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Let's prepare to tap with new music
Some of you may disagree with our enjoyment of the Let's Tap soundtrack, but we're of the opinion that Prope's percussive minigame collection features music that even penguins could tap their feet to. These Let's Tap "Rhythm Tap" mode videos are presented as "Rhythm Tap Training" on the website, because you can use them to practice for the actual game! You don't actually touch the Wiimote while playing the real thing, so you can basically play along by watching the video and tapping yourself. You'll just have to measure your own progress. Or you could just enjoy the song, "Milky Way Rendezvous."The same area of the website in which you can find these videos (fifth link from the left in the top navigation bar) features new wallpaper of the various vizualizers from the game. %Gallery-33707%[Via Gamekyo]
Everyone can tap, even you
The ads for Let's Tap seem designed with one objective in mind: convincing us that anyone and everyone can get into the game. You too can tap like a champion, and all with a smile on your face and epic music in the background (provided you're a spiffy, cheerful Japanese person). This latest commercial manages to pack a surprising amount of that anyone-goes attitude into only fourteen seconds of video, and even if you're not impressed with the game, you should at least admire that sort of effort.%Gallery-33707%
Let's Tap this year
This Japanese TV commercial for Prope's Let's Tap just popped up on YouTube. While it contains no notable new footage, we do like the use of the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme, which suggests something EPIC and MONUMENTAL is coming, before you realize that no, it's just a really fun-looking, stylish minigame collection. And a free box. Which is more than good enough for us! Oh, and there's a release date squeezed in there, at least for Japan: December 18th.Past the break, we've posted footage of the game's practice mode -- ideal for starting your tap training early!%Gallery-33707%
Let's Tap with actors pretending to be a family
Although it doesn't take much to explain Prope's minimalist Let's Tap, Sega sent out this promotional video demonstrating its gameplay. This clip highlights the Rhythm Tapping, Tap Runner, and Visualizer modes, offering brief glimpses of other modes, including what appears to be a tapping-based shmup. The overall message, delivered by a family playing together, is that it's quite possible for people of pretty much any age to enjoy Let's Tap together, which is, of course, the goal of many Wii games. Few other Wii games manage such a cool and futuristic look, or such a genuinely unique and interesting input method. Apparently the family in the video enjoys Let's Tap so much that they purchased two copies, because the game only comes with two of those fancy boxes!%Gallery-33707%
Let's Tap to the rhythm
Let's Tap may be most widely known for its wacky input method (see: the title), but the more we see of it, the more we realize that its brilliant music is the true draw, and that the tapping is great mostly because it allows us to interact with that music.These three videos feature Let's Tap's "Rhythm Tap" mode, a Taiko no Tatsujin/Donkey Konga-style rhythm game played with the high-tech "cardboard box" peripheral. This mode would probably be an entertaining diversion at best if not for the fact that the songs featured in those videos are awesome. Of course, one of them is the Let's Tap theme, which we already love. %Gallery-33707%
Monster Hunter 3, two Sega games honored by TGS organizers
CESA announced their list of the best games of TGS 2008, known as the "Future" category of their Japan Game Awards. Of the twelve games given the award (in no specific order), three are on Wii. Of course Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 got a nod; nothing short of not calling it Monster Hunter 3 will keep this from being a ridiculous hit in Japan, and that held true at TGS as well, with the game commanding ridiculous lines. But the two other Wii winners may be more of a surprise: Chunsoft's Sega-published visual novel 428: The World Doesn't Change Even So, and Prope's experimental Let's Tap. Sega must be very happy right about now!For the sake of Nintendo fandom, we'll include the DS winners here as well: the Phoenix Wright spinoff Gyakuten Kenji and Dragon Quest IX, which wasn't even playable.%Gallery-27138%[Via Kotaku]
TGS 08: Let's write an article about Let's Tap
If you've ever drummed your fingers on a table, whether in a physical display of impatience (where is that waiter?) or an attempt to capture an elusive beat, you'll probably be able to understand where Let's Tap is coming from. Specifically, it's coming from Sonic creator Yuji Naka's post-Sega studio, Prope, and hopes to win gamers (and their moms) over through sheer simplicity. Let's Face It: games don't get much simpler than tapping on a cardboard box.Evaluated as a typical Wii game, Let's Tap does little to distance itself from the cavalcade of effervescent minigames swarming the system. But as an experiment in using the Wiimote differently -- that is, to not use it at all -- it certainly warrants further attention. As it requires the Wii controller to be placed on a flat surface, face down and buttons obscured, Let's Tap is a game we can see ourselves introducing to those wracked by a morbid fear of buttons and flailing.%Gallery-33341%
Let's have fun with Let's Tap
We're just gonna lay it out there: Let's Tap looks more like Let's Be Completely Freakin' Awesome (And Take That, Guitar Hero). The game debuted amidst excitement about Sin & Punishment 2 and Punch-Out!!, and so didn't get quite the attention it deserved. You wouldn't think it could then stand out at TGS, but the armchair-drumming (wait, tapping) game with the wild visuals managed to draw a little spotlight and snag some favorable impressions. What's really striking about Let's Tap, though, is that it seems to capture the anything-goes, nontraditional spirit of the Wii -- remember that? the promise of new and breathtaking vistas? -- in a way that software like Wii Fit cannot. You put the Wii remote on a box. Then you do the same thing you do anytime you're stuck waiting at a light, or standing by a file cabinet: you drum out rhythms with your fingertips and this translates to the screen. It's simple, wacky, brilliant, and we wish it was being released tomorrow.Sadly, we may be alone in this. Gallery: Let's Tap
Wii Warm Up: The tapping game
We'll leave the "issues" regarding Let's Tap for later discussion: whether Let's Tap is yet another minigame collection or a clever, unique design; if anything other than a superior mascot platformer is a disappointing post-Sega (sort of) debut for Yuji Naka; and if a game about slapping the table has real potential for fun or if it's just five minutes worth of gimmickry.There's another question that is foremost on our minds: Which do you think is more likely to inspire rhythmic drumming: Let's Tap or its theme song?
