Tap Tap Revenge

Tap Tap Revenge, also known as Tap Tap Revenge Classic was a music game created by Nate True, and developed and published by Tapulous for the iOS in July 2008. It is the first game in Tapulous' Tap Tap series. Development for the game began prior to the release of the iPhone SDK, and was originally entitled Tap Tap Revolution. The goal of the game is to tap each of the colored balls when they reach a line at the bottom of the screen. If the ball is hit on the beat, the player gains points, but if not, it counts as a miss. There are also "shakes", which require the player to move the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (although the game was designed for the former two) to the right, left, or middle.

The game's reception was generally positive, and it became the most downloaded free game of the App Store for 2008.

The game was followed by Tap Tap Revenge 2, Tap Tap Revenge 3 and Tap Tap Revenge 4.

Via a post on their Facebook page, as of January 2014 the game has been removed from the App Store by owner Disney and it no longer plans to support the game.^[1]

Gameplay

The game was modeled after Konami's popular Dance Dance Revolution series gameplay. Players use their fingers to tap colored balls when they reach the bottom of the screen. The goal is to hit the balls at the correct time (as dictated by the beat of the song), and thus gain points. "Shakes", represented as on-screen arrows follow the same pattern as the colored balls, but player input is recognized from a physical shake of the device in the proper direction (right, left, or back). Following the end of a song, the point scores is recorded by the game, and the user has the ability to upload and compare their score online with other players.

A combination of correct touches by the player results in extra points, and after a certain point, a "Revenge mode" is available for use. The player must physically shake the device to activate the mode.

The game features both single-player and multiplayer modes, whereas both modes are only accessible via the same physical device. While the game initially features one set of playable songs, more songs can be downloaded from within the game. The game features four difficulty levels, and most songs are available for specifically one difficulty level.

On the February 5th, 2014, the Tap Tap Revenge franchise came to a halt, with the servers down, and all the Tap Tap Revenge games can no longer be downloaded on the app store.

Development and history

On September 11, 2007 Nate True released Tap Tap Revolution (named after, and based on, the popular music game series Dance Dance Revolution) for iOS via his personal blog.^[2] The game pre-dated the release of the iOS SDK, and players were required to jailbreak their iPhone to play the game. The game had been developed by True within a two-day time span. Soon after that release came a new user interface from Tino Bedi (Doc).^[3] and the ability to play songs from your iTunes library and share tap tracks in the cloud. It soon became one of the most popular games for jailbroken iPhones, and received media attention.^[4][5][6]

On July 8, 2008, True announced that the game would be released in the App Store at launch as a revamped game under the Tap Tap Revenge name.^[7] He also announced that the game had been bought by startup company Tapulous, and that he was hired as a developer. After the release of the sequel, Tap Tap Revenge 2, Tapulous re-released the title as Tap Tap Revenge Classic. It appears that Tap Tap Revenge Classic is no longer available.

Soundtrack

Tap Tap Revenge features a mix of both major and independent musicians. Some songs have been specifically written for the game, but most were written independently. Most songs are available in only one playable mode, but some have more than one version playable for multiple difficulty modes. Prior to the release of the sequel Tap Tap Revenge 2, new songs were typically released for download through the game on Thursdays, and the event was dubbed "Tap Tap Thursdays" by Tapulous.^[8] Although Tap Tap Thursdays still existed after the sequels of Tap Tap Revenge were released, new songs are only released for the latest flagship game. Below is a list of songs available for the game:

Easy mode

Medium mode

Hard mode

Extreme mode

Tap Tap Thursday Tracks

Artist	Song title	Easy	Medium	Hard	Extreme
Wexin	"Inside Out"	N	Y	N	N
GeC	"Grease Walk"	N	N	Y	N
Kew	"Dark Liqour"	Y	N	N	N
DJ 4Mile	"Canonfire"	N	N	N	Y
Florent LeLong	"Showtime"	Y	N	N	N
Becca	"Sad But True"	N	Y	N	N
Synthetic Sinergy	"Pure Dream"	N	N	Y	N
DJad	"Our Phoenix"	N	N	N	Y

Reception

By July 31, 2008, 20 days after its initial release, the game approached 1 million downloads. The total installed iPhone OS 2.0 user base was 5-6 million.^[11] Tapulous also announced that they were in talks with Indie and major musicians to release purchasable sequels for the game. In December, Apple announced that the game was the second-most downloaded free application of the year from their App Store, and the most downloaded free game.^[12] In April 2009, internet marketing research company comScore announced the results of a study which claimed 1 in 3 U.S. iPhone OS users had downloaded the game, and that it was the most popular application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.^[13]

As part of the 2nd generation iPod touch advertising campaign, Apple featured Tap Tap Revenge in print and television ads with the headline "The funnest iPod ever.".^[14][15]

The game spawned three direct sequels, Tap Tap Revenge 2, Tap Tap Revenge 3, and Tap Tap Revenge 4, as well as a set of spin-offs and artist-centric video games. The digital distribution of the Tap Tap series has made it among the best-selling video game franchises of all time with over 15 million combined downloads.^[16]

References

External links

• Tapulous official site
  • Tap Tap Revenge profile
• Tap Tap Revenge App Store profile