Tapulous launches Tap Tap Revenge 2 for iPhone
150 songs and new connected features
It might've been free, but music game Tap Tap Revenge was a genuine trailblazer on iPhone for both technological and business-model reasons.
Now its developer Tapulous has launched the sequel, Tap Tap Revenge 2. It's still free, but uses the new game engine first seen in spin-off premium games Tap Tap Dance and Christmas with Weezer.
There are 150 tracks available to 'download' to play in-game - effectively they stream into the game to get around Apple's restrictions on content downloads in iPhone apps.
The best-known artists are Death Cab for Cutie and The Crystal Method, with the latter debuting a track from their next album, which is out later this year.
Tapulous has label deals with INgrooves, DashGo, Vagrant Records, Primary Wave, Quango, 10th Street Entertainment, Photofinish Records, and Downtown Music.
There are no major labels on that list, though, even though Tapulous offered tracks from EMI artists like Katy Perry in the original Tap Tap Revenge.
The game also has new social features, including online rankings, networked multiplayer, and a challenge mode where players email their score on a certain song to friends to see if they can beat it.
Tap Tap Revenge 2 will also let players embed widgets with their in-game achievements on their blogs or social networking profiles.
It's still hugely innovative, then. The question will be how the business model stacks up, and whether Tapulous can secure more exclusives with famous bands as it has done in the past.
