The Tap Tap Revenge series has long been a mainstay on the App Store, with a new release seemingly popping up every few months like clockwork. There’s been little innovation between releases of the rhythm titles, as you'll still tap and swipe along to licensed songs, but Tap Tap Revenge Tour is perhaps the most confusing release yet. While the initial download itself may be free, the game awkwardly utilizes both in-game ads and in-app purchases to build out the game’s song library.

This may work well for developer Tapulous, but it ends up feeling a bit cheap for players, as there isn’t a whole lot here to play if you don't want to put real cash into the store. You can unlock new songs without purchasing them with real-world money, but you must play through each of the available songs multiple times to have enough credits to do so, which ends up being a drag. And the premium song packs themselves are pricey, with the songs not available as singles, leaving little flexibility for players on getting just what they want.

A couple dozen free songs can be downloaded from within the game, but while that's a good start, the aging gameplay itself is hardly inviting enough to warrant wading through the wonky free-to-play approach. Tap Tap Revenge Tour shows just how dated the touchscreen tapper has become, with essentially zero real innovation over the last three releases. It's nearly the same as it was upon the original released in 2008, and the notes aren't mapped to the music, either. If you miss a note, nothing happens to the music, and it does little to provide any sort of feedback to the player.

Tap Tap Revenge Tour's overall user experience seems archaic and uninformed. Ad-supported titles shouldn’t also be this dependent on in-app purchases. Tap Tap Revenge hasn’t evolved with the ever-changing iOS market, and it shows through and through in this disappointing iteration.

The bottom line. Tap Tap Revenge Tour comes off as a dated money-grab that does little to win over music-loving iPhone gamers.