Dave Matthews Band Revenge, a music-tapping game from Tapulous based on music and artwork from the popular jam band, is available from the app store. The laid-back styling of one of America’s premier groups is a terrific fit for the iDevice, offering great visuals, stellar tracks, and the enjoyable gameplay we’ve all come to love and expect from Tapulous games.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Tap Tap Revenge series, you’ve likely been living under a rock for several years now or you were born yesterday. In either case, welcome to our world. We’ve got comfortable beds, warm towels, and Dave Matthews Band tunes for you to tap your fingers along with the groove. The concept is simple: dots stream down your screen. As they reach a certain point along the screen bottom, you must tap them to keep the rhythm and score points. Tap a bunch consecutively without messing up and earn multiplier bonuses. The goal is to get the highest score possible by hitting all of the notes and utilizing the multipliers and bonuses. There are 5 difficulty levels with unlockable boss tracks at the end of each level. The easiest levels are mostly centered around single-finger taps and don’t utilize the full spectrum of the music. Harder levels will incorporate multiple-finger taps mixed with singles to try to confuse you. Dots appear more frequently, and your fingers rarely get a rest. It can get pretty crazy and intense at times, but it’s all in good fun.
Many of their best-known works are included in the game, such as Ants Marching, Two Step, Crash Into Me, Tripping Billies, Everyday, and two new tracks from their upcoming album. There are 10 in all, spanning from their early days to the present. The background artwork is based on CD covers, adding a recognizable touch of flair for fans who remember when the only way to get their music was on CD. The music sounds superb, crisp, and clean. The controls use a mix of tapping and tilt-based gameplay. Dots must be tapped or held if there is a trail. When arrows appear, shake your device in the direction of the arrow when the icon reaches the screen bottom to keep your consecutive note streak alive. There is an option to turn off this aspect of the game.
There is a multiplayer mode, a DMB news feed built into the game, and Facebook connectivity to post your high scores for all of your friends to see. Replay value is great, as you can always improve your scores, and it gives you something else to do while chilling with the music. We’d love to see an update that adds a couple more tracks, as there are a few favs that we’d love to tap along to, but the chosen few are a nice selection nonetheless. Given the premium nature of the band and game, Dave Matthews Band Revenge commands a premium price of $4.99, on par with other band-themed games like Metallica Revenge, Lady GaGa Revenge, and Coldplay Revenge. Tapulous continues to release quality 5-Dimple games, and Dave Matthews Band Revenge is no exception.
Dave Matthews Band Revenge gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
