play along with someone, so long as you're willing to stand inches away from their face as you both look down on the screen. That might be the only uncomfortable aspect, I think, though it may keep you from playing with people you might normally play Guitar Hero with (see: your frat brother, little brother or roommate, all day every day because you have no job).
Review
There are a lot of things to like here, as well as a few weaknesses that keep it from being an especially killer app. It's a fun game, not too difficult like many mobile games, but not too easy, either. You can definitely lose yourself in it for a while at a time, moving up to the next level and continuing to challenge yourself to hit those light orbs faster and faster.
The main problem with Tap Tap Revenge is the musical aspect. Each level has, at most, two songs, and often those songs are repeats. There are only four songs in the initial game, and only one avaiable as an extra download per difficulty level. And, without the money to acquire the rights of any well known songs, the developers decided to go with electronic and disco, a cheap but perhaps questionable decision given their target audience.
In addition, whereas in Guitar Hero, you can only hear the song so long as you hit the right notes, there is no musical consequence; the song plays regardless of how many notes you miss. That, along with the difficulty you often have seeing what's next on the screen after you shake it, makes it tough sometimes to gauge just how well you're rocking out.
Summary
- A familiar friend to fans of Guitar Hero, with ramped down but similarly addicting gameplay
- Musically leaves something to be desired, but a good start
- Multiplayer a nice, if not potentially awkward (or romantic?) bonus
