Tap Tap Revenge

Tapulous released the original Tap Tap Revenge on the App Store on July 11, 2008, in the store’s first days, and it never received an Android version. The franchise only reached Android in 2011 with Tap Tap Revenge 4, published after Disney had bought Tapulous. So this page carries no Android package for the original game, because Tapulous never put out an official one.

What Is Tap Tap Revenge

It is a free rhythm game modeled on Dance Dance Revolution, scaled down for a touchscreen. Colored balls slide down lanes toward a line at the bottom, and you tap each one on the beat. Some notes are shakes, which ask you to move the phone left, right or backward, and shaking also triggers Revenge mode. Single-player and multiplayer were both included, and downloadable tracks from real artists kept the song list fresh.

Because the base game cost nothing and songs could be added later, Tap Tap Revenge also worked as a way to discover music, and artist tie-ins became a regular part of the series. Difficulty grew with each track, so the same song could be an easy warm-up for a new player and a serious test for someone chasing a perfect score.

Tap Tap Revenge Started As A Jailbreak Game

Before Apple allowed third-party apps, Nate True created Tap Tap Revolution for jailbroken iPhones in September 2007. When the official App Store launched, the renamed Tap Tap Revenge was ready, and it took off immediately with close to a million downloads in its first 20 days. Apple later reported it as the second most downloaded free app of 2008 and the most downloaded free game of the year. Designers Louie Mantia and Tino Bedi worked on the game alongside True.

Sequels, Spin-Offs And Disney

Tapulous turned the first hit into a franchise quickly, with at least 23 Tap Tap games in the end:

• Tap Tap Revenge 2 in March 2009
• Tap Tap Revenge 3 in October 2009
• Tap Tap Revenge 4 on iOS in December 2010
• Artist editions such as Nine Inch Nails Revenge and Born This Way Revenge

Disney acquired Tapulous in 2010, and the series moved under Disney Mobile. By then the franchise had around 50 million downloads on iOS.

How Android Finally Got Tap Tap Revenge 4

Tap Tap Revenge 4 arrived on Android on March 30, 2011, as the franchise’s first Android appearance. Disney tied its launch to the arrival of in-app billing on the Android Market, and the developers reportedly needed just five days to add the new payment code. Android players never received the original 2008 game or its first two sequels, though, so anyone remembering Tap Tap Revenge on an Android phone is almost certainly remembering the fourth game.

Why The Tap Tap Series Shut Down

In February 2014, after Tapulous chief executive Bart Decrem stepped down the month before, the studio announced the end of the franchise on the game’s Facebook page. It said it no longer made sense to maintain the games in a changing mobile and music market. The games were pulled from sale, servers shut down in early February, and players kept only the songs already on their devices. The Android version of Tap Tap Revenge 4 ended at the same time.

What Players Remember Most

Ask early iPhone owners about their first games and Tap Tap Revenge comes up again and again, mostly for the shared music: friends competing on the same tracks and the steady stream of new songs. Its influence shows in the many tap rhythm games that followed on both iOS and Android.