Let’s Tap Review for Nintendo Wii

Let’s Tap is something of a party game for the Wii. In it, small glowy stick figures compete in a virtual environment reminiscent of Tron. Control is almost entirely rhythm-based, and accomplished by setting the Wii remote facedown on a box and tapping the surface. This causes vibrations that the Wii remote can detect and respond to. That’s about all there is to it, at least at first sight. Once you have your Wii remote and a small box you are ready to compete in one of several game modes.

The first is called Tap Runner. One to four players can race each other to the end of an obstacle course. Quick, gentle taps cause your character to run, while a hard tap will make him jump. Obstacle courses are filled all kinds of…obstacles, quite frankly. Players will have to jump over hurdles, walk tightropes and such in order to reach the finish line. At last report there are about sixteen obstacle courses in the game.

Then there is Silent Blocks, which is reminiscent of Jenga in that the objective is not to let your tower fall as you are pulling out it’s blocks. Of this mode there are two game types: Unlimited and Alchemist. Unlimited is for an unlimited amount of players and simply involves the remote being passed back and forth as each person pulls out a tile until the tower finally keels over. In Alchemy, gameplay is more multiplayer focused and ech player must pull out certain tiles until you have three in a row of the same color, at which point the tiles disappear.

Thirdly, there’s Rhythm Tap, which is quite comparable to the rhythm game style of Dance Dance Revolution. In it, players tap to the rhythm of techno-style beats. Green, blue, and orange beats scroll across the screen, indicating light, medium, and hard taps.

And then there is Bubble Voyager, where the player controls a character in a spacesuit traversing outer space, sidescroller fashion. Gentle taps propel you forward and hard taps fire missiles for clearing obstacles out of your path.

Let’s Tap is slated for release this June 16th. While it may sound simple and uninteresting, it’s overall a very intriguing concept that may lead to other breakthroughs in the Wii’s motionsensing technology. Plus, it’s a lot more fun than you might think.