Let's Tap trailer explains penguin accessibility
Imagine our excitement when word arose that Sega's upcoming penguin-friendly title Let's Tap could be played "without holding a controller". We thought the day we've dreamed about since we pressed the power button on our respective first home consoles had come -- the day when video games aren't played with hands, but with minds. Unfortunately, a trailer for the game surfaced during the Nintendo Media Summit, revealing that while no controller-touching will actually be required to play Let's Tap, hands will still be part of the equation. To get a clear understanding of the control scheme, check out the trailer after the break. It seems the game will be manipulated by placing a Wiimote face-down on a flat surface (a Nintendo Wii box is used in the video), then tapping upon said surface. We're still not positive how it works -- though we are positive that the speak-and-spell-infused song used in the trailer has stick-in-your-head properties we haven't seen since the days of Lou Bega.
Let's tap the Let's Tap box
Do you reside in a house with no flat surfaces whatsoever? Do you awake in your hammock every morning surrounded by nothing but domed, conic or pyramidal furniture? Then good luck playing Let's Tap, chump! As we've already seen, Prope's new game is played by resting the Wiimote face down on a flat surface, and then tapping on said surface to complete minigames.It's barmy and utterly gorgeous, and will also come ingeniously packaged in a box which doubles up as a convenient flat surface for you to play on. We doubt you have a single flat surface in your home as stylish as this.%Gallery-33707%
Six of our favorite Media Summit videos
You've already had the chance to examine scores of wonderful screens from new Wii games announced at the Nintendo Media Summit. This new post is dedicated to displaying thousands of more screens (squashed together to create videos) of some of the bigger titles that have been shown at the event.We settled on placing Nintendo's official Punch-Out!! trailer at the top of this post, but could have easily led with some truly fantastic Sin & Punishment 2 footage, an impressive tech demo of The Conduit, or Yuji Naka's wacky-looking Let's Tap. Instead, all of those (and more) are past the break, and need to be viewed right now. Before you go, though, one final note: if any game released this year has a funkier soundtrack than Let's Tap, we'll be gobsmacked.
Let's Tap, Sonic creator Naka's 'penguin' game, coming Dec. 2008
At last, Sega has finally revealed Let's Tap for Wii, Sonic creator Yuji Naka's game teased as, "World first, the game that even penguins can play." How exactly a penguin does play it is still not explicitly stated, although our marine biologist friends tell us that penguins are prone to waddle, so this inverted Wii remote laying on the ground may indicate that we will be, erm, tapping on our remote somehow.As for the game itself, the available screenshots vary greatly and provide no basis for interpretation. There is a countdown on the official website that expires in seven days. What we do know, according to the info box in the lower right corner: the genre is "tap action," it supports one to four (to infinity) players and will release this December for 5,040 yen (approx. US $48).%Gallery-33341%
Let's tap into the site for Yuji Naka's latest
The first screens for Let's Tap, revealed as the first mystery project from Yuji Naka's new company Prope, have come up at the game's official site. When we saw the video last night (and even before that, when Prope teased a game that "even penguins could play") we assumed it was a Balance Board-type thing, but it would appear based on the background of the site that the tapping is done on the B button of an upturned Wiimote.The site reveals some other interesting tidbits about the game too. Coming out in Japan in December, Let's Tap is listed as a "Tap Action" game that can be played by "1-4 players (up to infinity)." We love the weirdness of the concept, and we love the varying, sometimes abstract, visual styles found in the screens. We'll find out more in a week, when the site opens for reals.
Sin & Punishment 2 and other third-party gems confirmed [update]
Update: Screen grab from Nintendo's media page, which has video of all these new games! Check it out right here.Nintendo just unleashed a demo reel of upcoming third-party Wii games, including Taiko no Tatsujin Wii, a new Tsumi to Batsu/Sin & Punishment game from Treasure, a Wii version ofAnother Code (otherwise known as Trace Memory, the DS adventure game), Let's Tap (Yuji Naka's latest project, a.k.a. the game that even penguins can play), Sengoku Musou 3 (Samurai Warriors 3) and a new "mothership" title in the Tales Of series.Will the internet regard this as the press conference that E3 should have been? We suspect so!
