The Piano Star app is a very simple game with a lot of fun to it. You play as a pianist, and the object in life is to get as many notes as possible on the piano before time runs out. You can control your movements with the touch screen or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. The music sounds great and there are lots of different songs to listen to. It’s pretty easy to pick up and play, but there are some in-app purchases that I would not recommend for people who do not have a decent amount of disposable income.
A nice feature of the app is that you can record your performance and send it to friends so they can see how well you played. If you want to keep score then each note will add up into a number that represents you score. One thing I didn’t like was that you could only save one recording per song. It would be really cool if you could save multiple recordings (like saving high scores). There also wasn’t any way to delete your recorded performances. The best part about this game though is that you just need a free membership to download all of the songs.
Tap Music is a music matching game where you tap notes together to make chords. The chords are shown on the screen and they’re accompanied by an actual song from iTunes. They are arranged in order of difficulty, starting at beginner level and going to expert. Each song has 5 levels, which means you’ll probably start off at beginner and finish at expert. Once you beat a song, you can move onto the next level. When you play the song, you’ll hear the chord progression along with a little drum roll and background vocals. As you make more chords, the vocals will increase in volume and the drums will speed up. You’ll also get points based on how accurately you matched the chords.
When you first open the game, you’ll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID, but after that you don’t have to log in again unless you change your password. After you start playing, you’ll get three lives, which you lose when you fail a song. Each song contains 25 notes, so you will need to play all 25 notes within the allotted time in order to pass the song. You also earn points for every note that you correctly hit. The amount of points that you earn depends on the song difficulty and whether or not you use the in-game auto-play feature.
There are two main types of in-game purchases available in Tap Music. First, you can buy extra lives. Each additional life costs $0.99. Second, you can purchase the ability to play auto-play songs, which increases your chances of passing a song quickly. Auto-play songs cost $1.49. The in-app purchases work seamlessly with the iOS version of the game, meaning that you can access them even when you aren’t connected to the Internet.
My biggest complaint about the game is that the developers seem to be trying to rip users off. The first time that I played the game, I couldn’t figure out why my progress was being reset. It turns out that the developer had been “cleaning house” and deleting people’s saved games. They fixed the problem, but I found out later that I should have just paid the $2.99 to unlock auto-play. My second issue is that the developers charge 99 cents for a single life. That’s completely ridiculous. A life is something that you can easily come back to a few times throughout the day, so charging 99 cents for it seems like a waste.
If you love tapping notes together and making music, then Tap Music is definitely worth downloading. It’s a good value for what you get and there isn’t anything wrong with spending money on a game that you enjoy. Just be aware that there are some issues that I’ve discovered with the app that may cause you to question their business practices.
What we liked about Tap Music
– Fun gameplay
– High quality sound effects
– Lots of songs to choose from
– Great replay value
What we didn’t like about Tap Music
– Some of the in-app purchases feel a bit shady
– Can only save one recording per song
Final Thoughts
Tap Music seems like a great game, especially for beginners. The controls are intuitive and the music sounds great. The replay value is impressive and it’s definitely something that you can go back to over and over again. Unfortunately, there are some problems with how the developers handle their payments. The fact that you can only save one recording per song and that the developers charge 99 cents for a single life makes me wonder about their intentions. If you don’t mind those things though, then I highly recommend giving Tap Music a try.
