Review: Tip Tap Radiation

08 Jun 2010 | Games | Angela Topchu on Google+

Tap Tap Radiation, created by Tapulous, delivers their successful Tap Tap franchise to the iPad. If you have ever played any of the Tap Tap game titles on the iPhone you will feel right at home. The new version for the iPad takes full advantage of the larger screen’s enhanced resolution. When you first launch the game, you are asked to complete a profile. If you have already played a Tap Tap game for iPad before you can use the same username to log in.

Home screen

On the home screen you will notice three selections to choose from: New Game, Freestyle, and Store. On the upper right there is an options menu to keep track of your purchased tracks and you can also edit your profile. On the bottom of the home screen you will notice a running ticker called LIVE. It changes frequently to alert you of Tap Tap gaming news and recently added tracks to purchase from the store. I didn’t notice this until later, but the home screen actually interacts according to touch. If you scroll your fingers across the screen it radiates different colors and plays a chiming type of sound (seen in picture above).

Game play

After selecting new game, there are five free tracks to choose from: Datarock: The Pretender, Richard Vission & Static Revenger: I like that, Mos Def: Quiet Dog, Serge Devant: 12 Wives in Tehran, and The Features: Lions. To select an artist just tap on the album cover and you can choose from four levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme. The objective of the game is to tap the glowing orbs with correct timing. Each unsuccessful tap results in a red glow indicating they were off beat. There is a meter of the right side of the screen which alerts you if you’re tapping too early or late.

The more successful consecutive taps in a row will result in a longer streak. You will be awarded a bonus, the longer you go without making a mistake. On the top of the screen there is a streak counter, and an accuracy meter. The left side of the screen has a Multiplier indicator, as your streak increases, multiple points are awarded. For example, 2x means double the points. As you collect bonus points the background will change colors showing off the iPad’s screen.

When you’re finished, a game stats menu will indicate: the total points achieved during game play, your tap accuracy, and longest streak. If you swipe to the right, you can view current high scores and global leaderboards.

Freestyle

If you want to practice, Freestyle is a great way to start. When you choose Freestyle, you can select any of the same albums as in game mode. Freestyle is stripped of the difficulty levels. There are no penalties so mistakes don’t count. Bonus points are still awarded during freestyle mode.

Store

In the store you can buy and download additional song tracks for the game. When I first logged in, the store was offering 30 Free iPad tracks to download. After downloading the tracks, I noticed each one varied in difficulty level. A few tracks were level medium while a few were extreme. Additional tracks can be purchased directly from the store as an in app purchase. I checked over three artists and the standard seems to be a six pack of tracks for $2.99.