497th played so far
Genre: Music
Platform: Wii
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Prope
Publisher: Sega
The biggest game in our big box of games to play has been Let’s Tap for a while now. Rather than coming in a standard DVD or CD case, or something else of that size, it comes in a bigger, double sized cardboard box. This is because you need a box to play the game properly, and the European version gives you one.
It’s a game I wanted to get out of the list for that reason alone, but it would be nice to get a music game in as well, and this is just weirdly instrument focused enough for today.
Our Thoughts
Let’s Tap is really a collection of minigames that use tapping as the control mechanism. Tap to make a character run, with harder taps causing a jump, or tap along to the music, Guitar Hero style. They’re pretty good fun, simple in how colourful they are, and as an exploration of an unconventional mechanism, the game is pretty smart. It’s fun to play – not high praise exactly, but I can see why its interesting aspects put it on the list.
My favourite minigame actually didn’t do as much with rhythm, and far more with controlled taps. The idea is simple, somewhat like Jenga. You have a stack of discs and select one that you need to slowly pull out, the other blocks shifting in response. Fast taps take the block out faster, but shift the tower more than gentle taps that slowly remove the block. Getting your angle right and picking the right block isn’t a really tap based challenge (and uses a ‘wait for the right moment’ spinner style thing to control), but the pulling feels satisfyingly visceral.
It’s not a game that will lose you hours of your life – the different modes have enough options that they’ll keep you going for a while, but the game feels like it works best in smaller chunks, before your fingers get exhausted and your tap strength feels off. For those chunks, with the small setup it really requires (any right surface that vibrates will do) it’s a good game to pull out occasionally.
Final Thoughts
Let’s Tap is a great collection of minigames that shows how effortlessly you can make the different control system work. It’s not great for menus, selections or the like – mostly using taps and double taps – but once you’re in the game it feels natural, a far nicer way of controlling games than the usual alternate button presses, even if that’s all you’re actually doing in the game. Let’s bring this in for all those Olympics sports games, yeah?