Tap Tap Revolution for the iPhone/iPod Touch

Many of us have heard of the Dance Dance Revolution series of arcade games in which you jump about, wildly moving your feet to the beat of the music. The series went on to the console market allowing you to Dance Dance away in your living. And in many respects the instrumental-themed consoles games that have developed over the past few years (Guitar Hero, Rock Band) share the same game mechanics. What they all boil down to is hitting the right trigger at the right time, be that a footpad, a footpedal, or a fretbutton. Another quality they share is that they are all ridiculously addictive to play. And so it is with Tap Tap Revolution, the iPhone/iPod Touch game in which you match the beat of the song by touching the on-screen notes.

Tap Tap Revolution works like this; on-screen are three vertical bars. Along any one of these bars any number of beats flow downwards, depending on the song. Your task is to tap each beat as it passes over the final section at the bottom of the screen. Sounds easy, right? Hardly. Some of the more advanced songs have you frantically tapping about, forcing you to rethink your strategy. On top of that, there are different degrees of accuracy, each eliciting an on-screen remark, ranging from ‘You suck’ to ‘Sweet.’ The game tracks your score based on your accuracy and missed beats subtract from your overall score. Although you can note your score at the end of the song, there is no highscore feature which would be a nice addition.

One other issue with Tap Tap is that it requires a Wi-Fi connection in order to download the .tap files that act as the beat-maps for each song. So, if you aren’t in a Wi-Fi enabled area then the game can be very limited. Thankfully there is a work around, which requires downloading the .tap files onto your PC and transferring them manually to your iPod. You can find that work around here. That being said, Tap Tap Revolution is a highly addictive, and for the moment FREE, game for your iPhone/iPod Touch. And at that price you owe it to yourself to check this one out.