Tiamatini

I bought Tap Tap Revenge 3 yesterday for the bargain price of $0.99 – I hasten to add that I have since paid $2.99 for a bundle of sings, but that’s a whole different matter, and not really necessary unless you have a particularly strong desire to play along to some of your favourite songs rather than just the free tracks available.

Essentially the game is, quite clearly, an adaptation of Guitar Hero or Rock Band for the iPhone, and despite the intense pain that developed from hovering my hand over my phone, it really is damn good fun!  For those unfamiliar with the concept, you have to hit the coloured platforms at the end of the runway as the coloured balls land on them, and at times it’s not quite as easy as it may seem.  It had been a while since I’d played a rhythm game, so initially I was slightly foxed by the easy tracks, panicking when more than one ball rolled down at once and just frantically hitting everything in sight until the frenzy passed, however, once I regained my composure I realised that the easy ones are just that, a little easy and lacking in challenge and have since tried my hand at some of the medium and hard tracks available.  Despite having studied music to quite a high level, and having a pretty good sense of rhythm, there are still times when the hard tracks frustrate me and I can’t quite get the rhythm right – it’s the syncopated ones that get me, I always forget about the off-beat, and frankly if I’m not getting 100% hits I’m just not satisfied, but that’s a personal thing, and by no means essential for getting on with the game.

You begin by choosing an avatar, and as you earn coins (which you do by completing tracks) you can buy new things for your avatar in the Tap Tap Store, including instruments if you have a mammoth number of coins available.  There are a few songs already installed with the game, and you can go to the Tap Tap Store to get some more.  There are over 100 free songs available to download, and you can download bundles based on difficulty too if you’re not that fussy about who the artist are.  There is also a free ‘featured track’ available for download each week, which tends to be something a little more famous (and consequently perhaps, more desirable) than the other free tracks available.  If you are willing to spend your hard earned cash there are also better known and more varied track bundles available for purchase – from The Killers, to Lady GaGa, to the Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Metallica, and many more.  So there is plenty of variety there to keep you busy.

There is also the option of playing online or 2-player, though unfortunately I’ve not had the chance to sample either of those options yet, but anything that allows for you to challenge your friends has got to be a good thing!  As far as I’m aware TTR3 is still retailing at only 99c, and to be honest, it is well worth it.  There is no need to purchase any extra music if you don’t want to, and there’s a huge range of styles and artists available.  All in all, it’s been another successful purchase, and yet another I’d highly recommend to anyone who feels that they don’t quite have enough icons to scroll through on their phone just yet…